Diocesan records make reference to a “small wooden chapel” that was built in 1833. The chapel was known as the “Mission of Nepean,” and priests from Bytown and St. Philip’s Parish in Richmond, Ontario, conducted the services there.
The mission was built from logs cut in the Fallowfield area, and its purpose was to serve parishioners who otherwise would have travelled a great distance by horse and wagon (or sleigh, in wintertime) to attend Sunday mass in either Richmond or Bytown.
There was no resident priest appointed to serve the community nor was any one person or family designated to keep up the structure of the wooden chapel. A citizens’ committee was formed to oversee the construction of a new church to replace the log chapel. The new structure was to be a simple stone building.
A large crowd was on hand on October 21, 1866, when St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church was first dedicated and blessed. The new church had already cost 972 Louis (the currency of France at the time) before the interior was close to being finished. The completed church, with dimensions measuring 73 feet long and 40 feet wide, is constructed of stone and well-finished inside.
On Sunday, June 12, 1966, the one hundredth anniversary of the parish of St. Patrick’s Church, Fallowfield, was celebrated. In 2016 the parish celebrated 150 years after it was blessed; St. Patrick’s stands as a beautiful memorial to the parishioners who had the foresight to build this stone structure.
St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church is situated in the village of Fallowfield.
