ROMAN CATHOLICISM. (fn. 3)
In 1577 a resident of
Hendon, Thomas Devell, was a recusant member
of Staple Inn (fn. 4) and in 1583 one Vicars, possibly a
Roman Catholic priest educated at Lincoln College,
Oxford, was teaching Sir Edward Herbert's children
in Hendon. (fn. 5) There were no recusants in the parish
in 1593, after the Herberts had moved, (fn. 6) but William
Everingham was indicted in 1610 and his wife in
1612. (fn. 7) No indictments for recusancy were recorded
after 1625 (fn. 8) and in 1676 there were no papists in the
parish. (fn. 9) Edward Herbert of Gray's Inn, a Roman
Catholic resident in 1706, was probably a distant
relative of the absentee lord of the manor. (fn. 10)
In 1849 Passionist fathers from Poplar House,
West End Lane, Hampstead, set up a temporary
chapel at the Hyde to serve a substantial local congregation. (fn. 11) Later in that year the Passionists left
Hampstead for a house in Hyde Lane (probably the
modern Kingsbury Road), where the billiard-room
was converted into a chapel dedicated to St. Joseph.
In 1851 50 persons attended services there. (fn. 12) In
1852 the building, which was demolished in 1934,
was exchanged for the larger Woodfield House in
Cool Oak Lane, (fn. 13) which was renamed St. Joseph's
Retreat. From there the fathers directed missions in
north-west London, Middlesex, and the Barnet
area. Foundations were laid in the grounds for a
large monastery (fn. 14) but from lack of funds work was
limited to extending the house and the temporary
chapel. In 1858 the Passionists moved to Highgate
Hill, where they remained in 1970.
The Passionists established a chapel in a wooden
hut near the Burroughs in 1850, which became the
centre of Roman Catholic worship in Hendon after
the departure of the community. (fn. 15) In 1863 the hut
was replaced by a church of ragstone in the Early
English style, dedicated to Our Lady of Dolours; it
was reconstructed as a low cruciform building with
an aisled nave in 1927, to the designs of T. H. B.
Scott, but was not finally consecrated until 1966.
St. John's hall, West Hendon, acquired by the
church c. 1962 and renamed St. Patrick's hall, was
registered for worship in 1964 (fn. 16) and was served by
its own priest in 1969.
The church of St. Agnes, Cricklewood Lane,
opened in 1883 as an iron building, (fn. 17) which was
replaced by another temporary structure in Gillingham Road in 1920. (fn. 18) A permanent church in
Cricklewood Lane was consecrated in 1929. (fn. 19) It is a
large plain brick building in the Early Christian
manner, with nave, narrow aisles, and an apsidal
chancel.
The chapel of St. Vincent's convent, the Ridgeway, served Mill Hill after its opening in 1887 (fn. 20)
and a mission was later begun by Vincentians in
Flower Lane, near the Midland Railway station. (fn. 21)
In 1923 a permanent church, dedicated to the
Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate, was opened in
Flower Lane and in 1968 a parish centre was
added. (fn. 22) The church is of brick with stone dressings,
in the Byzantine manner, and has a basilican plan.
A mission was established at Golders Green
shortly before 1909 (fn. 23) and the permanent church of
St. Edward the Confessor, Finchley Road, was
opened in 1915. (fn. 24) The church was designed by
A. Young (fn. 25) as a cruciform building of brick in the
Perpendicular style, surmounted by a prominent
central lantern tower.
Services on the Watling estate were first held in
1928 in a hut in Thirleby Road. The permanent
church of the Annunciation, financed by an anonymous benefactor, was opened in 1929. (fn. 26)
Hendon is notable for its large number of
Roman Catholic institutions. Apart from the
Passionists the earliest was St. Joseph's Society for
Foreign Missions, which moved into Holcombe
House in 1866 (fn. 27) and provided the first systematic
training for Roman Catholic missionaries in
England. In 1871 a brick building to house 72
students, designed by Goldie and Child in a 'freely
treated style' was opened in Lawrence Street on
part of the same estate; a large apsidal chapel in the
French Gothic style, occupying one side of a courtyard, was opened in 1873. (fn. 28) The college, which was
extended in 1896, 1923, and 1929, is dominated by
the tower of the chapel, which is surmounted by a
gilded statue of St. Joseph. Cardinal Vaughan
(d. 1903), who helped to establish the society at
Mill Hill, is buried in the grounds. In 1969 there
were 61 student missionaries at St. Joseph's college,
which was the headquarters of the society and the
residence of its superior general. It was served by
nuns of the Pontifical Society of the Franciscan
Missionaries of St. Joseph, whose first members
took their vows at Mill Hill in 1880.
