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It was the first new Catholic school to be built in the area. Soon it was extended by three new classrooms, as its numbers grew; but even these classrooms were soon holding up to 46 children each. Another pair of rooms was added, and the hall extended; and in the late sixties it became clear that even this provision would not be adequate. For a time temporary classrooms were put up in the grounds; but soon the decision was taken to divide the school, and to build a completely new Infant school. In 1969 this project was begun, and in 1970 the school was opened under Miss C. J. Hester, who had controlled the Infants’ department of the united school”.

Like all schools, St. Alban’s has suffered from the falling birth rate in later years; but its speedy growth from 1957 to 1970 is typical of the story of the parish as a whole.

Bishop Ellis blesses St. Alban’s School.
On his right, Fr. Charles Wall; on his left, Fr. John Sullivan

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Spondon - a dream fulfilled

After the opening of the new Church, Spondon was beginning to feel like the Cinderella of the piece. Fr. McLean went down shortly after his arrival to spy out the land.

In the twenties Fr. Humphrey Wilson had arrived (horse-and-trap) to say Mass in the Wilmot Arms. The Sisters of Bridge-gate had run a Sunday School. Regular Masses were not celebrated in Spondon till 1931; so many can still remember the hour’s hike into Derby. (It is worth mentioning that, in 1634, four walkers set off from Chaddesden to Derby in a snowstorm; they died of exposure at the top of the cemetery hill . . . . )

The Spondon Mass had a nomadic existence, it migrated to the Crown Club, the Angler’s Arms, where it was discontinued after the bold innovation of Benediction after Mass, as the clients complained about incense, and the landlord was firm! Next to the Chemist’s Hut in the Celanese compound, then to the Sitwell cinema, which was so dark that no priest seemed to want to preach in it, and finally to an old Methodist chapel which had passed to the Scouts.

Within a week Fr. McLean had found a site. By 1958 the shell of a simple but adequate Church had arisen, at a cost of £2,000, and was furnished for £2,000 more. The first Mass was celebrated there on Easter Sunday morning, 1958, with a congregation of 275 people.

A great help was the presence of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Borrowash House, the diocesan mother-and-baby home. They opened their grounds and house to the Spondon parishioners, to help raise money for the new Church, and helped with vestments and the rest, and by 1961 the tradition had become firmly established, and Fr. Reidy arrived as the first Parish Priest. He was found a house across the road from the Church, and the story of the Spondon and Borrowash parish began.

Monsignor Hargreaves’ Memorial

In another snowstorm, a little ceremony took place in front of St. Alban’s. It was the 14th February, 1960, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It had been decided to put a memorial to Mgr. Hargreaves beside the Church, and a very chaste modern Lourdes group had been commissioned from the sculptor David John. It is set in a curved wall of dressed stones, with a circular pavement before it, and it adds a sense of dignity and proportion to the forecourt. There is an excellent precedent for honouring our Lady in the Snows: but perhaps Pope Liberius had more right to be surprised by his snow - in Rome on August 5th - than Bishop Ellis, by his drenching in Derby on a bitter day in February!