St Mary's Church, Great Yarmouth

In 1824, the Jesuits started a mission in the town for the Catholics of the area. It began under a Fr Tate. Originally, he purchased a house and warehouse in the town for the congregation to worship in. However, by 1841, the congregation had become too numerous and a new larger location had to be sought. Fr Tate's replacement, Fr Lopez, bought the land for St Mary's and construction started in 1848.

The church was completed two years later and it was opened by the Bishop of Northampton, William Wareing on 24 September 1850. The architect was Joseph John Scoles who designed numerous churches for the Jesuits, such as Immaculate Conception Church, Farm Street in London, St Francis Xavier Church in Liverpool, St Ignatius Church in Preston and Holy Cross Church in St Helens. In Great Yarmouth, he also designed the Bure Bridge in 1829 and the Anglican church in Southtown in 1831, which is also dedicated to St Mary. Despite the Bure Bridge collapsing on 2 May 1845 (because construction workers made the bridge wider than specified), Joseph Scoles was still invited back to the town to design St…