Toddington Roman Catholics

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic church March 2016

In 1939 the refugees sent to Toddington included a number of Catholics. Miss Brenda Hopwood of Glengariff, Park Road (then known as Withingtons), who was herself a Catholic convert, gained permission to set up a Mass Centre in her house. The entrance hall was used as a chapel and Mass was celebrated by Vincentian priests who were based in Dunstable. In the 1950s Miss Hopwood had the stables behind the house converted into a chapel which is now the Catholic Church of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.

On her death in 1959 Miss Hopwood left both the house and the chapel to the Catholic Diocese of Northampton. The house was used as a residence for the chapel caretaker until 1993 when it was sold; the Catholic Church retained ownership of the chapel itself. Substantial renovations were carried out in 1996 and 2000. At the time of writing [2015] it is one of three churches within the Catholic parish of Dunstable. Bedfordshire Archives Service has no archives fro the church as they are all retained by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton.