Our Lady's Pateley Bridge

Nidderdale was moulded by glacial action. The River Nidd rises on Great Whernside and flows down the valley, through Pateley Bridge, Ripley, Knaresborough and the Vale of York, where it joins the Ouse at Nun Monkton and, from there, the North Sea.

Until C12 much of Nidderdale belonged to the King and was used for hunting before the land was given to the monasteries, developed to supply wool, meat, dairy produce and for the mining of lead and iron.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the land was farmed in smaller units and lead was mined until the end of C20. The River Nidd supplied power for a thriving flax spinning industry; stone was quarried extensively.

Pateley Bridge takes its name from Patleia – “The Path through the glade” – and was first mentioned in C12. An important river crossing and centre for farming and countryside industries, it is the capital of Nidderdale. 

In 1900, Bradford Corporation wanted to safeguard a water supply for the wool and dyeing industry, so they planned to build massive reservoirs in Nidderdale. A light railway was built from Pateley to Scar, along with a complete village to house the workers.

The earliest place of worship for Roman Catholics in the Upper Dale was at Angram. On 13th May 1906, a tiny iron chapel was opened to serve the workers on the project. Many of the 7000 strong workforce were Catholics and a priest from St Anne’s Cathedral in Leeds came every weekend to say mass.

Gable House, Pateley Bridge, is on the site of a turnpike house dating from 1752, and was occupied by the Faulkner family in the early nineteenth century.

  Mr Frederick Faulkner

and Mrs Margaret Faulkner

About 1924, Fr. Herbert Hammond called here on his way to Scar village to say Mass and from then on he held a Mass at Gable House every Sunday. The family allowed it to be used as the first meetinghouse in Pateley Bridge for Roman Catholics.

Later in 1928 he moved to Grassfield House, on the Ramsgill Road, where he had a chapel downstairs and a flat above.  

Fr Hammond planned to build a new church – he wanted it on the hill overlooking Pateley Bridge and near to the medieval church of St Mary. This was a grange chapel of Fountains Abbey, suppressed in 1539. The nave is roofless, but the tower has been restored.

In 1934, Mr M. Hawe of Hampsthwaite opened up Queens Grit Quarry at Blazefield specifically for the building of a new church on Panorama Way. The plot of land on the Ripon road was sold by Fredrick Sinclair Campbell for the sum of £418 2s 6d. During the construction a Golden Eagle flew from Greenhow and hovered over the site. Collections at Angram and Scar helped to pay for the building of the present church.

In October, Bishop Cowgill presided at a Mass offered by Fr Hammond. The sermon was preached by Canon Beazley of Skipton, and the server was Fr Thomas Ronchetti, whose brother was the architect of the church.

 From Left - Fr Herbert Hammond with Bishop Poskitt