A visitor to Haverhill town centre may be pleasantly surprised by the way European money has tarted it up over the last ten years or so. The grim, dreary high street has been pedestrianised, the dull market square repaved and complemented with new buildings, and the medieval parish church of St Mary given a facelift. The visitor may walk the half mile or so along the high street to the vast URC church at the other end, and eventually may begin to ask themselves the question: why doesn't Haverhill have a Catholic church?

Well, in fact it does, but as at grim Mildenhall it is out in the housing estates and not in the town centre. You travel out into the 1960s terraces, follow signpost directions around corners and up steep slopes (did I mention how hilly the town is?) and eventually find this little hut on a patch of wasteground surrounded by its parishioners' houses. A priest I know had recently told me that this was quite the poorest Catholic congregation in East Anglia. Now, this may be because the population of Haverhill was greatly enlarged by London overspill, but the same is true of Sudbury and Thetford, of course. I am inclined to think it something in the character of the town itself, which has always been gritty and non-conformist, in both senses of the word.

The church was locked, which was disappointing. Catholic churches should always be accessible. I went and found the presbytery, which was just another 1960s terraced house not far away, with a bleak front garden. Unfortunately, nobody was in. So, I couldn't get the key. I went back, stared through the frosted glass of the doorway, and managed to take the photograph on the left.

I was so disappointed. I had so wanted to have something nice to say about this place. The parishioners had obviously put a lot of time and work into their church, which appeared to have been built with their own hands, and the inside looked rather lovely, what I could see of it. Probably, the church has the largest congregation of any in the town, but here it was, minding its own business in the back streets.

A group of kids had gathered to watch me as I wandered around, staring in windows. In the end, I gave up, and headed back into the town centre.

St Felix, Haverhill, is located to the south of the town centre. It is signposted from the Cambridge road. I found it locked, but the Presbytery is about 20m away.

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