Our Lady of Lourdes

Introduction

Our Lady of Lourdes, the first Catholic church in Haworth, was built in 1925. In 1922 the Haworth parish was founded and gained its first resident priest, Father Jeremiah Twomey, who moved into the newly acquired presbytery, a former gentleman's residence on Ebor Lane.

History

Before the church was built, Catholics travelled to older churches in Keighley for mass. During the First World War, mass was regularly conducted in an upstairs room of a draper's shop on Mill Hey, belonging to the Pedley family. In 1924 the foundation stones were laid by the Bishop of Leeds and a local donor. The congregation grew in the middle of the twentieth century as Irish girls were enticed over to England to work in the mills and factories.

The altar was donated from St Paulinus in Dewsbury, and may have links with EW Pugin, the architect who designed that church. There is a hand carved statue of the immaculate conception commissioned from a company in the Tyrol.

The parish has pledged £3,000 per year to fund one outreach worker in the TB project of its twin parish. The parish has a Facebook page. The parish supports a TB outreach programme in its twin parish of St Joseph, Matli, Pakistan.