About
St. Gregory’s is a Roman Catholic Church within the Archdiocese of Glasgow.
The Parish of St Gregory’s covers areas in the North and West of the City of Glasgow - in the districts of Wyndford/Garrioch, Garbraid/Maryhill, Ruchill, Kelvindale and Kirklee/Cleveden.
The origins of the Parish can be traced back to the building of some 1,800 houses in the Wyndford Estate – on the former grounds of Maryhill Barracks, home of the Highland Light Infantry – which required the formation of a new Parish between the two old-established Parishes, Immaculate Conception, Maryhill, and St. Charles’, Kelvinside.
St Gregory’s Oratory & Temporary Church in Maryhill Road
Father Murphy was appointed to open this Parish on February 19th, 1965, and took up temporary residence in the Immaculate Conception Presbytery. The first task was to find somewhere to gather the new parishioners together for Holy Mass, and, through the Education Authorities, a classroom in St. Mary’s Annexe on the Maryhill Road was rented and the famous “Oratory” was born! It was on the site of the present Maryhill Police Station opposite Wyndford main gate.
The altar, vestments and other equipment came from the private Oratory of the late Archbishop Campbell, and many willing hands got all in readiness for the offering of the first Mass on St. Patrick’s Day – March 17th, 1965-in a tiny building designed to seat fifty, with a congregation far in excess of one hundred. Then permission was granted to use the Assembly Hall in Shakespeare Street Public School on Sundays. On March 28th the first public Masses were offered and the Sacrament of Baptism administered. For history, we noted that two hundred and sixty received Holy Communion and five children were baptised.
His Grace Archbishop Scanlan selected the Patron for the Parish – St. Gregory Barbarigo.
Great difficulties were being experienced in providing a house for a Presbytery. Then, at Easter, Father Hickey, Parish Priest of the neighbouring Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption, had just completed a new Presbytery and St. Gregory’s were able to acquire their old house in Bilsland Drive to serve as a temporary Presbytery for six years.
With the opening of St Gregory’s School in Wyndford, St Mary’s Annexe became vacant and the parish’s offer for the buildings and grounds was accepted. Work commenced on the temporary church, the long one storey ‘hut’ building was transformed into the ‘Oratory’, with a ‘classroom’ foyer at each end which gave accommodation for groups to be formed and meetings and small social events held in the entrance foyers.
A film was made by Mr Lawrence Russell of the Scottish Catholic Film Institute, of which Fr Murphy was Chairperson. “Springboard to the World” gave the story of the early days of the parish, with full colour film of all the activities of the first few years. The film was transferred to DVD format by Scottish Screen Archive in 2010, as part of Scotland’s Moving Image Collection, and some of it can be seen on its website. The film portrayed all the excitement as the news of the site of the new church became available, followed the work on the building site and the formation of the parish groups. The Film Premiere took place in the school, and was shown several times over the years at film shows in the parish hall. (Copies of this film as DVDs are available for loan in our Parish Library.)
The building of the Church, House and Hall complex in Kelvindale Road
Eventually the parish obtained part of the site of the disused Dawsholm Engine/ Loco Shed (closed in 1964). It had been a brick-built 6-track dead-ended shed with a 2-track repair shop. There was a turntable and a coaling stage set on a ramp.
Site of St Gregory's Church abt 1930 Courtesy of Glasgow City Archives and Special Collections'
Plans were made for a new church, hall and parish house on Kelvindale Rd.
As the Church plans were approved and the tenders went out for contractors, the houses in Wyndford were increasing rapidly, with new families moving into the area on a regular basis.The new St Columba of Iona School opened in Calendar Street, Maryhill.
The parish became a hive of industry with fundraising events being organised constantly. By October 1970 the list of activities in the parish were as follows:
Monday Parents Club : Cadettes (teenage girls uner 15)
Tuesday Girls Club : Pools Promoters : Boys Football Club
Wednesday Parents Club : Marian Association
Thursday Ladies Socials : Boys Club : Church Cleaning and Altar Society
Friday Pools Promoters : Cubs : Scouts : Guides : Girls Swimming Club :Monthly socials in school.
Saturday Saturday Mart : Football Teams under 16’s, 15’s,14’s, 13’s & 12’s.
Sunday SVDP : Stall promotion : Passkeeping : Lay readers : Sponsors at Baptisms : 500 Club organisation : Altar Boys : Counting collections.
Every Week Preparing, typing and printing 1750 Bulletins and Pool Sheets.
Despite the setback of the builders going into liquidation and the work being held up for six months, the clergy took up residence in the new presbytery, early in January 1971, and were then on site for the final stages of the Church building.
On 11 February 1971, Archbishop Scanlan performed the ceremony of the ‘Laying the Foundation Stone’, and the building work was duly completed and the Opening Mass /Ceremony in the new Church was held at 12 noon on 13th June 1971. We were honoured by the presence of the Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, Archbishop Scanlan, Bishop Ward, Monsignori, Canons, Priests, and Civic dignitaries, Ministers from Church of Scotland, Methodist and Anglican Churches. Rev. Pearson presented a gift of Jerusalem Bible to mark this great occasion.
Forming the Guard of Honour were the Marian Association, our Lady’s Cadettes, Cubs, Scouts & Guides.
Archbishop Scanlan and Fr Murphy at the Opening
See Photos of Opening Page for more photos of the event.
