St Sabina's

There was no Mass in Brightlingsea till about 1904 or 1905. About this time Mrs Baldwin (my grandmother) came to live in Brightlingsea and was shocked to learn that there was no church or any means of going to Mass in the town. There was no bus; the only means of getting to Colchester was by train and that did not run on Sundays. So she went to Colchester and saw Canon Bloomfield, who told her he was not responsible for Brightlingsea as it came under Clacton parish...
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St Monica's

Before St Monica's Church was built, Wivenhoe's Catholics attended Mass at either St James's Church in Colchester or St Sabina’s in Brightlingsea and then in Wivenhoe at St John's Ambulance Hut, The Greyhound Public House or a room at the "Boys School" (the present Wivenhoe Library site). Mass was sometimes even celebrated in a small stable to the rear of the present church...
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