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GREAT YARMOUTH
Yarmouth had sheltered Anselm Beach,0.S.B., in the winter of 1603-04 – he had landed here in 1603, perhaps accompanied by Roland Preston, 0.S.B. - and it was visited by the Norwich Jesuits at infrequent intervals from at least as early as the time of Fr. Angier (1774-1788), in whose handwriting is a record: "To Yarmouth to comfort the people, to postchaise, £2-2s." The first intermittently resident priest was Joseph de Pierreville, a French emigre, who was offering Mass at least as early as 1809 in Dene House (a site partly covered now by Woolworths), belonging to the Bedingfelds, and who started a register in 1810 and signed it until he went to Oxburgh in 1815. The emigre Dacheux (doubtless once at Lynn) signs in 1816 and 1817, and d'Eterville, from Norwich, 1817-1820.
The Stewart family, which settled in the town about 1815, placed its house at the priest's disposal. The visits from Norwich took place every Sunday from 1822, and it was not until October l822, when Catholics were a dozen, that Joseph Tate S.J., came to live in the town. He bought a large corn warehouse in George Street and adapted it as a chapel and residence. It is now called Lombard House, and the chapel may be recognised from its two Corinthian pillars and small choir loft. When he left in 1835 the congregation numbered fifty to eighty. James Clough,S.J., succeeded him and was in turn followed, in 1841, by an exiled Spaniard, Charles Lopez, who had offered his services to the Society. On 24th September“1850, he opened the existing church of St. Mary in Regent Road, and a cemetery. When he left Yarmouth he had raised the congregation to 200 and left behind him a reputation for sanctity and friendship for the poor which is still fragrant.
A chapel was added to the cemetery on 5th September, 1867, whilst Rev. W. Clifford,S.J. was rector. The same year a few Notre Dame Sisters of Namur left after only a short stay, though the schools, built by Father Lopez continued in use as such until 1881, afterwards being used for other purposes. The Dames of St. Louis run a primary and high school. Lowestoft and Gorleston in Suffolk are both offshoots of Yarmouth, whilst Rev. Stephen Webb,S.J. saw three further Mass centres started, one of St. Thomas More, Hemsby, in 1947, that of Our Lady and St. Michael in 1948 in the Catholic Cemetery chapel on Caister Road, and that of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus at Acle in 1956.
When Fr. Lopez built the church, which is of ‘dressed’ flint, the site was on the sand hills, and people thought it quite out of place. Did they think his foresight foolish when on 22nd August 1950, a hundred years later, Bishop Parker consecrated it? A new site for a church has just been purchased at Caister. Fr. Dennis,S.J. has had the church beautifully restored recently, and has added a new window to St. Teresa.
