Woodstock: Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholicism.

Woodstock presumably had a significant recusant community in 1620 when it was included among centres of the Jesuit mission in Oxfordshire. (fn. 50) In 1625 three women recusants were fined, and one or two recusants were reported from time to time until Catholic emancipation. (fn. 51) By 1930, (fn. 52) when Woodstock formed part of the parish of St. Gregory and St. Augustine, Oxford, there were c. 60 Roman Catholics; some attended the church of the Servite order at Begbroke, and from 1931 a chapel was opened in an outbuilding at Haddon House (no. 18 Park Street), owned by Mary, Lady Terry, and served by Jesuit priests from Heythrop College. In 1934 the church of St. Hugh of Lincoln was built in Hensington Road. (fn. 53) A new parish, the Woodstock and Kidlington mission, was formed and from 1937 there was a resident priest. From 1934 until 1945 there was a school next to the church. (fn. 54) In 1955 the priest moved to Kidlington which became the parochial centre. Heythrop College until its closure in 1969 helped with the ministry, and thereafter the Servites of Begbroke provided the parish priests. In 1985 the parish was taken over by the archdiocese and a secular priest appointed. The church of St. Hugh, comprising a nave and vestry in Tudor style, was designed by G. B. Cox.