St Mary Magdalene's Church - The first Catholic church in Seaham
The struggle of the Catholic Church to establish a building for worship in Seaham in the 19th century is an interesting story. For more than thirty years It became a public battle of determination and fortitude by the Church and unrelentless religious intolerance by the principal landowner of the town. The story is told in Chapter 8 of “A History of the Churches at Seaham” by Fred Cooper.
“Before the 16th century all churches in England were Roman Catholic and under the authority of the Pope in Rome. A determined Henry VIII (1509-1547) sought to find a way of divorcing his wife Catherine of Aragon and he achieved this by establishing himself, through the Act of Supremacy 1534, as the Supreme Head of the church in England and separating the church from the papal authority in Rome. Within three generations the world of monks, Catholic priests and Latin mass had all but disappeared. Although some Catholics continued to practice their faith in private at all times they were in fear of discovery and subject to many forms of persecution.
The early 19th century was marked by fierce debate in Parliament for the recognition of Catholic civil and political rights until eventually the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 was enacted which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholicism in the United Kingdom.
Despite the passing of the 1829 Act many prominent landowners continued to oppose and resist any attempts to re-establish Roman Catholicism in England and this was the case at Seaham Harbour. A list of those Members of Parliament opposed to Popery and the endowment of the Roman Catholic Clergy was published in Dod’s “Parliamentary Companion for 1849” and this included Viscount Seaham, MP for North Durham.
The Irish Potato Famine 1845-1852 and the prospect of jobs brought many Catholic workers and their families from Ireland to the United Kingdom. Travelling across the Irish Sea to Liverpool and Whitehaven they made their way to the rapidly expanding town of Seaham Harbour where workers were needed in the collieries and for building and maintaining the railways. With no Catholic church in the town it was necessary for Catholic families to walk to Sunderland to attend Sunday services at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Bridge Street which had opened on 15th September 1835. Several families in Sunderland and its neighbourhood had maintained an unshaken attachment to the Catholic cause. In 1746 a house in Warren Street, Sunderland used for Catholic Mass was raided and attacked by a mob. Father Hankins, the priest, was only able to escape through the crowds because he dressed as a woman. Father Kearney, later Canon Kearney was instrumental in building St Mary’s church in Sunderland on a site bought from the Earl of Durham and the church served Ryhope, Silksworth and Seaham Harbour as well as Sunderland.
At the newly founded town of Seaham Harbour a travelling Roman Catholic priest began to visit the town in 1831. He celebrated the first recorded Mass to about thirty people in a private house in John Street in 1835 using a rough kitchen table as an altar. The wood from that table was later made into a pedestal for a statue of St Teresa. The Rev. Canon Bamber was the incumbent for 26 years (1852-1878) in St Mary’s church, Sunderland and he was the driving force behind the building of St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s church in that town. He also established missions at Monkwearmouth and New Tunstall and in 1856 he instituted a catholic mission at Seaham Harbour.
Among the priests who came to attend to the spiritual needs of Seaham were Father Bamber, Father Henry Wrennell and Father Kirsopp. Services were held in the Long-room of the Lord Seaham Inn. Around 1861 a loft in a warehouse behind the Inn was secured by the congregation and later the home of Mrs Ford at 9 William Street was used as a church. With this meagre accommodation they were obliged to be content because the late Marquis and in particular the staunch Anglican Lady Frances Anne Vane the Marchioness of Londonderry, had steadfastly declined to grant, sell or lease them a site for a church.”
For more information on the battle of words between Lady Frances Anne Vane and Father Belayney and the struggle to build the first Catholic church visit …… https://goo.gl/TvUQu4
St Mary Magdalene's Church - The second Catholic Church in Seaham
History of Seaham - Stories and remarkable and memorable events in the history of Seaham 
