Our Lady of Fatima and the Millhouse Missionaries

Lochwinnoch had two places of worship for the Catholic faith. One was within the village at Our Lady of Fatima chapel on the High Street and the second was within the Mill Hill Seminary (1935-1985) located on the Garthland Estate on the edge of the village known as St Joseph's College. Both are now gone. St Joseph's became a home for the elderly in 1985 and closed in 2004. My dad and Pat's mum and my dad were both resident for a while. Our Lady of Fatima chapel was built during 1954/55 and opened in the December of 1955. It was knocked down in 2018, see video below. Prior to Our Lady of Fatima local Catholic’s practised their faith at St Joseph's College in the library of the original house which had been converted to an oratory (a place of worship where a full church is not available).

Known originally as Barr House, St Joseph's was built by David King in 1796 for James Adam, who sold it in 1820 to William Macdowall who renamed the building Garpel, then Garthland. In 1935 Henry Macdowall sold the building to the Mill Hill Foreign Missionary Society at which time it became the St Joseph's College for Missionaries (1935-1985). The Mill Hill Missionaries, officially known as the Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill is a Catholic society of apostolic life founded in 1866 by Herbert A. Vaughan. The society was formerly based at St Joseph's College at Mill Hill in north London. During the Second World War the college was evacuated to Lochwinnoch. A chapel was proposed for the Lochwinnoch site shortly after it was acquired. However, it took 22 years before that became a reality. When the chapel was opened in 1958 there were 40 students at the college training for missionary work. They began their studies from the age of twelve. Numbers were always below what was desired and this was probably a factor in the ultimate closure of the college. As a boy I never ventured up to the college. I used to collect conkers from the grounds and that was always an adventure for fear of being caught by the young seminarians.

The house was extended in 1936 with the addition of a three-storey red sandstone classroom/dormitory block. The linking building between the chapel and the original house contained the convent, refectory and extra staff rooms. All three structures were designed by Thomas Smith Cordiner. The buff brick chapel was built in 1958 and was Blessed and Dedicated by Bishop Black on Tuesday 16^th September. The dedication was attended by no less than five Bishops which included Archbishop Campbell of Glasgow. The Rector at this time was Fr. Joseph Martin. At this time the oratory which had been used as a chapel was converted back into its original use, a library.

Historic Scotland describe the Chapel as a 6-bay, single storey, buff brick Roman Catholic chapel on an E-W axis accessed via a 3 bay, 2 storey brick wing linked to the main house. On the outside of the circular apse is a relief sculpture of Saint Joseph by James MacEwan Mortimer flanked by stained glass windows, one of St. Peter and the other St. Paul. The sculpture is 12ft tall, carved from a single block of stone and depicts St. Joseph with a mallet in his right hand and holding a plank of wood in his left. There is a four spoked, circular wheel-window in the rear gable elevation. Internally, the ceiling is barrel vaulted; there are six side chapels; Art Deco pink and black marble altar pieces with mosaic panels and wooden pews.

The chapel had six side alters, three on the Gospel side (Left) were dedicated to the Sacred Heart, Our Lady and St. Joseph. The three on the Epistle side (Right) were dedicated to St. Columba, St. Patrick and the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux with appropriate motifs on each of them. This arrangement allowed seven priests to offer mass simultaneously.

The chapel was to be used by the Franciscan missionaries of St Joseph who looked after the domestic affairs of the college and the Brothers who did a wide variety of jobs in and around the College, as well as by the staff and students of the college. It could accommodate around 100 with roughly half being students. I understand that priests who died while at the college were buried on site. However, when the college closed their bodies were moved to another location.

The chapel’s design and construction reflect the architectural and cultural heritage of the time, making it a notable part of Lochwinnoch’s history. In Scotland, a central figure in the spread of modern art and architecture within the Catholic Church was Jack Coia (1898-1983). He had a strong influence on Mortimer through his teaching at the Glasgow School of Art. This can be seen in the very modern appearance of the sculpture of St Joseph even today (2025) despite being 82 years old. A note by John Smith stated that Mr Mortimer lived at Newton of Barr at one time.

