Our Lady of Good Counsel and Guardian Angels
Bury Lancashire

Built in 1957, Guardian Angels’ Church is a vaguely Romanesque style building, typical of the time. Designed by architect Richard Byrom of Bury, the walls are Accrington brick, laid in Flemish bond and the roof is natural slate. Apart from a re-ordering of the sanctuary, relocation of the baptismal font and some serious re-decoration, the internal structure is little altered from its original design.

Our parish serves the north side of Bury within the Diocese of Salford alongside our sister parishes – St Hilda’s Tottington and St Joseph’s Ramsbottom.

The church is easily accessible with ample on site parking (including disabled parking bays). We also have over spill parking facilities on Sundays in Guardian Angels’ School playground.

We are a truly ‘friendly’ parish offering a very warm and hospitable welcome to everyone in our community. Our facilities include: wheelchair access (including disabled parking and toilet facilities), bike rack, loop system, large print newsletters, baby-changing, children’s liturgy of the word (at all masses), children’s chapel and a sound proof family room with large screen so that young families can enjoy Mass without worrying about a little bit of noise!

Our church is bright and warm with a good sound system and many lovely features that represent our parish community. We have a very active and diverse music ministry providing music and choral accompaniment at all weekend Masses.

We have tea & coffee after both our Sunday morning Masses, so do come and join us in the Parish Centre – you never know who you might meet!

We also have a well stocked library opposite our Welcome & Information Centre, with hundreds of books on the church, saints, prayer, spirituality, children’s religious books and much more. Parishioners are welcome to borrow any books from the library – just remember to bring them back!

Have a look through our gallery of pictures to see our beautiful church for yourself or, better still, just pop in and have a look around or join us at one of our weekend services.

 

https://www.guardianangels-parish.org/  

 

The early years from 1886 – 1957

In 1886 a new mission called ‘The Guardian Angels’ was created in Elton, Bury. Land on Walshaw Road was leased from Lord Derby and work began on a school and chapel. Fr Pozzi was appointed to Elton as the first rector and priest and he added to the name of the mission giving it the title of Our Lady of Good Counsel and Guardian Angels. This remains the title of the parish today although most people simply refer to it as Guardian Angels.

A temporary chapel was set up in the Old Temperance Hall at Woolfold and Mass was said there for the first time in Elton on 30th January 1887. In the same year a school chapel was opened but this soon became too small and a church was eventually constructed next to the school.

The new church opened in 1892. It had a wooden interior with an iron covering and so became known as the ‘iron’ or ’tin’ church. Despite the fact it was used for over 65 years, it was never meant to be more than a temporary building.

By the early 1900’s plans were in hand to build a new church and by 1916 the grand sum of £1,050 had been raised towards the cost. In 1930, land was bought on Harvey Street. Fr Reardon was the parish priest at this time and he also set in motion some essential repairs to the old ‘tin church’. This included ventilating the church as it was deemed necessary to ‘spray the church with a deodorising compound between masses in order to keep the atmosphere healthy! Thankfully we all seem to use personal deodorants these day!

In 1931, a foundation of the Union of Catholic Mothers was established in the parish and remains strong to this day.

Fr Joseph Rector was appointed Parish Priest in 1938 and served the parish well for nearly 20 years. He continued to raise the funds needed to build the new church and in 1956 the foundation stone was laid by the Bishop of Salford the Rt. Rev George Beck. Sadly, Fr Rector passed away on 20th April 1957 just a few months before our new church was officially opened. He was aged just 64 and in the 40th year of his priesthood.

Our new church 1957 onwards

Our current parish church was officially opened by Bishop Beck in 1957. It was designed by architect Richard Byrom of Bury who built a number of churches in the Diocese in the interwar and post war years. It is a vaguely Romanesque style, typical of the time. The walls are Accrington brick, laid in Flemish bond and the roof is natural slate. The interior design is almost identical to that of St Mary of the Annunciation, Littleborough – another church designed by Byrom some twenty five years earlier. Apart from a re-ordering of the sanctuary the internal structure is little altered from the original design.

