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St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham
St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham
	51°26′8.58″N 0°18′38.01″W / 51.4357167°N 0.3105583°W
Location	Ham Street, Ham, Richmond TW10 7HT
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	https://stthomasaquinasham.org/
History
Former name(s)	St. Andrew's School (or just Ham School)
Status	Church
Founded	1968
Consecrated	28 January 1987
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Completed	1890
Specifications
Number of spires	1
Materials	brick and slate
Administration
Province	Southwark
Diocese	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark
Episcopal area	South West Pastoral Area
Deanery	Mortlake
Parish	Ham
Clergy
Priest in charge	Fr Stephen Langridge (Parish Administrator)
Priest(s)	Fr Peter Andrews (Ordinariate OLW)
Assistant priest(s)	Fr. George Ajana
Laity
Parish administrator	+44 (0)20 8948 8292

St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham is a Roman Catholic church on Ham Street on the western corner of Ham Common, Ham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is a former 19th-century school building, acquired in 1968 and converted for worship and community use.^[1]

Services

Mass is held on Saturday evenings and on Sunday mornings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mass has been held online via Zoom and later using YouTube.^[2] There has also been daily rosaries held at 8:30pm remotely.

There is also a mass in German on Sunday mornings to accommodate the local German-speaking population.^[3]^[4] (The German School London is nearby in Petersham.) A German priest is sent by the German-speaking church of St Boniface [de] in Whitechapel, London, to hold mass. The German-speaking congregation also meets with the Lutheran German-speaking congregation at St Andrew's Church, Ham for ecumenical services.^[5]

History

School

The building was constructed as Ham School in the late 1880s, replacing an earlier village school funded by the National Society. This early school accommodated boys in St Andrew's Church on the opposite side of Ham Common, and girls in the converted first floor of nearby almshouses. This failed to meet the new standards required by the Elementary Education Act 1870. Faced with the unpopular prospect of having a state controlled Board school imposed upon them, local ratepayers established a committee to construct a new school. Funds were raised from local charities, subscriptions and the National Society and the building opened in 1890 as St Andrew's School. Built with capacity for 100 boys, 101 infants and 101 girls, the school remained open until 1966, when it was replaced by the larger St Richard's with St Andrew's Primary School.^[6] The building was used for various community functions throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Church

From the Reformation until 1856 there was nowhere for Catholics to worship in Ham. Between 1856 and 1870 a small chapel, St Mary's, was established in the grounds of Beaufort House, to the north along Ham Street. In 1952 a small plot further north in Ham Street, where 201–7 now stand, was bought by Richard and Mary Cave and the Chapel of Ease of St Elizabeth's, Richmond, was constructed there. The first Mass was celebrated on 18 January 1953 but the dedication to St Thomas Aquinas was not made until 22 February 1953, by Bishop Cowderoy. Intended as a temporary structure, the "tin hut" served until the former Ham School site was acquired in 1968.^[7] The northern part of the former school building became the church whilst the southern section became the church hall, still used by community groups.^[6] The first Mass was celebrated on 14 October 1968. A flat was built in 1985 for the use of the resident parish priest, Canon Frank Davys, when St Thomas's became a parish in its own right. The church was consecrated on 28 January 1987 by Reverend Michael Bowen, the Archbishop of Southwark.^[7]

The single light stained glass window by Paul Quail, depicting "Heavenly Jerusalem", was added in 1990.^[8]

Parish Priests

Start	End	Name
1968	1991	Canon Frank Davys	Retired
1991	1997	Canon George Telford	Died November 1997
1998	2004	Fr Michael George Clifton	Retired
2004	2016	Fr Walter Walsh	Retired^[9]
2016	2021	Fr Robert Ellis	Died October 2021^[10]
2021	2022	Fr Julian Shurgold	Left January 2022
2022		Fr Stephen Langridge	(Parish Administrator)
2022	2023	Fr Tomasz Margol	Assistant Priest.^[11] Left August 2023
2023		Fr. George Ajana	Assistant Priest. Arrived September 2023

Gallery

From Ham Street
Exterior from Ham Common
Interior view of the church
Stained-glass window by Paul Quail

References

^ "Ham – St Thomas Aquinas". Taking Stock Catholic Churches in England & Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
^ "The Catholic Church of St. Thomas Aquinas, Ham". The Catholic Church of St. Thomas Aquinas, Ham. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
^ "Saint Thomas Aquinas". Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
^ "Services in Ham / Richmond". St Bonifatius, London. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
^ "German Lutheran church "hidden in Ham"" (PDF). Ham and Petersham Magazine: 23. Autumn 2010.
^ ^a ^b Chave, Leonard, ed. (1 May 2000). Ham and Petersham at 2000. Ham Amenities Group / Richmond Local History Society. pp. 18–9, 54–5. ISBN 9780952209942.
^ ^a ^b Gately, Brendan (2009). The Life and Times of the Ham and Petersham Roman Catholic Mission. St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham. pp. 1–134.
^ Eberhard, Robert. "Stained Glass Windows at St. Thomas Aquinas (RC)". Church Stained Glass Windows. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
^ "Fr Walter Walsh". Ham & Petersham Community Magazine: 10. August 2016.
^ Hogh, Christine; Holland, Linda (May 2022). "In Memory of Father Robert Kenneth Ellis RIP". Ham & Petersham Community Magazine. May 2022: 10.
^ "Father Tomasz Margol arrives at St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham". Ham & Petersham Community Magazine. September 2022: 10. September 2022.