History

North Hinksey is the northernmost parish of the Portsmouth Diocese, whose boundary, like that of most Catholic Dioceses, is the old county boundary. Until a few years ago Berkshire extended to the River Thames, except in Botley, where the boundary became the Seacourt Stream.

It wasn't so long ago that the North Hinskey part of the Diocese was served from East Hendred, home of the old Catholic family of the Eystons. The Parish of North Hinksey has four church buildings, reflecting the geographically fragmented nature of the population. Each of those buildings was meant to be a focus for a local Catholic community made up of people who cared for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and whose witness to Christ and care for others spilled out into the wider community.

The arrival of evacuees and their teachers from a Catholic school in Poplar in the East End of London was the beginning of a substantial Catholic community in Botley before our Parish existed.

Over the next few years Mass was celebrated in make-shift venues, including the Bystander public house in Wootton, the Bear and Ragged Staff in Cumnor and the Women’s Institute in North Hinksey.

Work began on Our Lady of the Rosary in 1953, on a piece of land gifted by a local Catholic. The Parish of North Hinksey was officially established on 1st January 1954, and the church was completed and dedicated later that year.