St Mary's Church, Bridge Gate
St Mary's Church, Bridge Gate
t Mary's Church was built by
Augustus Pugin, who also drew
designs for the Houses of Parliament.
Before 1840, Catholics in Derby were
allowed to worship only in the
Catholic Chapel in Chapel Street, but
with the large influx of Irish
immigrants to Derby with the
building of the railways, land was
purchased on Bridge Gate for a new
Catholic church. It was, incidentally,
Pugin's the first Catholic church and
although he designed over 100
churches altogether, St Mary's has
always been considered his masterpiece.
he ghost of a priest has been seen
on the right-hand side of St Mary's
Church. The story goes that a newly-
installed priest was coming down the
stairs with three other priests.
rriving in the main church the new
priest mentioned to the others that he
had not realised that there would be
four other priests there that day. The
others looked confused and told him
that he must be mistaken as they were
only three and he now made four. The
new priest looked shocked and told
the others that they had not long been
seated upstairs for their meeting
when an older priest with grey hair
had joined them.
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The information on this page is supplied courtesy of Wayne Anthony (author) and Richard Felix (local historian).
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