The Weymouth Mission (continued)
In 1831, soon after the Catholic Emancipation Bill, Father Peter Hartley and Bishop Baines bought a large site on the Turnpike Road out of Weymouth to Dorchester. It had a frontage of 126 feet and a depth of 155 feet. It was subdivided into plots, which were then sold, leaving a narrow strip of land for the Church and presbytery in one building.
The new Church was 56 feet long and 27 feet wide, and the Presbytery was at the back of the church occupying what we now know as the sanctuary. The original church sanctuary can be picked out in the ceiling of the present church. The church was opened on October 1835, and dedicated to St Augustine of Canterbury. The Grand Mass in D by Novello was sung, with Mr Foy at the organ and an orchestra comprised of Mrs Angel, Mr Collins and Mr Tullidge.
The Dorset Chronicle entitled its article about the dedication – "Increase of Popery'"!
After Father Hartley left the parish, there followed five different parish priests in as many years, including the brief return of Father Hartley. Then Father Tilbury came and remained for fifteen years. During this time Ann Odber acted as godmother and marriage witness on many occasions.
Her memorial stone is at the back of St Augustine's Church, on the Gospel side. She was buried within the church at the foot of the old sanctuary.
The photograph shows the Mass celebrated on 21st October 1935 to mark the Centenary of the Founding of St Augustine’s Church
During Father Tilbury's time at St. Augustine's the Australian Government refused to take any more convicts from England. Thus a prison colony was built on Portland.
St Augustine's Mission on Portland was started to serve the island. Father Tilbury died in 1856 and was replaced by Father Martin Hoskins. Fr. Hoskins opened a Mass Centre on Portland at the home of Mr William Lyle Smith. Fifty people attended Mass there.
Father Hoskins rented a room in Horsford St near Red Barracks as a school for soldiers'
children, but the soldiers left barracks four months later, so the school closed
down again. Civilian children were transferred to the dining room of the presbytery
for their education. Two years later the little school was discontinued and remained
closed until 1864, when once again the children were back in the presbytery for education.
By this time Father Charles was Priest-
St Augustine's priests had been saying Mass at Dorchester since 1863, but in 1871 Dorchester became a separate mission, with Father O'Dwyer as its priest. The site for the Dorchester Church of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs (now the Tutankamun Exhibition) was bought by Arthur Coombe, who also provided the stained glass window in St Augustine's Church.