The story of St Joseph’s, Whitnash, started when the then parish priest of St Peter’s, Leamington Spa, Fr Gerard Flint purchased a site and acquired a hut for use as a Chapel of ease in 1957.

Over the next few years Whitnash saw a great housing development and with this a growth in the Catholic population. So in 1963 Archbishop Grimshaw decided to separate St Joseph’s from the mother church of St Peter’s and appointed its first parish priest Fr Joseph McKenna.

This is how Fr Joseph McKenna described his appointment; “It was the 5th of August 1963, when I received a letter from Archbishop Grimshaw, appointing me Parish Priest of the new district of Whitnash in Leamington Spa. I was to make arrangements for accommodation with Fr Wilfrid Davenport at St. Peter’s Presbytery and take up duty on Sunday 8th September.”