The photo above is undated
Father John Lopes was ordained as a Church of England priest in 1907 after studying at Exeter College, Oxford and at Ely Theological College. He came from a wealthy family and contributed generously to church building funds in his parishes, with a taste for the Romanesque style evident as early as 1909 at St Basil's in Deritend.
In 1914-15 he converted to Roman Catholicism and was eventually ordained deacon at Monte Cassino. There he developed an interest in the Benedictine order that later influenced his decision to settle in Eynsham. He was Chaplain of Cambridge University from 1922 until coming to West Oxfordshire as resident priest in 1928.
In 1929 Fr Lopes set up the new parish of St Peter's in Eynsham, six miles east of Witney. Larger Catholic communities existed to the west, but the village held a particular attraction as the former site of an influential Benedictine Abbey. He moved to 'Llandaff' in Thames Street before buying 'the White House' in Mill Street and quickly became a familiar figure, holding Masses in the Bartholomew Room, Market Square, in the absence of a Catholic church.
Fr Lopes continued to hope for a new Benedictine community in Eynsham for his next 32 years. In 1939 he commissioned Oxford architect Gilbert Flavel to design a splendid Romanesque basilica to encourage the foundation of a new abbey.
Only a part of his dream was realised, with the sanctuary which now forms the baptistry at the eastern entrance of the present church. He set about acquiring part of the original Abbey grounds as the only fitting site for the basilica. As luck would have it the land was owned by Mrs Emma Payton Pimm, of a prominent local family. After protracted discussions a two-acre plot of land was acquired – on condition that any church should be built by her family's firm.
A wooden building was used for many years, but Father never let the humble 'wooden hut' limit his horizons. Parishioner Noel Green recalls 'a great lover of the liturgy [who] never allowed the paucity of his surroundings or the slimness of his congregation to inhibit him' ... whose erudite but extended homilies created outbreaks of rebellion among his own brood.
Fr Lopes also became much involved in village life, serving many years on the Parish, District and County Councils. His contribution was recognised when a road was named after him (though most villagers now rhyme it with 'slopes' rather than 'Lopez').
Canon Alphonsus de Zlueta described a 'man with grand ideas, with a greater sense of demand than of supply. [He] got through two fortunes in church building and grand living, always full of hospitality, kindness ... and much charity.' He is still remembered in his later years as a man of great vitality, a lover of conversation who retained an interest in all aspects of life.
In the immediate post-war years and the 1950s the building project stalled for lack of funds and diocesan / parish support. Fr Lopes held firm, encouraged by influential friends like Mgr Alfred Gilbey and his stalwart church warden, John Pimm.
Fr Lopes, an ecumenist at heart, was a great friend of the Anglican vicar of Eynsham, Revd Stuart Blanch, later Archbishop of York. They delighted in swapping Anglican and Catholic newspapers and together published a regular bulletin with news and notices of the Eynsham churches, a forerunner perhaps of today's Roundabout magazine.
In 1959 Fr Lopes retired to St Joseph's Nursing Home on Boars Hill. He would sometimes take a taxi to Eynsham and say Mass in stockinged feet, his enthusiasm for the liturgy and for extended homilies undiminished. He died on 18 September 1961 in his eightieth year, much loved and mourned by all whose lives he had touched; and was buried at Eynsham on 23 September after a Requiem Mass at Blackfriars.
Sara Ruane, History of St Peter’s Church Eynsham: view the PDF