St Thomas of Canterbury, Puckeridge’s little Catholic church, is a hundred years old. It opened on 18 July 1926 and is one of the smallest churches in the Diocese of Westminster.
It was only ever meant to be temporary. In the 1920s Winifred Cairns gave the land for a chapel to serve the village and the Catholic school next door. Pupils rang the communion bell at the opening service, and a few months later they were back for lessons while the school roof was mended. Winifred stayed devoted to the church, making the altar linens herself, and four generations of her family have been to the school and church since. Some of her descendants still worship there.
One of the school’s former pupils, Fr John Kearsey, was ordained at St Edmund’s College in 1957 and came back soon afterwards to give first communion to ten Puckeridge children.
To mark the centenary, Archbishop Richard Moth celebrated Mass at the church in July 2026, only days after receiving the pallium from Pope Leo in Rome. The church is served by the parish of St Edmund and the English Martyrs at Old Hall Green.
Information sourced from Diocese of Westminster, 14 July 2026. If anything here has changed, please let us know.