St Joseph's Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...

, County Durham, England. It was built from 1893 to 1895 and designed by Edward Joseph Hansom, Archibald Matthias Dunn and W. Ellison Fenwicke in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

. It is located on the corner of Hutton Avenue and St Paul's Road close to the centre of Hartlepool. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

.Church of St Joseph, Hutton Avenue
from

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

, retrieved 27 January 2022 It is also close to an Anglican Church called St Paul's Church.

History

Foundation

During the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, the local Catholics worshipped in the

Hardwick Hall Hardwick Hall is an architecturally significant Elizabethan architecture, Elizabethan-era country house in Derbyshire, England. A leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, the Renaissance architecture, Renaissance style home was bu ...

. In 1834 the first Catholic

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

was built in Hartlepool, it was St Mary's Chapel in

Headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...

. With the local Catholic population growing, in 1851 the chapel was replaced by St Mary's Church,

Hartlepool – St Joseph
from ''Taking Stock'', retrieved 27 January 2022 then known as St Hilda's (not to be confused with the Church Of England St Hilda's). In 1867, a

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

was started from St Mary's Church in the town centre. It was named the St Joseph's Mission. The mission was in various buildings around the town centre and fundraising was done for a new church.

Construction

On 9 August 1893, the foundation stone of St Joseph's church was laid. Less than two years later, on 5 February 1895, the church was opened. It cost £13,000 with a capacity of 1000 people. The church was designed by the architectural firm Dunn, Hansom and Fenwicke, consisting of Edward Joseph Hansom, Archibald Matthias Dunn and W. Ellison Fenwick. Later additions were made to the church. In 1966, a porch was added to the northwest of the church. In 1976, a presbytery was added and three years later, in 1979 a parish centre. The

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

was refurbished in 1979/1980. All these additions were instigated by the then parish priest, Canon Patrick Lacey who died from a heart attack 2 weeks after his Golden Jubilee Mass. He was also known as "the building priest" having made plans to build 2 other churches, St Thomas More's and St John Vianney's. In 1995, a century after the opening of the church, a book was published that described the history of the church, it was called ''St Joseph's Church, Hartlepool, 1895 to 1995: A Century of Community''.

Parish

With St Mary's Church in

, St Patrick's Church, and St John Vianney's Church, the church is part of the Holy Family Parish. St Joseph's Church has two Sunday Masses at 4:00pm on Saturday and 10:30am on Sunday. St Patrick's has one Sunday Mass at 9:00am, and St John Vianney's has one Sunday Mass on Saturdays at 6.00pm.

Interior

File:St Joseph's Church interior, Hartlepool.jpg, The Sanctuary File:St Joseph's Church lady chapel, Hartlepool.jpg, The Lady Altar (side altar) File:St Joseph's Church Sacred Heart chapel, Hartlepool.jpg, The Sacred Heart Altar (side Altar)

References

External links

St Joseph's Church
from the

* St Joseph's Church from th
Hartlepool History Then And Now Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's Church, Hartlepool Buildings and structures in Hartlepool Grade II listed churches in County Durham Roman Catholic churches completed in 1895 Roman Catholic churches in County Durham Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in County Durham 1867 establishments in England 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom