The Catholic Church in Balsall Common (continued)

Not unnaturally, due to the connection of the church of St George & St Teresa with the cult of St Philomena, Canon Manion had a great devotion to the little martyr of the Catacombs. For the rest of his life he maintained that it was through her intercession that the purchase of the land and the building of the church were achieved. To no one's surprise it was to her the church was dedicated.

A shrine to St Philomena had been blessed in the original church at Dorridge on her feast day, 11th August 1933, shortly before the fire, which destroyed the building. Another shrine was eventually established in the new church. Public Novenas continued to be held four times a year until after the war. However devotion to the saint began to wane and the novenas ceased altogether when she was removed from the international church calendar in 1961.

In the early days the parish had two regular visitors from the staff of Cotton College. The first was Father Dennis Manion, a nephew of the Canon, later to be our Parish Priest himself (1975-1988), and now living in richly rewarded retirement at St Joseph's, Harborne. The other was his great friend Father (now Monsignor) Tom Gavin, who was to be one of the Canon's successors as both Headmaster of Cotton College and with responsibility for the Diocesan Schools Commission, and recently retired after many years as Parish Priest of St Thomas More, Coventry. They regularly celebrated mass for us.

The parishioners of Dorridge have always been very supportive in many ways. One of our curates Father Timothy Cronin (1943-1947) could not drive and friends from Dorridge drove him over for mass throughout the years he was with us.

In the late 1940s Mr & Mrs Hadley came to live in ‘The Cafe’ in Berkswell, opposite The Bear Inn. They kindly gave us the use of the cafe and their beautiful garden for parish functions. It was there that the parish celebrated in 1950 when Canon Manion was made a Prelate of Honour and received the title of Monsignor.

Many a happy hour was spent in the Hadley’s garden raising money for the church. Mrs Hadley, a former actress, would produce an annual pantomime in the Berkswell Reading Room. Much of the profit went into the St Philomena building fund. Those enjoyable times still bring back many happy memories for some of our older parishioners.

Since there was no Catholic school in the parish, weekly instructions were held on Sunday afternoons before benediction and eventually switched to Saturday mornings. Often Monsignor himself would come over or failing that his curate. A frequent, much loved catechist was Father Anthony Emery (1954-1962), later to become an Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese and subsequently succeeding Bishop Derek Worlock in the See of Portsmouth. He followed Monsignor in having responsibility for the Diocesan schools. However, the work proved so onerous he had to give up the Saturday morning instructions and a layperson took over.

First Communions became a very happy annual occasion with the Communion Breakfast taking place in the ‘back room’ and Monsignor or his curate sitting down with the children. The instruction classes continued long after the school opened at Dorridge. Happily the parish still celebrates with their first communicants.

Fund-raising was always high on the agenda, since from the very beginning there has been a debt looming over the Parish. In the early days when Father Cronin went home to Ireland for his summer holidays he would organise raffles, etc for St Philomena’s, thus helping to reduce the debt.

Jumble Sales, Bazaars, Garden Fetes and Whist Drives were held every year. All except the Garden Fete were held in the Village Hall. The first Jumble Sale raised £200, which for the period immediately after the war was a lot of money. Whist Drives, rarely heard of these days, were held every month, with a special one at Christmas, including a Christmas Draw. They were hard work, but great fun. The clergy were regular participants at this popular event.