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The Mission in Beccles
goes back to 1870, when a recent convert, John Kenyon,
who was staying at nearby Gillingham Hall went to
Mass in Bungay and wanted to build a church in Beccles.
Land was purchased on high ground on the edge of
the then town where a house was begun in 1889 in
which Mass was initially said. As the congregation
grew, building started on the present church in 1898,
which was opened in 1901 and consecrated in 1908.
It was dedicated to St Benet Biscop, one of the patrons
of the English Benedictine Congregation.
The church was planned
on the lines of a minster church, in the Romanesque
style, with a monastic priory envisaged for it that
was never realised. The architect was Frederick Banham,
a local Catholic architect buried in the graveyard.
Although a Benedictine community was never established,
the church has remained in the care of the monks
of Downside.
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