St Austins R C Church

Lovely church. Has been used by my family for generations. I was baptised there, holy communion, comfirmation and my marriage ceremony was held there. It is a special place and has many wonderful memories. Father Martin is a gentleman. Its also the most beautiful building inside and outside.

I live by this Church and I am afraid I have found the attitudes of the father and the parishioners towards the residents of Heath Street and the community in general, is one of rudeness and contempt, unless you are a member of this church. Residents would quite often find notes on their cars reprimanding them if we dared to park on the churches land, even if there wasn’t a service on or another car in sight! No give and take or community spirit.
People living in the area of St Austins Parish and it’s adjoining school have had to put up with much disruption from all the construction work being carried out for St Austins school next door. We’ve had double yellow lines imposed on us that only the residents of Heath Street seemed to have adhered to as the vast majority of the Parishoners, construction workers and HGV wagons etc. ignore the DOUBLE YELLOW LINES and park on them Also the parishioners and construction vehicles also seem to think they have the right to drive down Heath Street which was conveniently made into a one way street, the wrong way! to access the Church and the construction site.
And now with what seems a very mean spirited and uncaring attitude, after many, many years of people and children in the community around Thatto Heath using the grassed land off Govett Road to play on, walk their dogs on, use as a short cut through to other areas of Thatto Heath and also people using it to gain as access to get to their allotments have now had this taken away from them –A very large chunk of this field has been completely blocked off and taken for a school field that will probably get used 2 — 3 times a year. Where was the community spirit? As small walk way for people to still cut through the exisiting land to still play on, access allotments and walk their dogs on what is left, would have been much appreciated by many people. I am sorry but after living 6 years by this church, I will be glad to move when I can.

This is a lovely small church with a great atmosphere and a lovely priest. My cousin is Deaf and the priest has learnt some British Sign Language and does it during the main parts of mass so that my cousin can take part. The only drawback to this church would be if you wanted to get married it doesn’t have a centre aisle so can look at bit strange with the bride walking down one side of the church. However, my nan solved this problem by having a double wedding!