I visited the archive of the Archdiocese of Glasgow who hold plans of the chapel at St Joseph’s. I was staggered at what I found. The plans on record were for a proposed structure dated 2^nd May 1943. These are shown below. Clearly a much more ambitious chapel had been in the minds of the Millhouse Fathers. Or perhaps Cordiner got carried away. In the end a much more modest structure was built. The reality is probably that due to the war the project was delayed and post the war, austerity, rationing and cost meant it had to be scaled back.

On 7th November 2024 Planning Application: 23/0566/LB was approved to re-use the chapel which is a category C listed building. Planning application 23/0565/PP was approved on 7^th May 2025 for the construction of 25 retirement homes including conversion of the chapel into additional accommodation. Since 2005, the site has been exposed to “extensive vandalism, theft and arson” because of its relatively remote location, rendering it “unsafe” and requiring selective demolition. At present, only the 1936 dormitory block and chapel remain standing. The design statement says “The scheme comprises 25 new build retirement flats with a concierge and communal lounge facility in a three-storey block on the site of former buildings with the refurbishment of a 1950’s chapel to be converted into a further five retirement flats. The properties will be marketed to the over 55’s.” Drawings of the proposed site are included in the gallery above.

My thanks to Carole Lambert (nee Brett)  for the following information about Our Lady of Fatima. Rather than me summarise her recollections I thought it best for her to speak for herself.

“I was heartbroken to see that Our Lady of Fatima R.C Church had been knocked down. Our Brett family was heavily involved in not only the construction, as the church was moved brick by brick from Mull, my uncle made and carved the wooden alter and as a child I used to go with Granny to help dust the religious artefacts and clean the church. I was the first baby christened in that church, later my uncle married there too, sad to see that it no longer stood in the High Street.”

In a follow-up e-mail Carole said the following.

“Unfortunately, my folks who were around at the time of the resurrection of the church have left us. However, although I was a baby at the time my Granny and Uncle told me that in the past there was no Catholic church in the village or resident priest consequently a priest would arrive twice a week and hear confessions and give a mass. I have no idea where that would have been staged. However my Granny was Irish, she converted to Catholicism when my father was a boy, must have been between the wars. Apparently, she would walk over the hill in front of the prefabs to a Catholic retreat in the countryside nearby (by Dad used to call it the glen) where she was instructed by the catholic monks who lived there. I think that has since long gone, but I wonder if they held mass there?

It’s my understanding that the Catholic church said there was a deconsecrated church in Mull that if the parishioners could transport it brick by brick and have the expertise to build it, they would provide a priest. My uncle and father used to tell a tale of transporting the bricks on the steamer from Mull. My Grandpa was a carpenter and cabinet maker, I think he worked in the region, but when I was a child, my uncle and grandpa set up a carpentry, upholstery and French polishing business in Dalry. My uncle was particularly skilled and it was he who made the alter for the church.

My folks tell me that the church was opened by the Bishop in December 1955, as I was born on the 13th December that year, hence I was the first baby to be christened there.

Of course, now I’m in my dotage, I wished I had asked my loved ones to record all their recollections of life in the village during those bygone times, sadly my dad had two brothers and two sisters all sadly have passed. When I was a teenager and also in my twenties when I used to visit on holiday, everyone knew me, either as Anges and Matthew’s granddaughter, or Matt Brett’s daughter but when I took my dad back, (my parents settled in West London) for a visit in 1990, just in that short time, two generations, nobody recognised us, the village had moved on. Dad did meet two people in the pub who he went to school with, which lifted his spirts and we were able to look round the little museum, dad told the curator a few things and corrected a couple of photos that were on show but apart from that I think it was terribly strange for him.

Oh crikey, you have certainly taken me down Memory Lane, I have lived now in Suffolk for thirty-four years but those carefree happy days of Lochwinnoch are close to my heart.

I will look out any photographs that I may have, thank you for keeping all the memories alive.”