OUR LADY AND ST JOSEPH
Parish Priest: The Rt Rev Thomas McMahon, Bishop's House, Stock. Tel Stock 840268
Priest in Charge: Bishop Thomas
Pastoral Assistant : Vacant
	Services:
	Sundays:		Mass 9.00 a.m.
	Holy days:		10.30 a.m.
	Weekdays:		Thursday 9.30 a.m. and Saturday 10.00
	Confessions:		Saturday 10.45 - 11.15 a.m. and Thursday - after 9.30 a.m. Mass
			The Catholic Church in Stock by Father Stewart Foster published in 1991 is available in the library

The Catholic Church has had a presence in the area since at least Saxon times, with both All Saints (Stock) and St Mary's (Buttsbury) being Catholic churches prior to the Reformation. After the Reformation and up to 1831 Crondon Park Lodge was the centre of Catholic worship in the area. There was then a gap until 1852, when Lilystone Hall became the centre of Catholic worship and in 1863 the chapel there was dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1891 a Catholic school (St Joseph's) was opened on Mill Road with a cemetery for Catholics being opened In 1898 in the grounds behind the school.

The school closed in 1937 and the building was converted in a church - the present church. On its Conversion the building took over the name of Our Lady of Mount Carmel from the Lilystone Hall chapel. In September 2001, it was renamed Our Lady and St Joseph. The present Church and it's surroundings are of historic interest. The late Donald Jarvis, village historian, writing in 1934 commented that the building was the best looking Victorian building in the village. During it's construction, evidence of an Iron Age settlement was found on the site, indicating that this was one the earliest settlements in Stock.

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Picture, Information and text by Charles Philips