ROMAN CATHOLICISM
The very small Roman Catholic congregation at
Leicester in the early 17th century was probably
served by a Franciscan priest from the Byerley
family's chapel at Belgrave Hall. (fn. 1) Until the establishment of the priory of Holy Cross in 1817, there
were very few Roman Catholics in the town. Only
four members of the church were reported to be
living in the town at the end of the 17th century,
though it seems probable that the figures for the late
18th century (24 in 1767 and 37 in 1780) are not very
reliable. (fn. 2)
The Dominican mission in Leicester has an almost unbroken record from 1777, when the first mass
centre was established in Causeway Lane. (fn. 3) It seems
likely that no regular services were held there until
1785, and the chapel was abandoned periodically as
the main centre of the Dominican mission for the
county was still at Hinckley, and no resident priest
was available for the borough itself. (fn. 4)
In 1798, under Father Francis Xavier Chappell
O.P., the first permanent chapel, dedicated to St.
Michael, was established on the upper floor of a
building in an entry off Causeway Lane. (fn. 5) Considerable secrecy was always preserved about its exact
whereabouts. Services were held there until 1850. (fn. 6)
The building remained in existence until 1939, as
part of a factory. Early in the 19th century masses
were said in a warehouse belonging to Richard Raby,
a prominent Leicester Roman Catholic, near the old
Vauxhall gardens; it seems that the Causeway Lane
chapel had become too small to house the growing
Roman Catholic population which sprang up probably as the result of the establishment of the permanent chapel. (fn. 7)
In 1815 Father Benedict Caestryck O.P. came to
Leicester as head of the Dominican mission and
during his period of office the first church of Holy
Cross was built. The land was given by Richard
Raby, and lay between New Walk and Wellington
Street. The red brick church was begun in 1817 to
the designs of Joseph Ireland. (fn. 8) It was very small,
having neither chancel nor Lady chapel, and no
priory buildings were erected until 1824, when
Father Caestryck built a house for the priest to the
south-east. (fn. 9) The chancel and Lady chapel were
built in 1848. In 1861 the quadrangle formed by the
church and the priory buildings was completed in its
present form. (fn. 10)
The present church of Holy Cross was begun on a
site slightly to the north of the old church in 1928
and the first part was completed in 1931. (fn. 11) No further building has since taken place and the church
now (1955) consists of choir, Lady chapel, and
transepts. The old church is now known as Blackfriars Hall. The architects of the new church, which
was completed while Father Fabian Dix O.P. was
prior, were Arthur Young and Allan D. Reid of
London. Holy Cross School was established in 1824. (fn. 12)
Many of the other churches in and near Leicester
owe their foundation to the Dominican community.
The first to be built was St. Patrick's, Royal East
Street, which served a large settlement of Irish
immigrants who had come to Leicester during the
famine. (fn. 13) It was established as a school-chapel in
1854 by Father Thomas Nickolds O.P. for the
infants' school which had been opened in Belgrave
Gate in 1824. (fn. 14) The parish of St. Patrick was created
in 1873, when a new church was built. (fn. 15) In 1940 the
church was closed; the new parish church was the
former chapel of ease of Our Lady at Belgrave. (fn. 16)
The church of the Sacred Heart in Mere Road was
established in 1882 by a missioner sent by the Roman
Catholic Bishop of Nottingham. Before the church
was built, services took place in the school, which was
built in 1884. The temporary church was built in
1890, and the present building in 1924. The school
has been staffed since 1934 by the Sisters of St.
Joseph of Peace, Newark, whose convent is also in
Mere Road. (fn. 17)
On the west side of the city is the church of St.
Peter, on the corner of Leamington Street and King
Richard's Road. The present church was begun in
1905 and completed with the building of the north
aisle in 1918–19. The mission had been established
in 1896 and had had various homes, the last in Noble
Street. The parish hall next to the church was built
in 1935–7. (fn. 18)
The Dane Hills Home for Incurables is in the
parish of St. Peter and was opened in 1906. It is run
by Dominican nuns, who first came to Leicester in
1875 to teach in the St. Patrick's and Holy Cross
schools and later at the Sacred Heart School. (fn. 19)
St. Theresa's Convent of the Daughters of Divine
Charity, in Fosse Road North, was opened in 1949. (fn. 20)