TRIBUTES have been paid to former parish priest Canon William Roche who spent his life helping others in the local community.

Reverend Canon Roche, who came to Swindon in the early 60s to establish the Holy Family Parish School and Church in Marlowe Avenue, died on February 22 aged 90.

When he came to the town, many of the people who formed his new parish were overspill from London who were promised new houses and jobs.

At the time, Park South and Park North were being built.

Along with his parishioners, he helped dig the foundations to the church as well as making the altar and lectern and other church furnishings.

He spent 25 years serving the community before the Bishop asked him to move to Our Lady & St Alphege in Bath, where he spent 10 years before taking retirement at the age of 75.

Canon Mattie Hayes paid tribute to Canon Roche at a requiem mass which followed his funeral on March 5, attended by more than 200 people from Swindon.

He said: “Bill was 90 years of age last birthday; 65 of those years he had given to priesthood in this diocese.

“He died in what was once a nursing home in his parish of St Alphege. He loved this parish and his parishioners loved him and cared about him.

“When Fr Bill Roche was given his first parish it was a plot of land in Swindon. He was sent there in the early 1960s to build a church and presbytery.

“A Catholic school was already on the site, which was used for Sunday masses until the church was ready sometime in 1962.

“Bill shared a house with a kindly parishioner until his presbytery was ready. This arrangement would not have been to every priest’s liking, but he had been appointed parish priest and he accepted the inconveniences and hardship that were inevitable at that stage.

“He served Holy Family parish for 25 years; a good pastor and much loved.

“His great love was his mass. There was no chapel in the retirement flats at first. He and I used his sitting room for daily mass until the chapel was ready, and the furniture and fittings in the chapel had to be up to standard.

“He was a man of good taste, tidiness and always ahead of punctuality. It will take some time for us to accept that Bill Roche will no longer be a presence at diocesan and clergy events.”

This year, Holy Family Church will celebrate its 50th jubilee year.