St. Patrick's Church
This Grade II listed building was originally the Pickwick District School. It was built in 1858 to designs by Henry Edmund Goodrich of Bath. It provided for up to 165 children on land gifted in 1846 by Lord Methuen and his tenants, Sir Gabriel Goldney and Arthur Knapp.
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The school is depicted in a stained glass window in the south wall of StAndrew’s Church, Chippenham. Dating 1903 this was a memorial to Sir Gabriel Goldney, Bart., who was the Member of Parliament for Chippenham from 1865-85.
The fall in the local population after the Great War prompted the closure of the school in 1922 and the sale of the building in 1928. By then other established schools in Corsham could provide for children from Pickwick.
The old schoolhouse was used for a while as a glove factory during the 1930s, and later became a gas mask factory for a short while during WWII.
It was purchased and converted into St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and opened in 1945.
Find out about St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church
With thanks to ‘A History of Pickwick and its buildings’ [unpublished] by John Maloney