In 1881 Holcombe House was acquired at
Vaughan's instigation by a recently-founded congregation of Franciscan nuns of the Regular Third
Order, who renamed it St. Mary's abbey. (fn. 29) A
convent wing was added in 1883 and in 1889 the
wooden chapel was replaced by a large brick
cruciform building in a plain early Gothic style,
with a central tower surmounted by a short pyramid
spire. The nuns began missions in the 1880s and
established several local schools. (fn. 30) In 1952 a
separate missionary congregation was established
and in 1969 the sisters at Mill Hill were engaged only
in education, although the abbey also served as their
administrative centre and housed the regional
superior.
The British Province of the Sisters of Charity of
St. Vincent de Paul purchased Littleberries and its
adjoining 40 a. in 1885. (fn. 31) A seminary block was
begun in 1886 and in 1887 a large stone chapel,
designed in the Perpendicular style by F. W. Tasker,
was opened; it was rebuilt after a fire in 1935.
Other additions have included a retreat block. In
1969 the convent was the administrative and training
centre for the 1,200 sisters in the British province;
it also supervised a school for deprived children, a
nursery for abandoned babies, and a college for
children's nurses on an adjoining site.
Sisters of St. Joseph, or Poor Handmaids of Jesus
Christ, were established in Ravensfield House,
Church End, in 1887. (fn. 32) In 1889 the community,
whose work has always been chiefly educational,
moved to Norden Court, near the Burroughs,
which was renamed St. Joseph's convent and greatly
enlarged. (fn. 33) A school was attached to the convent in
1970.
Sisters of La Sagesse, known also as the Montfort
sisters, settled in Cricklewood in 1903 after their
expulsion from France. They engaged in social and
educational work (fn. 34) and in 1909 moved to Woodstock House, Golders Green, (fn. 35) which was renamed
La Sagesse convent. An adjoining school was built
and in 1970 was served by 15 resident sisters.
Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Primitive Rule, (fn. 36)
from Fulham, moved into a new convent in Bridge
Lane in 1908. The community, an enclosed contemplative order, comprised 21 sisters in 1969.
Dominican sisters were established in 1930 in
St. Rose's convent, Orange Hill Road. (fn. 37) A school
was subsequently built in the grounds and served
by the nuns.
The Poor Sisters of Nazareth, a charitable order
founded in Hammersmith in 1851, purchased St.
Swithins, Parson Street, in 1932 as a training
centre and renamed it Nazareth House. (fn. 38) It served
as an orphanage during the Second World War but
later reverted to its original use; in 1969 the average
number of residents was 25.
A congregation of St. Ottilien of the Benedictine
Missionary Fathers, a German community, took
over a house in Ashley Lane in the mid 1930s and
renamed it St. Augustine's mission house. (fn. 39) Their
chapel was in use before 1940. (fn. 40)
In 1967 the Society of the Catholic Apostolate,
or Pallottine fathers, bought a house in Armitage
Road, Golders Green, as the residence of the provincial. Three priests were living there in 1969. (fn. 41)
Religious communities which stayed only briefly
in Hendon included the Society of the Holy Child
Jesus, at Ravensfield in 1878, (fn. 42) and Franciscans
who occupied a house in Hermitage Villas, Childs
Hill, in 1890 but had left by 1902. (fn. 43) In 1937 some
sisters of St. Peter's Community were at Brent
Lodge, which had been renamed St. Peter's
Ouvroir, (fn. 44) but they left the parish when the building
was demolished. In 1969 a mission-house of the
Catholic Missionary Society in West Heath Road,
Golders Green, was served by Franciscan nuns. (fn. 45)