The Foundation: William Leigh and the Church of the Annunciation
The Passionist house at Woodchester arose from the conversion of a wealthy Gloucestershire landowner. The Annals of the Province record how the opportunity came about:
"The opportunity was given by the conversion of William Leigh Esq. who having purchased the extensive property of the Ducie family near Stroud Gloucestershire, asked our fathers to come here and open a new house near his own property. This good gentleman as a mark of gratitude to heaven for his singular vocation to the one true religion determined to erect a large church in honour of our Blessed Lady of the Annunciation which should be served by a community of the regular clergy, and having heard that the Passionists of Aston Hall were anxious to have another house in England applied to Father Dominic and offered to him a house which he had hired from a dissenting minister, not far away from his own mansion."
Source: Annals of the Province, 1842–48. Provincial Archive.
Father Dominic and Northfield House
The Annals record Father Dominic's arrival at Woodchester and the taking of the first temporary house. The account is drawn from a contemporaneous source copied by the annalist:
"On 9 February 1846 Father Dominic reached Woodchester Park, where he was heartily welcomed by Mr Leigh and his family. A proper selection of the site being concluded on, Mr Leigh, desirous of losing no time, engaged for a temporary accommodation of the community a mansion (I would call it a small house) called Northfield House, Forest Green Village, near Neilworth, about a mile distant from the site of the intended monastery. On the 24 of March 1846 Father Dominic in company of Brother Thomas took possession of this temporary abode and in the next day the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Blessed Lady Father Dominic for the first time celebrated the Holy Sacrifice in a room hastily fitted up in the presence of six Catholics; four days later two other Passionists joined them and on the following Sunday they had a public service. Father Dominic delivered a discourse to about 20 Catholics, several of whom had come from distant places."
Source: Annals of the Province, 1842–48. Provincial Archive.
The Move to Parkhill Cottage
As the community grew and the new church rose at Woodchester, Northfield House proved too cramped and too remote from the building works for the religious to walk barefoot. The Annals for 1849–51 record the move to a new lodging:
"As the number of students at Northfield house was gradually increasing and the accommodation in it was very small, Father Vincent and Father Dominic made every effort to get a larger house in some place near the church which Mr Leigh was building at Woodchester... Northfield house was too far for the poor religious to walk in their bare feet to the said temporary chapel at Woodchester. The good Mr Leigh saw this and on this day (20 March) removed the community from Northfield to a large cottage which went by Parkhill Cottage not far from the church."
Source: Annals of the Province, 1849–51. Provincial Archive.
The Church of the Annunciation
The construction of the new church proceeded under the design of Mr Charles Hansom of Clifton. The Cross Bulletin (Vol. II, 1911–12) gives the following account of its foundation and consecration:
"The foundation stone of the church was laid by the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, on the 26th of November of this year (1846). The work then went forward in earnest, and was completed in three years. ... The church was consecrated on the 10th of October, 1849, by the Right Rev. Dr. Hendron, Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, assisted by the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, and the solemn ceremony was attended by a large number of the clergy and laity."
The church was opened to public worship the following day. Dr Wiseman preached in the morning and Dr Ullathorne in the evening. The church bells, which rang out for the first time at the opening, prompted the Cross Bulletin's writer to observe that they "were in reality almost sounding the death knell of the Passionists at Woodchester. In less than a year thereafter the place knew us no more."
The same writer drew a larger lesson from the episode:
"It is a tradition among the Passionists that no foundation of theirs ever prospers unless it is laid upon the Cross. And this tradition was in no case better verified than in that of the foundation at Woodchester. Among all the favourable signs attending it the sign of the Cross was absent: and the absence proved fatal."
Source: Cross Bulletin, Vol. II (1911–12).
The Friction with Mr Leigh
The church bells that rang at the consecration also marked the beginning of the end of the Passionist presence at Woodchester. The Cross Bulletin describes the difficulties that followed:
"Mr. Leigh seemed unable to forget for a moment that the church he had built was his: and he soon showed that he meant to be supreme lord and law-giver with regard to it. He tried to interfere in a hundred irritating ways. The hours at which Mass should be celebrated — the quality of the vestments to be worn by the priests — the number of candles to be lighted on the altar at church services — the times when the church bells should be rung: all these and many other matters he thought it his privilege to arrange according to his own taste."
The Annals describe the situation in more direct terms: the Passionists "could not say the Masses at the time according to our custom and rule. Could not use the vestments for masses and other services unless Mr Leigh gave his probation. We were not free to light as many candles as we wished on the altar, nor to ring the bells when we thought necessary to be rung. In fact we were only Sacristans, and he the P.P. of his church."
Sources: Cross Bulletin, Vol. II (1911–12); Annals of the Province, 1849–51. Provincial Archive.
The Departure, September 1850
The Visitor General, Father Eugene, and the Rector, Father Vincent, could not accept the conditions imposed, and the community left on 7 September 1850. The Annals record:
"With great regret on this day we had to quit the house and church of Woodchester, near Stroud, in consequence of some peculiarities and demands of the founder Mr Leigh, to which we could not, according to our rules, acquiesce. ... At our departure from Woodchester we took away all the furniture which belonged to us, as well as the coffin containing the body of Father Marcellinus who had died... and went to Broadway and took possession of the house and chapel, which providentially had been offered to us by the good Benedictine Fathers of Cheltenham."
Source: Annals of the Province, 1849–51. Provincial Archive.
Sixty-Two Converts and the Dominican Succession
Despite the brevity of the foundation, the Annals record significant missionary fruit and a positive outcome for the place itself:
"In four years at Woodchester, with all the oppositions from Protestants we had succeeded to bring into the fold of the Catholic Church 62 persons, and left great many others well disposed in favour of the Catholic Church. After some time our good friends the Dominican Fathers took our place at Woodchester, with the full understanding and agreement that they were to be the masters of the place and in few years with the blessing of God they raised that mission to be one of the best in the diocese of Clifton, and built a magnificent monastery."
Source: Annals of the Province, 1849–51. Provincial Archive.
Archive Holdings
Despite the shortness of the Passionist stay at Woodchester, the archive holds substantial material relating to the foundation. The formal records include the Platea of Northfield House, Woodchester, 1846–1849; the Woodchester Mass Book, 1849–1850 (continuing to Broadway 1850–1877); the Book of Visitations and Permissions, Woodchester and Broadway, 1847–1877; and a Mass Suffrage Book for Benefactors and Dead Religious, 1848–1850. Also preserved is a handwritten copy of the obituary of Blessed Fr Dominic Barberi in the Woodchester Book of Suffrages.
The archive holds photographs of both Northfield House and St Mary's Retreat, Woodchester, as it stood in 1849–1850, together with photographs and documents relating to the Dominican church and priory which succeeded the Passionist foundation. The archive also holds two photocopies of the Dedication of the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Annunciation, Woodchester, dated 11 October 1849.
Historical writing on Woodchester is also held: a typed manuscript history in four copies (Woodchester, Gloucestershire, 1846–1850, attributed to Fr Sylvester Palmer CP, 1950s), an article by Fr Sylvester Palmer in Students' Magazine: Preachers of the Passion (Winter 1952), and a typescript study by R. Barton and B. Torode, Nailsworth's Italian Missionary: Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God (1987). A newspaper cutting from the Tablet of 4 December 1926 reproduces an entry from the Tablet of 5 December 1846 about the Passionists at Woodchester.
Source: Minsteracres,_Woodchester catalogue (Provincial Archive).