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Roman Catholics in Swalwell
Members of the Catholic community used a hall, which was above the grocery department of the Co-operative Store. There was a small committee room, which the priest used as a vestry. They also sold the Catholic papers there. There was a stage in one corner of the room and children used to sit to the left of this stage on wooden benches.
All the adults sat in the main body of the hall on chairs, which were so tightly packed together there was little movement. The Hall became a church every Sunday morning at 9am sharp, but during the week, the Co-operative Society and local Labour Party used it for meetings. The altar was a trestle table with a piece cut out to take the portable altar stone, and the Priest and altar boys had cushions to kneel on.
There was very little room for manoeuvre in the hall. With the large numbers that gathered in the hall to attended Mass, only the children and people seated on the ends of the rows could actually kneel down and trying to get to communion was very difficult.
Priests came from neighbouring districts to hold services. Today the good folk of Swalwell travel to either Blaydon, Whickham, Dunston or Lobley Hill to hear services.