Forgotten Father’s tale is told

A FORMER Rochdale religious education teacher has written a book about a ‘forgotten hero’ of Catholicism – a missionary who revived the church in Manchester.

Peter Lupton spent 26 years researching the longforgotten Father Rowland Broomhead, who arrived in Manchester in 1778 when there were just a few hundred Catholics in the city following the Reformation.

By the time the minister died aged 69 in 1820, there were 40,000 Catholics in the city and thousands of people of all denominations attended his funeral in Moston. Even those without a faith attended, regarding him as a kind and inspiring benefactor.

Yet over the following century, he remained a ‘forgotten man’ until Peter began researching him, looking up archives at Central Reference Library in Manchester and even searching records in Rome.

And his efforts have resulted in his first book, Apostle of the North, which is published by Gracewing.

Retired RE teacher Peter, a grandfather from Rochdale, told the M.E.N.: “Because of Father Broomhead, for the first time since the Reformation, Catholics became a major force in Manchester Christian life. Yet he remained a forgotten man.”

That began to change when Peter happened upon a poem in praise of Father Broomhead by Michael Gaffey and 26 years of detective work began.