A Short History

Until the 1850s, the Catholics of Flint would journey to Holywell to hear Mass.


In 1841 two local men, George Roskell, the first Mayor of Flint, and Edward Roberts, together with Fr Lythgoe SJ, Rector of Holywell, purchased a plot of land with the intention of building a church, school and presbytery. No progress was made for some while, no doubt due to lack of funds, but in 1852 the old lead smelting works at Flint were converted to an alkali factory, providing work for many incomers.


Among these were Irish families who found houses in the area, where they formed a separate Irish-speaking community. Building operations began in 1854, directed by the Capuchin friars, who had taken up residence at Pantasaph two years previously. Even before the church was built they were saying Mass on Sundays in the upstairs rooms of local inns in Flint.

A school/chapel was registered for worship in 1855, and the first presbytery was completed in 1858. In 1876 an extension to the school/chapel was built. It included a belfry and a bell that was donated by Alderman Ellis Exton, Town Clerk and MP for Flintshire. The church followed at a cost of £2,000, designed by James and Bernard Sinnott of Sinnott & Powell, Liverpool.


The builders were Messrs Reney of Connah’s Quay. The foundation stone was laid on 5 June 1884 by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Dr Edmund Knight, and the church was opened by Cardinal Manning on 30 August 1885. From that time the school/chapel was used solely as a school.


In 1890 the altar from Lord and Lady Denbigh’s oratory at Downing Hall (which had been dismantled) was given to Flint by the friars of Pantasaph and installed as a high altar (the former high altar was moved to the Lady Chapel). The Sacred Heart statue was introduced in the same year. At this time the present presbytery was erected alongside the church, paid for by the daughter of George Roskell, Mrs Elizabeth Harnett.


In 1936 the sanctuary was reordered with a new altar of Gwespyr limestone with matching sanctuary rail. The old Downing Hall altar then became the Lady Altar. In 1958 a further reordering involved the remodelling of the Lady Altar, Sacred Heart shrine and baptistery, and a new floor in the aisles, porch and sacristy. The parish hall was also built in the 1960s. There has been a further reordering of the sanctuary in recent years.