A " FAIRY TALE" STEEL CITY Corby's Amazing Growth

The recent visit of the new Bishop of Northampton to the new industrial town of Corby in Northamptonshire, when he said Mass and administered Confirmation to 62 children and 18 converts, has prompted a correspondent to write some notes on the " fairy tale growth " of this modern steel city, and the erection of its new • church, which the Bishop called " magnificent." The great works of Stewarts and Lloyds have made the new Corby, and the Bishop on his visit was afforded the opportunity of touring the works, when he also lunched with the directors.
From a Special Correspondent
The growth of Corby, and in particular of the Church there, is almost like a modern fairy tale. Only a few years ago Catholics were almost unknown, except for an occasional farm worker or iron-stove labourer who would surprise the natives by tramping for miles on Sunday to find a Catholic church.
In those days Corby was an obscure, uninteresting village, but now, since the transfer of Stcwarts and Lloyd's huge manufacturing works from Scotland and the influx of hundreds of Irish, Scottish and North of England families, it has become a busy, populous town.
The majority of the newcomers were Catholics, clamouring for somewhere to hear Mass—and the nearest church was the then small temporary one at Kettering six miles away.
For some time, while the weather was favourable, Mass was said in a field. Then a site was obtained, and permission given by the Town Council, for a temporary tin church to be erected on condition that it should be replaced within a specified time by a building worthy of the town that was being planned. That condition was speedily fulfilled, and by the zeal and untiring labours or the parish priest, Fr. Underwood, and the generously given weekly subscriptions of the people, the large and beautiful church, dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham, was completed and opened in 1934,