150 Years of The Friary, Crawley

In the beginning...

Mary Scawen Blount was a friend of the Roman Catholic convert Cardinal John Henry Newman, and converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism herself. Her sons, Francis and Wilfrid, also converted in 1852.

Memorial to Francis Scawen Blunt

In 1859, at the invitation of a Mrs Montgomery (a relative of Mary Scawen Blount), Italian Capuchin friars arrived in Crawley. They stayed at her house on the Horsham Road (next to what is now the St.Wilfrid`s School site) and celebrated Mass in its coach-house, which was reordered to make a chapel and dedicated to St Philip.

Soon afterwards, Mary Scawen Blunt died; she asked her sons to found a permanent Roman Catholic church to serve Crawley and the surrounding area and a friary for the Capuchins. In 1860, Francis bought 3 acres of land near Crawley railway station and the town centre and arranged the design and construction of a friary and adjoining church; the builder was recorded as a Mr Ockendon.

The friary formed three sides of a square around a courtyard; the north side was formed by the church, which was dedicated to St Francis. All buildings were in Early English Gothic style and were built of stone and brick, and the church itself had a bellcote on the roof.

The church and friary were dedicated and opened on 12 October 1861.

(From Crawley Parish Newsletter)