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The clergy, team, and volunteers who work so hard to make St Alban’s such a warm, friendly, and welcoming place for everyone.
St Alban's Church, Rose Farm Lane, Chaddesden, Derby, DE21 6ET
Reach out to the parish team directly for support, guidance or information.
In 1943 Sunday Mass began to be celebrated by Monsignor James Hargreaves, Parish Priest of St. Mary’s, Derby at a health centre in Sussex Circus.
The site of St Alban’s was bought in 1946 and two years later, two war department Nissen huts were bought and set up on the site. One of these formed the church, and the other the sacristy. The Catholic population continued to grow steadily and much work was put into raising money for a new and permanent church.
The foundation stone was laid by Bishop Ellis on 3 rd October 1953 and the building was opened on 26 th June 1955. A Presbytery was built and to the south side of the church two low one-story prefabs provided a parish hall and social club.
Fr John McLean was appointed as the first parish priest. During the next 30 years the parish continued to grow. In view of this, it was considered that the church was too small.
In the 1960’s the apse of the church was demolished and transepts were constructed on either side of a new, much larger sanctuary. The new extensions were blessed in September 1966, and the whole building was consecrated ten years later – almost twenty years after the first blessing. Unfortunately, the quality of the building this time was not the same as that of the original church and the flat roof leaked badly. By now numbers of those attending church had begun to decline and the leaks could not be fixed economically.
Fr Gerald Murphy was appointed parish priest in October 2000 with instruction by Bishop McGuiness, among other things, to demolish the extension! Over the next few years this was done. Part of the land and the presbytery were sold off for development; and the money thus raised helped to fund the ambitious project of renewal. Although the original church was retained, significant alterations were made. These included the reorientation of the sanctuary to the centre of the south wall of the neve. While all this work was going on, Sunday Masses were celebrated in St Alban’s School. In September 2005 the now vastly altered church was reopened for worship. In 2003 a new parish centre was built off the south end of the old sanctuary area and a much smaller bungalow presbytery was built at the front of the site where the old prefabs had been.
