The Parish of St John, the Evangelist, Chesterton At St John’s, a warm welcome awaits you and we are blessed with a friendly, generous, diverse and inclusive congregation that look out for each other. Sunday morning Mass is well attended and enthusiastic hymn singing takes place; as St Augustine said: “he who sings, prays twice”. A good number of parishioners stop off for refreshments after every Sunday Mass in the adjoining Parish Hall, where typically once a month we hold a fundraiser in the form of home-made crafts, jams and scones. The Parish is currently served by Fr Michael Miners OCDS as Parish Priest from Wolstanton (St Wulstan). A History of St John the Evangelist There is a local tradition that Mass was said in a miners’ hostel in Chesterton, circa 1900 however, the first regular Mass-centre in the village was opened in a hut in Liverpool Road belonging to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Association in 1923 and was served from Holy Trinity where a curate had been appointed for that purpose. In 1926 a hall at the north end of Castle Street was acquired and a chapel dedicated to St John the Evangelist opened there, and in 1948 Fr Vincent Charles Lucas was the first resident priest appointed to the parish. In June 1950, Fr Tim Cronin was appointed Parish Priest, moving from Stone where he was a curate. From Fr Cronin’s own written retrospective, he was not overly impressed by the quality of the church in Chesterton: “It was just an old shack which looked and was a wreck of a building, dilapidated and derelict. The interior was no better than the outside, in fact, worse.” He stayed in lodgings next door for around three months. Fr Cronin celebrated his first Mass as Parish Priest on 11th June 1950 and the following day the house at 2, Wolstanton Road was purchased for the princely sum of £3,250 (borrowed from the diocese at 4%) By 1956 the condition of the Church on Castle Street had significantly deteriorated to the point it was unsafe to use and permission was granted by Archbishop Grimshaw to build a hall and presbytery, to serve as both Church and Parish Centre on land at Loomer Road and the firm of Stafford architects Sandy & Norris were appointed to oversee the plans. The cost was £11,000 and over the coming years, Fr Cronin assisted by parish volunteers ran a huge number of fund-raising activities from dances and raffles to bingo and then the tote. These latter two activities were so successful that by the end of 1973 the debt was cleared. By 1977 with a healthy parish bank balance, work commenced on the building of a new church adjoining the Parish Centre in November and was completed at the end of September 1978. The church was blessed by His Grace, Archbishop Dwyer on All Saints’ Day November 1978. In November 1980 Fr Cronin said his last Mass at St John’s and became Parish Priest at St Teresa and was succeeded by Fr Oliver Kemp (1980 – 1985), Fr Denis Clancy (1985 – 1990), Fr Anthony Brown (1990 - 1994), Fr Noel Breslin (1994 - 2004) and finally, Canon David Goodwin (2004 – 2011). Since 2012, St John’s has been served by St Wulstan’s (Frs. Anthony Dykes and Anthony Davies, Fr Dominic Chukka, and Fr Michael Miners). Sources: Parish Newsletter 11.11.50 (Fr Cronin); A History of Newcastle-under-Lyme JG Jenkins (1963 – Extracted from The Victoria History of the County of Stafford Volume VIII)
The Church A small and functional polygonal building of 1970 - 1980 with exposed laminated trusses. The architect-designer of the church has not been established, but it bears the characteristics of Messrs Lanner of Wakefield. The church is faced with red brick and consists of an octagonal body under a concrete-tiled roof with a flat-roofed entrance porch/narthex with a WC and confessional. The construction of the church incorporated connection to the pre-existing presbytery, allowing easy access for the resident priest to reach the church. Above the main space is a pyramidal spike, likely of fibreglass, and the windows are tall and rectangular and have been replaced in UPVC. Inside, the framing of the building is exposed with laminated timber trusses which crank upwards to the apex of the ceiling, where a decorative ceiling boss was installed by Fr Breslin. The walls are mostly of buff brick but the area behind the sanctuary (which faces the entrance) is wood panelled. There are no fittings or furnishings requiring particular mention.