A diocese born in hope
In 1850 Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. A year later, on 29 September 1851, he founded the Diocese of Shrewsbury with territory that then included North Wales. Bishop James Brown was 39 years old at his consecration, hurriedly carried out in a threatening atmosphere of anti-Catholic feeling.
Bishop Brown began with 26 diocesan priests and barely 20,000 faithful, suffering from what he called “a want of means”. Mass was being celebrated of necessity in taverns, stables, and above blacksmith’s shops.
Within a generation, Bishop Brown could record that the Mass was within everyone’s reach and there was barely a new mission that did not have a school to help parents pass on the Catholic faith to their children.
"If the world lasts, Shrewsbury shall be a name as musical to the ear, as stirring to the heart as the glories we have lost; and Saints shall arise."
The story so far
From Bishop James Brown, the founder, through to Bishop Mark Davies, the eleventh and current Bishop, the diocese has been led by men who have stood for the Eucharist and the Mass at the heart of Catholic life. The Cathedral on Town Walls in Shrewsbury was begun in 1853 and opened in 1856 by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and completed by his son Edward Pugin and the young 17th Earl of Shrewsbury, Bertram Talbot.
Cathedral Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and St Peter of Alcantara, Town Walls, Shrewsbury. Begun 1853, opened 1856. Margaret Rope’s seven Arts and Crafts windows are among its greatest treasures.
Dedicated by Bishop Mark in the 170th anniversary year, the new Cathedral altar holds relics of St Polycarp, St John Vianney, and St Charles Lwanga and the Martyrs of Uganda.
The diocese’s Eucharistic Shrine of Perpetual Adoration, dedicated by Bishop Mark on 22 October 2022.
Pilgrimage site for nearly 1,400 years. Saint Winefride’s relics were translated to Shrewsbury Abbey in 1138.
A Church ready for converts
Today the diocese serves 170,000 Catholics in 89 parishes, with 109 Catholic schools educating 43,000 children. In 2026, 171 adults from 31 parishes were elected for Baptism and Confirmation at the Cathedral, almost double the figure two years earlier. Newman’s prophecy of a Second Spring is being fulfilled in our own time.
