Wigan Album

Father Lappin in his later years. I wonder what he would make of the Church today.

Veronica,the photographer must have pleaded with him not to wear his beret !!!

I bet they had to 'sprise ' it off his head. He certainly was a character and didn't pull any punches in his sermons did he Mike.

He's got a look of Marty Feldman about him!

702 views and only four comments. Wasn't Father Lapin a popular man or what?

Jarvo. All who knew Father Lappin, will now be no spring chickens.

Father Lappin was St Patrick's longest serving priest for 32 years from 1953 until his death in 1985. He was about 75 when he died so would have been born in 1909 or 1910, and he is interred in Gidlow Cemetery.

I recall when he first came to St Pat's, I was in one of the Infant's classes. He took over from Fr Murray when he died. I recall all the school trooping over to the the Presbytery to view Fr Murray in his coffin. ( the first dead person I ever saw at six yrs old) I don't think that would be allowed these days. Fr Lapin always wore a trilby at that time, the beret came later and I think he rode a bike as well on his rounds- I know the other priests did. The days when there would be a few priests living in the Presbytery instead of a solitary one and looked after by a housekeeper. Nowadays they look after themselves. My parents are buried quite near to Fr Lapin - in fact most of the people from Hardybutts, Scholes are- it's like going home when visiting the cemetery.