Description:Built in the grounds of the late Josiah Spode IV's Armitage Park by the English Dominican friars between 1896 and 1914. Josiah left Hawkesyard to his niece, Helen Gulson for her lifetime and then to the Dominicans, but she had the freedom to act in her lifetime which she chose to do. Miss Gulson made a diary entry prior to the church being built she had a curious dream " ... that I looked out of my bedroom window at Hawkesyard, and in the Park, towards the garden, stood our Lord, all alone ... I could never account for that dream apparition until now; when it has come into my mind, that upon that spot where our Lord stood ... the new church is to be built.". She added a note later she was sure that the High Altar now stood on that very spot, the more remarkable as the church is orientated in the opposite way to that which is usual.
Photo from rear parkland.
Photographer: Alfred McCann, photographers of High Street, Uttoxeter.