OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL, HMS "HOTSPUR"/ HMS "MONMOUTH"

From 1859 until 1902 the Admiralty provided a hulk, formerly the 5th-rate HMS "Hotspur", built in 1828, as a Roman Catholic Chapel for the Royal Navy.  It was moored in the Hamoaze, off the Royal Dockyard.

It is understood that some 800 men used to worship in the hulk chapel and this overcrowding gave rise to Bishop Vaughan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Plymouth, asking for a site on which to build a proper Church.  This became the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Michael and Saint Joseph at Mutton Cove.

The "Hotspur" was renamed the "Monmouth" in 1868 and was retained in use until the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer at Keyham was opened in 1902.