page_title: St Pancras Church, Ipswich
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St Pancras Church, Ipswich / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Reredo of Jesus and the Four Evangelists at St Pancras
context_page_description: Saint Pancras is an active Roman Catholic parish church serving the town centre of Ipswich, England. The neo-gothic church was built as part of the British Catholic revival in the nineteenth century, and was the target of anti-Catholic riots soon after completion.
context_section_description: Two years after the church was consecrated, in 1863, St Pancras was the target of a series of anti-Catholic riots. This led to the curate barricading himself in the presbytery for two days after disturbances during Guy Fawkes night. The riot was suppressed only when the Mayor of Ipswich enrolled 200 special constables, although the riots were credited with creating sympathy for the church and the Catholic community among local dignitaries. In 1871 the church became a separate parish, for the first ten years under the care of the Pallottines, an Italian order. In 1885 St Pancras merged with St Mary's to become a single parish, this time based in the more central St Pancras.
  In 1919 St Mary's split from St Pancras to become its own parish. St Pancras was originally the Catholic parish that served Old Stoke and the Chantry Estate to the southwest of Ipswich, although this section of the parish became the parish of Saint Mark's. In the 1940s it became the centre of the Polish community in Ipswich although later the parish of St Mary became the pastoral centre of the Polish community.
  In 1976 St Pancras, with all the other Catholic parishes in Suffolk, was transferred to the new Diocese of East Anglia. On Christmas Day 1985 the church was badly burned in an arson attack which meant that the choir loft and organ had to be rebuilt.
caption: Main altar with reredos and statues of Christ and the Four Evangelists
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