Actually I have just done some more poking around, and discovered that I was eliding two priests (we didn't go to our local parish but the next one along, partly because my mother (a convert) did approve of the changes, or certainly of Mass in English, and partly because they both needed an organist and had a proper organ for my father to play, unlike the wheezy harmonium at our local parish). In fact a priest retired in 1975 and was replaced with the Canon who's the one I remember, because around then we went back. I can't find anything about Fr Gomes on the internet, but he would have been about 66 in 1975 and was replaced by a man of 65 who'd been ordained the same year, 1933, so it seems quite plausible that the diocese heaved a big sigh of relief and said no, no, we couldn't possibly ask you to stay on, you must take a well-earned retirement. You'll not be surprised that it was also 1975 when the first parish council was formed.

I have assumed that 'our old lad' is a retired priest who lives locally. I had wondered if he was a distant relation, but then you'd expect him to live at Mariot Chase, and there's no suggestion of that.

It is a fascinating time! I do remember some slight odd liturgical experimentation, though mainly from Strawberry Hill priests providing holiday cover.

I did - and do - enjoy singing and saying Latin. And I remember carefully learning the Paternoster and Ave Maria as well as the English versions when I was about eight, because I'd come across a scene in a book where a character was asked to say them, so I thought it would come in handy if I ever went back in time.

Um, this is tangentially relevant to Patrick and the various RC views of the period, I suppose!