Our Lady and St. Annes Church

Parish established 1896 to serve Caversham's Catholic community. Church built 1902-1921 by Canon A.J.C. Scoles. Shrine chapel added 1954-1958.

In 1895, Mrs Florence Crawshay of Caversham Park invited French Sisters of Mercy to live at The Firs in Caversham. This small community created a presence around which a parish could form. The following year, Bishop Edward Ilsley of Birmingham formally established the parish, appointing Father Cornelius Klomp as the first priest. He chose the dedication deliberately: Our Lady and St Anne, recalling the medieval shrine of Our Lady of Caversham and the chapel of St Anne on the old bridge—both destroyed at the Reformation. Fr Klomp celebrated the first parish Mass on Low Sunday 1896. Thirteen people attended. But growth was rapid. By the following year, 81 Catholics were attending Mass. Dr Cockran purchased land for a permanent church. A school/chapel opened in 1899. In 1902, Bishop Ilsley laid the foundation stone for the present church, designed by Canon A.J.C. Scoles. It opened in February 1903—a single aisle with sanctuary and presbytery. Extensions followed: south aisle and tower in 1907, north aisle in 1921. Archbishop Thomas Williams consecrated the completed church on July 26, 1933. The shrine chapel came later, built during the Marian Year of 1954 and blessed in 1958, completing the parish's recovery of medieval devotion.