Harraby Catholic Club

History

Parish

Christ the King, Harraby; first Mass 8 December 1950

Church

Foundation stone August 1954, opened August 1955

Company

Incorporated 24 November 2003

Christ the King church on Edgehill Road stands on Gallows Hill, above the old main road south, where the Catholic priest Christopher Robinson was brought to execution on 19 August 1598. Harraby Catholic Club is its parish club, one of that once-ubiquitous British tradition of members' clubs built round a local community, alongside working men's clubs, political clubs and fraternal orders like the Buffs.

The parish grew up with the Harraby estate after the war, and it started in a house. Harraby's first Mass was said at 266 London Road on 8 December 1950, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Bishop Flynn laid the foundation stone of the church in August 1954, and the first Mass was said there in August 1955. It is a plain hall-type church in Fletton brick under a steep slate roof, by W. C. Mangan of Preston, who designed Catholic churches across the north. A parish house followed in 1962 and a parish centre in 1973.

The parish kept its young people busy from the start, with a youth club in a wooden hut and the Christus Rex football and boxing clubs, and the football carries on: Harraby Catholic Club FC took the Carlisle Division 3 title in 2022/23.

The club's own founding date isn't recorded. The limited company was incorporated on 24 November 2003, but the club is older than that; that is just when it formalised its legal structure, as a company limited by guarantee with no share capital, classed as a licensed club, the standard shape for a community-owned club rather than a commercial pub. It has held a premises licence since the 2005 licensing changeover, not just a club certificate, and it is open to members and the public: bar, home-cooked food, a function room for hire, and live music and themed nights in a big dance room. It is registered as an Asset of Community Value.