Thomas Henshaw was the second ‘home-produced’ Bishop in Salford. He was born in the famous parish of St Patrick’s, Collyhurst, on 2nd February 1873. Ordained priest in 1899 he taught at St Bede’s and Ushaw College, and served at Holy Saviour, Nelson, and St Gabriel’s, Castleton, before becoming parish priest at St Anne’s, Blackburn. Consecrated Bishop on 21st December 1925, he was described as a “pastorally minded and pragmatic parish priest with financial acumen and quiet scholarship”.

Popular with his priests, he at once faced a crisis through a shortage of priests, brought on by a series of untimely deaths. He went around the diocese preaching on the need for priests. So many men responded that in the 1930s they could not be accommodated within the diocese and had to be loaned out until vacancies occurred.  

But it was education that focussed much of Henshaw’s mind. The ongoing struggles between those in the country opposed to the Dual System – whether in central or local Government or in the Trades Unions and elsewhere – and those in the Churches in favour of that system occupied much time and effort. Bishop Henshaw indefatigably defended the rights of parents and responded to the challenges of the times, made even more difficult by the demands of the 1936 Education Act. He encouraged the building of elementary schools and supported the development of colleges such as De la Salle in Salford, Thornleigh in Bolton, and the Marist College in Blackburn. He also greatly extended St Bede’s College in Manchester and supervised the extension of the Children’s Rescue Home in Didsbury. He formed 15 new parishes and saw 41 new churches built. Lay societies came into the diocese, including the Legion of Mary and Young Christian Workers.

In 1930 the diocese bought Wardley Hall and its estate. The Hall became the bishop’s residence and the land was developed as St Mary’s Cemetery, Wardley. There Bishop Henshaw was laid to rest after his death at Wardley Hall on 23rd September 1938.