St Thomas of Hereford, Weobly St Bede, Kington
| Address: | St Thomas of Hereford, Kington Road, Weobley, Hereford HR4 8QS and St Bede, Bridge Street, Kington, Hereford. | |
| Telephone | 01544 318325 | |
| Masses | Saturday 6.00pm Kington; Sunday 11.00am Weobley | |
| Holy Days: | 7.00pm Weobley; 12.00 noon Kington | |
| Parish Priest | Rev Dom Simon McGurk | |
Parish History: During penal times the Weobley area was described as a "nest of Papists". From the sixteenth century until 1835 a Catholic Chapel was maintained at nearby Sarnesfield Court, by the Monnington family, whose zeal caused Thomas Monnington to be imprisoned in Hereford at the time of the Oates Plot. Following Catholic Emancipation the faithful were able to build the present Church of Saint Thomas of Hereford - dedicated to the saintly bishop Thomas Cantilupe (d.1282), though Mass was still said at Sarnesfield until the 1860s and until recent years at Broxwood where the Snead-Coxes built a Chapel designed by Charles Hanson. There is now a Chapel-of-Ease at Saint Bede's Kington.
Saint Thomas's Weobley is a simple gothic building which, though
recently renovated, still maintains an intimate almost penal day
character. The Parish has been served byenglish Benedictines since 1841.
In about 1852 a School (the present Sacristy) was built onto the Church
and Presbytery, which othenvise retain most of their original
appearance.
The Parish covers some forty villages of rural Herefordshire, with around 250 Catholics.