On moving to South Cave we discovered it would only take 15 minutes on a Sunday morning, without travelling at breakneck speeds, to reach St. Wilfrid's. My wife and I found great changes afoot.

Father Boyd was ill in Ireland and Father Corcoran and Hanrahan were running 3 parishes.

I have been asked to comment on the changes that have taken place in the parish of St. Wilfrid's and Hessle Road since my childhood and early manhood. I was born in the parish in 1928 and left it in 1960 when we went to live in Liverpool. I was born in Villa Place, which was not far from the borderline of St. Patrick's and St. Wilfrid's parishes. We attended Mass at the St. Patrick's chapel-of-ease down Porter Street, until the family moved to Welsted Street when I was about 3. I wonder how many people remember that chapel-of-ease? It vindicates the number of Catholics that were in St. Patrick's, as Porter Street was a continuation of Hessle Road. What a change in that area now!

On moving to Welsted Street we attended Mass at St. Wilfrid's and I started school in Miss Walsh's class at St. Wilfrid's School.

On Sundays there were 4 Masses: 6.45 a.m., 8.00 a.m., 9.30 a.m. and 11.00 a.m., the last 3 being packed. Frequently people stood around the walls and even in the doorway, most people clutching missals and rosary beads and all the ladies with covered heads. There were 4 priests tending the needs of the Parish, one being a canon. His name was Canon Wilson.

Another priest, Father Johnson, lives in the memory as the priest who scored a hat trick when the priests' team played the police team at Marist College ground and beat them 5.2 in front of a vast crowd. One thinks of the significance of Hull having enough priests to form a football team.

St. Wilfrid's served Hessle Road, in those days a densely populated area, much of the housing had been hurriedly built to cater for the fishing industries which boomed with the coming of the railways in the 19^th century. Bean Street was said to have a bigger population than Withernsea at that time.

In those days most people did their shopping on Hessle Road and rarely went 'into town'. All of the household necessities could be bought there. A huge Jackson's Bakery at the corner of Bean Street was not unusual and the Scotch Wool Shop, managed by a St. Wilfrid's parishioner, was typical of the high quality shops which stretched from porter Street to Dairycoates.

My wife has peeped over my shoulder and said that I am going on a lot about Hessle Road. The answer to that of course, is that the huge congregation attending St. Wilfrid's came from there, as well as the area between Anlaby Road and Hessle Road which were also in St. Wilfrid's Parish, streets as far away as Plane Street.

The reason for there being so many Catholics in the population dates back to the Irish emigration in the latter half of the 19^th century. The Great Irish famine took place between 1845 and 1852 but there were other famines too. In 1890 a very bad time, Irish immigrants responded to job opportunities in Hull on the roads and at the Docks and many Hull Catholics can trace their origins back to places like County Mayo from this period.

I have spent some effort on the pre-war situation but things began to change after the War. The school and church were demolished. Canon Hall had the church rebuilt but the population of the Hessle Road area began to move out to the estates and suburbs. The dockside area and much else was demolished. The church no longer had a place for their famous choir, which had broadcast on Sunday radio on more that one occasion, and congregation numbers were drastically reduced. Canon Hall once said 'This church will one day be called Canon Hall's folly'. He was no doubt thinking of the cost of maintaining such a church with such a severely reduced population. But how could he have anticipated such a drift of the population?

Before I finish I must say something about Canon Hall. Speaking to some older members of the congregation recently we all could recall him in the pulpit speaking in his slow quiet and very profound manner. He possessed a certain magnetism and was very sympathetic to people with problems. During the War he tried to enlist as a chaplain but was not released by the Church. He was a tower of strength in the Blitz and one could have imagined him the same in the trenches.

St. Charles has survived, St. Patrick's has gone and 2 relatively young priests are running 3 parishes, one being St. Wilfrid's. There is one Mass now said on a Sunday at St. Wilfrid's but the congregation is growing largely due to the thoughtfulness and enthusiasm and energy of Fathers Corcoran and Hanrahan.