St Margaret Clitherow, Keyworth

St. Margaret Clitherow, KEYWORTH[1] – served from East Leake.

In the late 1950s, Canon JohnBuckley of West Bridgford began to look for a site for a church in Keyworth.  His search was not successful during his lifetime (he died in 1965), and it was only in 1983 that the present site on Willow Brook was obtained. In the intervening years, Mass was celebrated in a variety of places – private homes; the British Legion building; the local Anglican and Methodist churches and, very significantly, Mary Ward Teacher Training College.

Mary Ward Teacher Training College opened, in 1969, on a twenty-seven acre site on the outskirts of Keyworth. It had a capacity for five hundred and forty students[2].  In addition to its primary purpose, it remained a focal point in the Catholic life of Keyworth for the next eight years. For the whole period of its existence it was staffed by Sisters of Loreto.When it became known that the College was to close, “all the ministers of the non-Catholic churches at once offered the use of their churches.[3]”  Since the Methodist church building was the largest and the most suitable, this was the offer that was accepted, and the Catholic congregation used the Methodist church for Sunday Mass. The church hall on Willow Brook was then built: it was opened by Bishop McGuinness on 24 October 1984.

In the early years, Keyworth was part of the Parish of West Bridgford and, later, of Radcliffe-on-Trent. Subsequently, along with Cotgrave, it became an independent parish and remained thus until Cotgrave was allocated to West Bridgford and Keyworth to East Leake[4].

St. Margaret Clitherow, KEYWORTH – Convent

A community of Loreto Sisters was based in Keyworth where they staffed Mary Ward Teacher Training College from 1969 to 1977. Sister Mary Beuno O.P. has been involved in Cotgrave and Keyworth from 1984 to the present.

[1] Almost all the above is taken from ‘St. Margaret Clitherow Church: Silver Jubilee 1984-2009’
[2]     YB 70/155
[3]     YB 85/115 – article by Fr. J. Gilroy CSSp., parish priest at that time
[4]     The division of Keyworth from Cotgrave took place in September 2005 – information from Fr. P. Vellacott – April 2017

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