The earliest Catholic Mass recorded in nineteenth-century Grimsby
seems to have taken place some-time during 1848. To assist with
the building of the fishing docks, an Irish workforce had been
brought in by a local contractor. In the absence of a resident priest,
Father Henry Hall walked the sixteen miles from Louth, fasting on
the way, to say Mass in a private house in nearby Cleethorpes at
four o’clock in the morning. The early hour was to make sure the
men could get to their work on time.