By 1895, St Joseph’s Church (the first one on Glasgow Road) was in its 17th year having been founded properly in 1878. Father Frawley was the first Rector and was fondly remembered even decades later.
About the time of the 1877 Blantyre Pit Disaster, when so much of the community was decimated, Father Frawley’s health failed and he went to Australia to recuperate. However, he passed shortly after never to return. Father Donnelly was the successor and after 6 years of zealous work, he transferred to Hamilton.
Dr Hackett was the next priest, ordained in 1882, serving at St Patrick’s Glasgow before Blantyre. At his time of arrival in Blantyre, the congregation of St Joseph’s had swollen to 2,400 souls and by 1895, when he oversaw the renovations of the church, there were 3,600 parishioners, an increase which began discussions about the need for a larger, grander church.
By Winter 1895, the schools within this building and its boundaries occupied 614 pupils with an average attendance of 569 on any given day. The 1890’s saw a better attendance with conditions greatly improved for pupils and teachers. In 1889, average attendance was just 385.
The mission had been built with a splendid and neatly fitted League of the Cross Hall. It was built in 1890 and as a recreative sojourn it had proved popular especially to the young men of the Parish. The remarkable development and expansion of St Josephs in those early 1890s necessitated the appointment of an assistant priest and Father McDonnell became assistant to Dr Hackett in the early 1890’s.
Bishop Maguire on addressing the re-opening of the chapel commented it was not the first time they had redecorated or thought about improvements, nor would it be the last.
This wasn’t the only Catholic school in Blantyre. The school in Auchentibber, High Blantyre had a roll of 100 pupils in 1895. It was built on the belief that Auchentibber would become a densely populated area, but the mines dried up, people in any numbers never came.
Pictured is the entrance to the chapel building on Glasgow Road, where now the entrance to Blantyre Life Care Hub is.
