Click pictures to enlarge

Old church

Cemeteries

The church does not have a graveyard.

Church History

It was founded in 1914 and the first church opened in 1925. The current building opened in 1961.

The history of St. Osmund's, Breightmet, Bolton, has its origin in Darcy Lever. In June 1913, the late Canon Woods, then Rector of St. Patrick's, Bolton, started a Sunday school for the benefit of the Catholic children in that area who were attending non-Catholic day schools. Holy Mass was said for the first time in Long Lane, on the first Sunday in August 1914.

In November 1923, it was decided to establish St. Osmund's as an independent parish. The late Bishop appointed Fr. J. Linehan as its first parish priest. Having neither church, nor school, nor presbytery, nor the site for the available buildings, Father Linehan, with the kind permission of Major C. I. Scowcroft, continued to use the building in Long Lane for Holy Mass and Sunday school.

On April 24, 1924, a very suitable plot was acquired on the east side of Long Lane. This magnificent freehold site, measuring nearly five acres, and costing a thousand guineas, was presented to St. Osmund's by the late Mr. Brown, K.S.G., of Bradley Fold. The munificence of this generous benefactor, as well as that of his wife, the people of St. Osmund's and the present parish priest all duly appreciate, and gratefully acknowledge all their splendid acts of generosity.

The great day in the history of the parish was Saturday, July 25, 1925, when Provost O'Kelly blessed and laid the foundation stone of the new church. That this event was possible in less than two years from the inception of the parish is a great tribute to the faith and courage of a small congregation. Since then, Fr. Crisp, Fr. Fielding, and Father Meagher have worked in the parish.

Recently the church was decorated inside and out to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of its opening, and a rood screen erected in memory of Mrs. Brown, the gift of her daughter, Stella Brown. The hall was also decorated outside so that now the buildings look quite in keeping. A new school is being built.

Taken from "Salford Diocese and its Catholic past", a survey by Charles A. Bolton, a Priest of the above Diocese. Published 1950 on the First Centenary for the Diocese of Salford.

Maps

The church is located at OS grid reference SD740093. You can see this on maps provided by:

• this church marked on a Google map. (Use this to report a corrected location)
• Old Maps
• Streetmap.co.uk.
• multimap.com.
• www.magic.gov.uk
• Google maps showing nearby churches with satellite image option.

Help required

The information provided has been obtained from a number of sources and although every effort is made to avoid errors, just a few may be present. So if there are any please let us know. [Use the link at the bottom of this page].

We do not currently have the following information, and if you can provide it then please do so:

	We think we have the exact location of the church. If not please select the following link and please click on the exact location. The arrow should move to the point you have selected. Please cut and paste the URL displayed in the Address/Location box at the top of your screen and send it to us along with the name of the church. Click here.
	We only have the earliest date the church was mentioned in records. Do you know in which year it was founded?
	Who holds the records of baptisms, marriages or burials? Have any transcripts of the registers been published?

If you have any further information about the church that you think would be useful to other researchers then do get in touch.