St Anne's, Chapel End, Nuneaton

The Roman Catholic parish of St Anne, Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England serves the western side of Nuneaton and outlying villages towards Coleshill. The parish is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham and a part of the Rugby Deanery. The current Parish Priest is Fr. Simon Stephens.

The church (rebuilt in 2000) is on Camp Hill Road, Nuneaton. The parish was formed in 1948 and includes St Joseph's Church in New Arley. Both churches were originally built in response to the great influx of workers (mainly miners) who arrived in North Warwickshire with their families during the twenty five years or so following 1920.

The parish of St Anne, Chapel End, Nuneaton began its life just after the second world war. The western side of Nuneaton was – in common with the wider area – greatly shaped by quarrying and mining. At that time, all of Nuneaton was part of the parish of Our Lady of the Angels, in the town centre. In the mid-1930s Mass was being said by priests from that church in a house in Tunnel Road, Galley Common, a mining community at that time. Ten years later, they were saying Mass in the Green Lane Miners’ Hostel, Camp Hill, just off Camp Hill Road. In about 1946 the Hostel became unavailable, and the congregation was offered the use of an abandoned isolation hospital off Windmill Road. This was far from ideal, and so, after much planning and fundraising (bricks were sold at 1d each, for example) the foundation stone of the first St Anne’s Church was laid on 19 February 1949 by Fr Cox, parish priest of Our Lady of the Angels. On 13 July of the same year Archbishop Masterson, the Archbishop of Birmingham, blessed and opened the building.

The original St Anne’s Church was a much loved building that had served as a schoolroom too. The time had come to replace it. After much planning work began on rebuilding, which was announced in the local press (view here). The presbytery became the weekday church building and Sunday Masses were celebrated in the school hall. On 11 March 2000—the Jubilee Year—the foundation stone was blessed by Bishop Philip Pargeter, in the presence of hundreds of parishioners and guests, with music provided by children of the school.

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