Our Parish Church
Our Parish Church is St Mary and St Joseph in Pocklington
St Mary & St Joseph's Parish
|
Parish Priest: Rev David Standen Mass Times: SATURDAY: 5:30PM
SUNDAY: 9:00AM
MONDAY: 9:30AM
WEDNESDAY: 9:30AM
FRIDAY: 9:30AM
Times of weekday masses may sometimes change-please refer to the parish weekly newsletter.
DURING MASS TIMES CHURCH WILL BE OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER
Contacts: 48 Union Street, Tel: 01759 303126 |
Baptisms, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation are by arrangement with the parish priest, Fr. James Blenkinsopp. |

Pocklington's Catholic Heritage
|
Pocklington’s Roman Catholic heritage traces its roots to the first chapel on the site of SS Mary & Joseph’s church in the early 1800s; but goes back centuries before that. It includes Tudor martyrs; the decline of the town’s main families for clinging on to their faith; and some leading Catholic figures, including a Pocklington-born bishop who turned down approaches to be the country’s highest prelate.
|
![]() |
The town has been a religious centre since Saxon times, when Pocklington was a large minster parish, sending out priests to say mass in a dozen surrounding villages. Papal records contain a handful of medieval documents relating to Pocklington and the church’s manor house in New Street in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The world changed when Henry VIII broke from Rome; and Pocklington went on to play a key part in the opposition to his reformation. Henry closed the nearby priories – there were five in the villages around Pocklington – and over the next half century townsfolk played leading roles in Tudor uprisings, with a dozen locals executed by the crown.
Source:
Parish website (content is a summary of the talk given by Phil Gilbank in February 2017)



