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  • THE SPECIES
  • HISTORY
  • LIBRARY
  • NEWS & COMMENT
  • VOCATION
  • Contact

Historical news reporting on worker-priests in the UK

These documents are mostly newspaper articles from the 1950 and 1960s. The come from a collection assembled by John Rowe
  • The cloth cap priesthood, by Geoffrey Moorhouse. The Guardian 22 April 1965. PDF
  • Would you like your plumber to be a parson? Empire News 15 December 1957. Profile of The Revd Martyn Grubb. PDF
  • Press cuttings 1958 - The Revd Martyn Grubb and The Revd Tony Williamson. PDF
  • Press cuttings 1959 - The Revd Martyn Grubb and The Revd Tony Williamson. PDF
  • Press cuttings 1959 - of a meeting of English worker priests. PDF
  • Parson John Works in the Brewery - 1950 Press cutting, The Revd John Rowe. PDF
  • 1959 articles in Church Times and Time on England's worker priests. PDF
  • 1959 Church Times article A True Vocation by John Strong. PDF
  • 1959 Manchester Guardian Weekly, Tragedy of the worker priests, Roger Lloyd. PDF
  • 1959 Press cuttings - ordinands to work by day, study by night. Southwark and Birmingham dioceses. PDF
  • 1960 Shop Floor Curate Tony Williamson Oxford Mail. PDF
  • 1961 The Sunday Times, Worker Priests Clock In, by Richard Cox. PDF
  • 1961 The Sunday Times, pictures of English worker priests (The Revds Martyn Grubb, Tony Williamson, Kenneth Ramsey, John Strong). PDF
  • 1962 Newspaper summary article The Factory Floor. Mentions The Revds Martyn Grubb, John Rowe, Kenneth Ramsay. PDF
  • 1962 Newspaper report: Tony Williamson speaking to Southwark Diocesan Conference. PDF
  • 1962 Prisoner in the Pulpit. Daily Herald article on The Revd Jack Strong and the parish of Harlington. He claimed he was sacked by his bishop for combining manual work with his church role. PDF
  • 1963 Southwark ordinand: Kenneth Gardiner describes his three years with the Southwark Ordination Course. PDF
  • 1963 Church Times article: Non-Professionals as priests? PDF
  • Fr John Rowe's letter to the Church Times about the above article, and the editor's response. PDF
  • 1964 Priests into poets by E R Wickham, Bishop of Middleton. PDF
    A curious piece, not easily making clear its purpose.

  • 1964 Two articles about The Revd John Strong, coal miner, later factory worker. PDF
  • 1965 Church Times Editorial comment on worker priests. PDF
  • 1965 Church Times carries three extracts from John Rowe's 'Priests and Workers: a rejoinder'. PDF










































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The Revd Kenneth Ramsey works at factory in Battersea. "My experience as a curate gave me a strong urge to try this" (Sunday Times 3/12/1961)
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The Revd John Strong, priest-in-charge of Harlington. "Most of my parishioners work in Luton and so do I!. Ordained before the war, he has also worked as a miner. (The Sunday Times, 3/12/1961)
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The Revd Martyn Grubb. "I was in industry long before I thought of being ordained". (The Sunday Times, 3/12/1961)
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The Revd Tony Williamson chose to go into manual work. He was also an Oxford City councillor. "With my roots in the church I try to carry my Christian belief into the complex matters of secular affairs". (The Sunday Times 3/12/1961)
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Hugh Valentine
Belief is reassuring.  People who live in the world of belief feel safe.  On the contrary, faith is forever placing us on the razor's edge.  Jacques Ellul