The Story of this Parish

In the 30 years between 1850 and 1880 the population of Caterham expanded from 500 to around 5,000,.  This expansion was partly due to suburban expansion and the coming of the railway.  More significant for the Catholic Church was the building by the Metropolitan Asylums Board of St. Lawrence’s Hospital, opened in 1870 (the site now largely built over as Hambleton Park and York Gate) and the Depot for the Brigade of Guards, “The Barracks”  formally opened in 1877 (now developed as The Village).

The Parish of the Sacred Heart owes its beginning to those early Guards.  The adjutant, Captain Horace Gaisford of the Grenadiers, a Catholic, informed the parish priest of Croydon that there were many Irish Catholics at the Depot.   As a result a priest used to walk from West Croydon to visit them.  Subsequently Colonel Smith, Captain Bowden, Captain Stacpole and Captain Gaisford clubbed together to buy him a pony and trap.   The first known Sunday Mass in Caterham since the Reformation was offered on 30th December 1877.