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Visitors to this page since March 2008

St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Albrighton  

The Shifnal Chalice testifies to Recusants, adherents of the Old Faith, being active here from Reformation times. There was no church building though, until in 1860, a church cum school was built at Shifnal. Mass was also said in the old High St library in Albrighton and at the RAF chapel at Cosford. Former glebe land on Bushfield Road was given for a new church by Geoffrey Maclean, a Wolverhampton builder. After much fund raising, a wooden church was built on Bushfields Road in the mid-1960’s. However, this was destroyed by fire in 1970.

Mass was then offered at St Mary Magdalene Anglican Parish Church on Sundays, and in parishioners’ homes in mid-week. The whole village, especially Anglicans and Methodists, were generous in helping raise money to supplement a Diocese of Shrewsbury loan, and a new church dedicated to St Joseph was opened in 1974. This was extended in 1996 to relocate the sacristy, add a kitchen, and provide a welcome area. Further adaptations were made in 2007 to improve access and adapt the toilet for disabled use.   

The substantial church car park is “private” for legal reasons, and to allow use for mid-week services including funerals. Permission from the Parish Priest is given to a small number of local business to use it during office hours.

St Joseph’s is paired with St Mary’s Church in Shifnal. It is a lively, friendly community church, with 70 to 80 members. It has a very good music group, and has Children’s liturgy on Sundays It is active in Albrighton and Area Churches Together ecumenical body. It offers help to a very poor community in Zambia via Fr David Cullen, brother of one of our parishioners.

Church History