Until the end of the 1950's Cotgrave was a small rural community on the edge of Nottingham when the then Coal Board decided to sink a deep mine. The village was considerably enlarged when an estate was built to house the people who came from the northeast to work there.
Many who came to work in the area where Catholic and they had no place to worship, initially having to go either to the Cathedral in Nottingham or to Radcliffe on Trent to attend mass. For a while, mass was celebrated in various venues within the village. Public houses, the Miners Welfare and local church halls were all used. After many serious trials an old mobile classroom from the Catholic School in Newark was given to Fr. John Gilroy Cssp, who in the meantime had been appointed parish priest of Cotgrave with Keyworth and Tollerton, by Mgr O'Dowd. The hut was assembled by a group of men from the pit and services began, in what became known as the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Fr. Gilroy, who had been a missionary in Sierra Leone, was officially retired but continued to work.
After many years of hard work he moved to Barton on Humber and was succeeded by Fr. Stephen Foster who drew up plans for a new Church. This was built in the early 1990's and dedicated to Our Lady of Grace. He in turn was succeeded by Fr. Adrian Chatterton and after various temporary priests was succeeded by Fr. John Abbott in 1994.
The Church is an all purpose building with its own kitchen and toilet facilities, and seats just over 150 people. On most Sundays it is filled pretty nearly to capacity. The Cotgrave congregation is young and vibrant and a sign to the world at large that the Catholic Church is well and alive and flourishing in this rural area of Nottinghamshire.
Both Cotgrave and Keyworth have church organs and a thriving musical tradition. The Church of Our Lady of Grace has a Rodgers computer organ (given in memory of Sylvia Abbott in 1995) and, as well as having a thriving music group, has an excellent choir. The main mass varies each week including sung Latin masses and children's masses with the music group.
The 9.00 am mass at Keyworth has similar variations. Normally the organ is used for the parish mass but on the first Sunday of the month there is a children's mass in which the children celebrate parts of the liturgy. The music group and the organ play on such occasions.
The organ at Keyworth is Wyvern Computing Organ (shown here), based on the Bradford Computer organ system and was given in memory of Bernard and Mildred Coyne in 1998.