Tempest, Thomas Peter –  The man who built St Mary’s

Canon Thomas Peter Tempest, (C1805-1861)

AS a young theology student Thomas Peter Tempest, of Broughton Hall, near Skipton, was passing along the Great North Road, on his way home, when he spotted a house he liked with an adjacent  paddock.

That was in 1830, only one year after the Catholic Emancipation Act which allowed people of the faith to worship openly again after more than a century.

The house had been built by Grantham grocer Samuel Hand 40 years earlier, the first building on the west side at the corner of North Parade and what was then West Parade (Barrowby Road).

Seeing it was for sale, he thought it the ideal site for Roman Catholic Church and bought it. The foundation stone was laid in February 1831, and it was consecrated in May 1833.

The original church was a simple, rectangular structure with seating for up to 500 people, ambitious for the likely congregation of the time.

The same year, he designed and built a school next door. Unfortunately this was not of the same quality and after some years being supported by props, had to be rebuilt in 1859.

He was parish priest at Grantham from 1835-1839 and again from 1845 until his death in 1861.