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“tenant” until the appointment of a Parish Priest. Fortunately he was offered a home by Dr. John Barry and his wife, whose house had already been the centre of a good deal of Catholic activity. So Fr. Snee moved in. Meanwhile, the Bishop had decided to appoint Fr. John McLean to the parish; but as the Presbytery was still uninhabitable by Christmas, his arrival was to be delayed until February 1956.

Fr. McLean has already been mentioned as having steered through the founding of a new parish - at Knighton in Leicester. There he had watched over the new Church of St. Thomas More, a kind of architectural brother to St. Alban’s; he had founded a Presbytery and founded a school. Somewhat untimely ripped from this scene of achievement, he now found himself facing a raw and unformed community - Knighton is a well-established residential area - and a parish with tremendous debts already incurred, and plenty more in the shape of Schools to be built in the future.

Perhaps he found plenty of goodwill from his new parishioners, because he had been a Derbeian - from St. Joseph’s parish. The minutes of the AGM held on Sunday, 18th March 1956:

“Fr. McLean now addressed the Meeting. He expressed his appreciation of the work of the Committee in the past. The responsibility of the Parish now falls upon his shoulders, and he would be only too willing to accept help from all who were willing to give it; he hoped that all who had worked so well in the past would continue to do so. He reminded us that all our work must be for God, and that the spiritual side of any parish is by far the most important.

“Fr. McLean congratulated Spondon on their achievements, and said that he hoped in the near future they would be able to have some kind of temporary building of their own, in which their Mass could be celebrated.

“Father stated that, as Secretary to the Diocesan Schools Commission, he is responsible for all the schools of the Diocese, and that eventually, when circumstances permit, we shall be having a curate”.

All of which gave great satisfaction. The news of the curate must have been greeted with some surprise; suddenly to receive one priest was wonder enough; to find another following so quickly was astonishing. In fact the work of the Schools Commission was approaching its busiest period: Bishop Ellis had stated his pastoral priority - schools - and his long episcopal ministry never saw any deviation from that policy. Fr. McLean was thus busy establishing working relationships with the many civil authorities controlling education in the area of the Diocese.

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Among the sadder moments in the first year was the death of Monsignor Hargreaves, who was the nearest anyone can be to founding the parish. Such a role rightly belongs to the Bishop; but the establishment of Chaddesden church had been very near the heart of the Vicar General, and had regularly occupied him for the eleven years of his holding of this office.

In early October arrived the first Assistant Priest — Fr. Charles Wall, who had for some years been a Montfort Father before he joined the Nottingham diocese. He found a parish in which there was a Mass centre - in Spondon - a large church, a rather dilapidated Hall (the old Church) and a Presbytery. The long-discussed School was rising from its foundations in Ismay Road, and more and more houses were being built in the parish.

There was a cruel and damaging rumour abroad that the Church had already been paid for. People had a vague notion that “St. Mary’s” had somehow financed the whole venture. Some said “Monsignor Hargreaves left all his money to the project...” as if the possessions of a priest would make significant inroads on such a debt! In fact, with a weekly income, at the beginning, of about £25, the £23,000 yet to be found to pay for Church and Presbytery must have looked a very long way away.

The School is achieved: 

St. Alban’s 1956-1981

In July 1956 the foundation stone of the school had been laid. The Headmaster was appointed during this year; he was Mr. George Ferguson, then deputy head at St. Joseph’s in Derby. He writes:

“I had four months to do the necessary planning and ordering of equipment. There was the organisation of schemes of work, and of projected classes to be done, mostly during my evenings — and nights! — but of course it was a labour of love. As a result of very hard work by a number of dedicated people at St. Alban ‘s, a register of all the Catholic children of Chaddesden had been gathered. A good many of them were already attending St. Mary’s School in Derby. We began the school with five classes - two infant and three junior. The opening was arranged for 7th January 1957 - the beginning of the Spring term. But as this date approached it became clear that the school buildings would be a week late! So it was on the 14th January that St. Alban's school was opened. Apart from the catering side, which had a further delay of one week (hungrily snatched up by the press!) the school was on its way.