Derek and Lucy Thackray the authors of "A Brief History" of St Marie's Church, 1844 to 1986" have given permission for information and illustrations from their book to be used in the parishes leaflet from which this information was taken.
There were soon far too many to fit in and one of the stalwarts of the community, Mrs. O'Flaherty, who lived in Chapel Street, offered a room in her home where Father Nickolds could celebrate Mass.
The Chapel Street mission grew and a larger house in Chapel Street was rented. Even the new house did not provide adequate space. Once again, Captain Hibbert's generosity provided an answer. He bought land in Dunchurch Road, including the site of the Royal Oak Inn which stood where the church now stands. (The Inn was rebuilt on the opposite side of Dunchurch Road.) He commissioned August Welby Pugin, a brilliant but eccentric architect of the Gothic Revival, famous for his designs for the interior of the Houses of Parliament, to design a church.
The first tower, nave and chancel now form part of the modern church and the original glass can be seen in the east window of what is now the Hibbert chapel. Another surviving feature of the original church is the reredos beneath this east window together with the two angels.