2007 - the church's 100th Anniversary year
In 1907 a group of people moved out of a house in the Aintree Road area into a newly built tin church (there were lots of these being built at the time to accommodate increasing numbers of Christians) on St. Anne's Road (at the corner of Chislehurst Avenue where the club now stands.) This was to be the home of the Church of the Holy Cross till 1931 when our present building was erected. So 2007 was the 100th anniversary of the Church of the Holy Cross in this parish.
From the beginning Holy Cross stood out in the town as the place where Catholic worship was regularly offered. There is a surviving photo of the interior of the tin church in which the crucifix which now hangs behind the pulpit can clearly be seen. In those days this was rare indeed in the Church of England! When the congregation moved from the old church to the new in 1931 they were greeted with abuse from ardent protestants and -I'm told - mud was flung at the servers in their newly laundered albs! As Wordsworth wrote of another revolution: "bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven" For more photos of the historic church view the gallery... 
Celebration events
Throughout 2007 we marked our centenary with a number of special events and it proved to be a great year for the Parish with the visit of no less than four bishops:
The first celebration was on Trinity Sunday, Sunday June 3, when Bishop Alan Chesters, Bishop of Blackburn until his retirement, celebrated and preached at the Parish Mass. The Mass was followed by the Centenary Lunch in the Parish Centre.
On Sunday August 19 Bishop Robert Ladds, previously Archdeacon of Lancaster and currently the Bishop of Whitby and Superior General of the Society of Mary, celebrated and preached at the Solemn Mass and led our afternoon Spiritual Pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham.
On Friday September 14, our Feast of Title the Triumph of the Holy Cross, the Bishop of Blackburn Nicholas Reade celebrated and preached at our Solemn Mass. This Mass was followed by dinner in the Parish Centre.
Finally on the Feast of Christ the King, November 25th, Bishop Jack Nicholls, previously Bishop of Lancaster and currently Bishop of Sheffield celebrated and preached at the Solemn Mass. In the afternoon he led our annual CBS quiet afternoon.
2007 anniversary year