A short history of St Michael's, Tetbury
Early records of Catholicism in Tetbury are fragmentary although a catholic church stood on the spot now occupied by St Mary’s from very early on until the reformation. After this it is known that at the insistence of the Belgian resident, Baron de Brienen, mass was celebrated in 1881 at the home of Mr Hugginson, a confectioner of the town and that from 1881 to 1883 Father Francis Larive came from Malmesbury to celebrate there. The congregation then numbered twenty or thirty.
Thereafter records are silent until the First World War when, as with many other Cotswold communities, an influx of Belgian refugees greatly enlarged the Catholic presence of the town. Mass was then said at nearby Chavenage House. The Tetbury community did not secure a permanent place of worship until later.
The present church’s history goes back some 75 years, when Father Alphonsus Grorord, the Parish Priest from Malmesbury bought York House in Silver Street and Catholics in the area gathered together to establish a community under the caring eye of the visiting priests from Malmesbury and Devizes. Father Gamble, Father Harrison and others would celebrate Mass in a back room of York House, which stands opposite today’s Parish Office and house in Silver Street. With the outbreak of war large numbers of evacuees came to Tetbury and larger accommodation proved necessary; for a few months in Oak House, the home of a parishioner, then in the ball-room of the White Hart (now The Snooty Fox), whose landlord was a Catholic. Finally, in 1941a former Baptist chapel was bought at auction. Father Harrison proudly led the way in buying what is now St Michael’s Catholic Church. The Fransalsians continued to serve Tetbury until 1995. Msgr. William Mitchell (Fr. Bill) lovingly served the parish for 8 years until his sudden death in August 2008.
