I love rooting around in attics, especially those in presbyteries and churches. In the past, it has brought me several valuable archival ‘finds’, most notably the discovery of an 18th century account book detailing the funds supporting Yorkshire ‘missions’ (or parishes) and listing the priests serving those missions. St Bede’s Church in Hull goes back not quite 60 years but the find made in its choir gallery (now screened off as a storage area) was equally pleasing. Turned with its back to immediate view was the rather beautiful tabernacle and wooden surround pictured. The wording in the side panels of the surround indicated that the whole had been made to commemorate those members of a certain parish who had died in the Great War of 1914-18. But which parish? And how had it come to be in the choir loft at St Bede’s?

The second question has proved easier to answer than the first. A previous parish priest of St Bede’s, Fr Pat Bluett, was always happy to acquire worthwhile pieces from churches he knew of that were closing. A telephone call to Fr Bluett confirmed that he believed it to be a piece he had acquired but unfortunately he could not remember from where. Two Hull churches which existed at the time of the Great War have closed within the last few decades, St Mary’s, Wilton Street, and St Patrick’s, Spring Bank, but Fr Bluett does not think that either of them provided the tabernacle and surround. Does any Voice reader recognise the piece from a closed church they were familiar with?

Whether we can solve the mystery or not, St Bede’s is proud to house the tabernacle now and, as the picture shows, it fitted perfectly on the side altar in the church and made a wonderful focus for our Remembrance Day prayers last November.

Fr Dominique Minskip

Photograph by Mike Quigley