Church of St Gregory the Great

40th Anniversary Celebrations, 7th to 14th September 2008

Before 1968, Catholics in Alresford had no church of their own. All services took place in the private chapels of two local families, the Tichbornes and the Constable-Maxwells. Canon Alban Burrett was appointed parish priest by Bishop King in 1957 and set the task of building a new church in Alresford itself, on land which Fr Sebastian Ritchie had acquired many years before. After years of fundraising, building work began in 1966. The church was officially opened and blessed by Archbishop Worlock on the 11th September 1968. The church was conceived immediately after Vatican II and was one of the first in England to be designed with the altar in the centre. It was dedicated in 1975.

I [Patrick Trowbridge] was an altar server on that day in 1968 and have a Hampshire Chronicle photograph showing me holding the crucifix as the procession entered the church. Also in the photograph was the bishop’s secretary, Father Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, now a retired Cardinal.

Forty years seemed sufficient to consider the church as having a history worth celebrating, especially as there were still a number of parishioners from that time. I wondered about the possibility of marking the event. This was received very enthusiastically by Canon Paul and the parish committee as long as Sue and I got it going! We devised an outline plan of an ‘octave’ of events between the Sundays either side of the anniversary.

With the help of a small committee we ended up with a tremendous week of community involvement. The first Sunday was the patronal Sunday and was the launch of an exhibition of photographs, articles, documents, correspondence related to the history, planning, building of the church and events in the life of the church. During the week there was an historical talk, given by Peter Bogan, about the origins of the parish and some thoughts on how the church came to be called after St Gregory the Great. The actual anniversary was marked with a fun quiz night for families. On the final Sunday Canon Paul led a service of thanksgiving. Three letters of special greetings were read out, from Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor and Bishops Crispian Hollis and Peter Doyle. The Mass was followed by a shared lunch. This was a wonderful event attended by representatives of other local churches and lots of others who had contributed to the life of the parish over the forty years.

Everyone’s efforts paid off handsomely. All the events were very well attended and many parishioners learned, some for the first time, of the remarkable story of how St Gregory’s evolved to be the vibrant community it is today. All the material we collected has been put into a large folder and can be borrowed by anyone who wants to go through it at their leisure.

Patrick and Susan Trowbridge