These are the history pieces which appeared in the Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick’s bulletin during October 2024. As the parishes are jointly administered and a single bulletin produced, the history pieces are not solely focused on St Mary of the Angels.
5/6 October 2024
Monday 7 October marks St Mary’s latest annual Torchlight Procession. The event was instigated in 1951 by newly arrived parish priest, Father Laurence Gallon, with the first procession being held on Monday 15 October. The purpose of that original procession was to pray for the Virgin Mary to intercede for world peace, with Father Gallon telling the gathering “The whole world is looking for peace. How strange it is that this peace seems to be receding further and further from us.” A crowd estimated at 20,000 lined the route from the church to the market place. Those in the procession held torches from Lourdes, and crisscrossed the market square to where an altar was erected. The idea of their diagonal movement came from Lourdes, where the pilgrims climbed a hill on which the paths meandered across the slopes.
For more information about that first Procession click here.
12/13 October 2024
On Friday 12 October 1917 the St Mary’s boys and girls’ teams competed against other local schools at Batley Baths for the Talbot Shield (boys) and Hirst Cup (girls). Both came through the heats to reach their respective finals. The girls’ team, comprising of Mary Daley, Teresa Lynch and May Hull, won their trophy, and were also each awarded a chain, pendant and brooch. The boys’ team, of William Gallagher, John Phillips and Thomas Leach, crossed first in their final but were disqualified because William Gallagher was adjudged to have dived off before Thomas Leach completed his length. The team were also accused of not exhibiting the correct form of breast stroke – though this accusation was levelled against other teams too.
19/20 October 2024
In 1900, the Pope invited pilgrims from Catholic Churches worldwide to St Peter’s Basilica. Thomas Egan was chosen by the parishioners of St Mary’s to receive a papal blessing on behalf of the parish. They paid all the costs of his visit that October. Parishioners from Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, and Batley Carr also travelled to Rome, and were amongst 1,200 pilgrims from England who received a papal blessing.
26/27 October 2024
October and November 1860 marked the first burials recorded in the St Mary’s parish register. The first entry is dated 10 October, for 21-year-old Margaret Brannon of Birstall, who died on 7 October. She was buried in Birstall. The next entry is dated 3 November 1860 for 65-year-old Elizabeth Downs of Staincliffe who died on 30 October. The third is dated 21 November 1860, for 21-year-old Mary Berry of Batley who died on 18 November. She was interred in the graveyard at Batley parish church, which was the town’s cemetery before the 1866 opening of Batley cemetery.
Past To Present Genealogy 