The final cost for building the church was £22,730 and £10,853 for the presbytery. As catholic churches are only ‘consecrated to the service of God’ when they are debt free, it was nine years later when the final debt was paid in 1966 that our parish church was officially consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Thomas Holland, eighth Bishop of Salford.

Canon Chew (1957-1986) was appointed Parish Priest in 1957 succeeding Fr Rector. He went on to serve the parish until his retirement in 1986. The Canon was ‘a priest of his time’ pre-Vatican II, when Mass was said with his back to the congregation and altar rails separated the sanctuary area from the rest of the church.

He will also be remembered for the stance he took with Bury Council when the town clerk refused to compel the police to stop the traffic for the Whit Sunday Procession. Canon Chew refused to have his parishioners ‘slinking along in the gutter’ and so the walks as a major event for the Catholic Church in Bury ceased in 1970.

In 1967 the current Guardian Angels’ Primary School was built on Leigh Lane to replace the original school on Walshaw Road. Brian Storrie was appointed Headteacher and provided great leadership of the school until his retirement in 1988. An extension was built to the original school as pupil numbers grew.

By the early 1970s pupil numbers were expanding at such a rate that rather than build a further extension to the school a decision was taken to build another school serving the north part of the parish. And so, in 1972, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School was opened in Brandlesholme as the sister school to Guardian Angels. Mr Dobson was appointed Headteacher and went on to lead the school until his retirement in 1989.

In 1986 we celebrated the Centenary Year of the parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel & Guardian Angels. This was marked with a number of events ranging from photo exhibitions, a Ball, Galas and a Thanksgiving Mass which was celebrated by Bishop Burke. Canon Chew retired and his curate, Fr Dilworth, moved on to a team ministry in Hulme.

Fr John T Cribben (JT) (1986-1995) was appointed Parish Priest in 1986 following Canon Chew’s retirement. He quickly set about turning the parish around, modernising the liturgy post Vatican II, involving parishioners in ministry and opening up the sanctuary area by removing part of the altar rails.

A ‘larger than life’ character, Fr Cribben went on to serve the parish for nine years before taking a sabbatical in Ireland in 1995. One of the major projects he completed during his time at Guardian Angels was the building of our Parish Centre which opened in 1992.

Following his sabbatical, Fr Cribben returned to the Diocese to serve as Parish Priest of Our Lady & St Patricks, Walton-le-Dale. Sadly, he passed away in 2016 following a tragic accident.

Fr Paul J Cannon (1995 – to date) was appointed Parish Priest in September 1995, replacing Fr Cribben. He came to the parish fresh off the plane from Chicago where he had just gained a Masters Degree in Adult Religious Education at Loyola University.

Fr Paul was ordained in 1982. It was the year that Pope John Paul II came to the UK and conducted ordinations during Mass in Heaton Park. Fr Paul proclaimed the Gospel during this memorable service but opted to have his ordination in his home parish of St Mary’s in Bacup.

His first appointment was to Our Lady’s, Langley where he was assistant priest for 5 years. He then went to work as part of the Catholic Missionary Society (CMS) team based in London, helping parishes to reflect upon their mission. He became Director of the CMS for three years before taking a sabbatical year to study in Chicago.

During his 22 years with the parish, Fr Paul has significantly extended the role of lay ministry, involving parishioners in all aspects of parish life. He also instigated the appointment of a Parish Secretary to help with the administration of the parish – a valuable role which Mrs Sharon Beech continues in today.

In 1999, he instigated a major redecoration and refurbishment programme for the church and presbytery. This was as significant programme of work, costing £135,000. It involved moving the baptismal font to the centre aisle of the church, substantial roof repairs, a new floor in the church and a complete refurbishment and redecoration to modernise the Presbytery.

And so, today we have a modern, welcoming and thriving parish community. We are currently celebrating the 60th Anniversary since our new church was built with a full and varied programme of events that started at Easter 2017 and will run through until Easter 2018.

Have a look through the rest of our website to find out more about our ministries, groups and other aspects of parish life here at Guardian Angels. Also, please feel free to drop in any time to one of our services or events.