Our parish of St Thomas More - is situated in the South West of Coventry and serves the districts of Cheylesmore, Styvechale, Finham and Green Lane as well as the villages of Baginton and Stoneleigh. There are about 2500 people in the parish.

On average we have approx 50 baptisms a year, 75 confirmations , 12 Marriages and 35 funerals each year.

In 1943 our first parish priest , Pat Smith , was sent by the Archbishop to look after the many Catholics settling in this part of the City - many from Ireland and Scotland coming to Coventry for work. There was no church then - so masses were said in Finham Hostel and Chace Hostel on London Rd.

Eventually Fr Smith arranged for Masses to be said in the church hall belonging to St James' on Knoll Drive.

A temporary church was built on the site of the current church - and this was ready for use in 1946.

In 1951 a parish hall was opened and it was used for teaching by Nora O'Sullivan - who as deputy head at St Osburgs. A permanent school building was opened near the church in 1952.

Fr Smith left the parish in 1961 and went to Birmingham. He was succeeded by Fr Philip Cleary - who began planning and raising finance for the building of the current church of St Thomas More




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FATHER CLEARY - A MAN WITH A MISSION (The Memories of a parishioner)
The Fr. Cleary I remember was a man on a bike with big wheels dashing around the parish visiting his people. He was a man with a burning ambition to build a church that would grace the parish and would be a joy to everyone. He therefore squeezed the pockets of his parishioners as hard as he could to achieve this aim. Fr. Cleary was a late vocation to the priesthood and was an ex-head teacher. He was new to the parish when I came to live here in 1964.
The presbytery was a house in The Chesils and the church was a small one, built by the parishioners, in Knoll drive. The parish was served by a half decent parish hall and this was the focal point for functions and meetings. There were a number of thriving sodalities including C.M.S., Guides and Brownies, Mothers Union, Legion of Mary, Patricians etc. He put a lot of time into these. He also had instruction classes for First Holy Communion and Confirmation for Catholic children attending non-Catholic schools as well as a class for interested non-Catholics. What sort of man was he? He was a very dedicated priest, but he did not try to be a crowd pleaser. If you did something for the church you did it for God, not him, so thanks were in limited supply. He was a workaholic, an intellectual, he lived modestly, he treated everyone the same and was indifferent to position or wealth. He was very kind to the sick, bereaved and those in need. In matters of faith he seemed to be conservative but also showed a progressive side. When I was a neighbour in The Chesils he used to pass on to me a small monthly magazine which came from Dublin that advocated avant-garde ideas such as priests living together in communities and bishops being appointed at the age of 40 to serve small dioceses. I suppose he liked to keep abreast of the latest ideas in the Church although he never personally advocated them. He loved the Latin mass and said the Latin version of the new mass once every Sunday. He announced his intention of setting up house masses and street wardens in the parish but this never came about. However before he left to retire and join his niece in Spain he held house masses in the parish for the various sodalities. His lasting monument is the church which is one of the most beautiful in Coventry. He was meticulous in selecting items and materials for the interior of the church and even ensured that the acoustics were excellent. He returned to this country in his old age to enter the priest's home at Stone and made several visits to the parish before he died.

Monsignor Thomas Joseph Gavin, former Head Master of Cotton College Boys’ School in Staffordshire, was appointed Parish Priest, succeeding Fr Cleary, in 1978. He was Parish Priest from 1978 until 2004 when he retired. He lived in the parish in retirement, and continued to celebrate Mass in the parish until his death on Christmas morning, 2009. So much of Mgr Gavin’s life is charted here in the homily that was given at the Mass of Reception of his body into St Thomas More Church, in January 2010. The homily was given by Fr Jonathan Veasey, who had lived and worked with Mgr Gavin for 9 years, whilst working for the Diocesan Department of Religious Education..