Our Lady Queen of Peace Braintree Essex UK.

The Catholic Parish of Braintree
The Convent Chapel.

A community of Franciscan Sisters in the 1897 bought Bridge House, which belonged to Madame Edith Arendrup neé Courtauld the widow of Col. S.T. Arendrup. Edith, who had been converted to the catholic faith on her marriage in 1873, was pleased to sell this white house with 5 adjacent cottages to the nuns.

At first the sisters used one of the large rooms as the Chapel, but when this became overfull the studio in Convent Lane was used. Soon permission was given to extend Bridge House and to include a Chapel. Sir John Francis Bentley, architect of Westminster Cathedral, designed the new Chapel and the foundation stone was laid on 26th March 1898 by Dean Lucas - with great difficulty according to the records owing to the very bad weather, with rain and gales. The Chapel was completed and opened on 25th May 1899.
This Chapel by the permission of the Mother Abbess, served for the next forty years as the Parish Church with a succession of chaplains, many from different orders. As early as 1897, French clergy of The Missionaries of Mary Immaculate were appointed to the chaplaincy. There after the departure of the French priest in 1898, the Franciscan Fathers from Stratford came and as there were four Priests this enabled the holding four Masses each Sunday. But eventually they too had to leave and there was no Mass for two months no priest was available. In 1900 the Fathers of the Sacred Heart undertook the chaplaincy and were joined by Father power as superior and Chaplain. The old sisters used to tell of Catholics who walked in from Halstead and even from Dunmow, on a Sunday, walking back after a cup of tea and a little rest in the convent. One of the priest during this period also walked from Witham to say Mass.
In 1912 Father Coghlan arrived and lived in a large house in Bradford Street, next to the Angel Inn. He served for tweipall delegation for the Parish meeting the Financial Director of the Diocese, Canon Wilson, to request the building of a new Church. Canon Wilson visited Braintree but he could offer no hope of financial help. In February 1937 Father Walsh was appointed as parish priest and later that year had confirmation from the Bishop of Brentwood that a new Church could not be funded by the Diocese to serve Braintree.
In 1938 Dr. Richard Courtauld Father Walsh with the suggestion that he would pay for the building of a new Church if the parishioners would equip it with furnishings and ;