Father Eric Kemball - You've Been COGGED!

"You've been Cogged!" is our monthly feature that offers insight into someone else's life, letting us hear their stories and learn more about them. Alorah, our You've Been Cogged! writer, met with Father Eric Kemball, who's the Catholic Priest at Pugin's Gem. Here's what Father Eric shared with Alorah...

Describe yourself in 3 words:

Thoughtful, compassionate. A family man.

About You...

What do you prefer to be called?

Depends on context. Generally Father Eric or Eric.

Are you a member of any groups?

Catholic Church, RSPB, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.

What’s your favourite bird?

The Goldcrest.

What do you do for work?

I’m Parish Priest at Saint Giles Cheadle and Saint Thomas Tean. I’m also Chaplain to Painsley College. It’s a busy life.

How do you start your day?

Breakfast, check my emails, and catch up with the news. Which isn’t always the most cheerful thing to do!

What makes you smile?

Being with people. And when the sun comes out and the sky is blue, it really lifts the spirit. I think most of us feel this way.

Name three things you can’t live without.

Family, faith, love - but material ‘things’ that I’m most attached to are my books. I have a very varied, large collection of books. I have one or two sentimental things. We have hanging in our kitchen a highly decorated flask; it’s cracked at the top. It would originally have contained alcohol. My dad, unlike me, was a fitness fanatic - a marathon runner before it became popular, back in the 50s and 60s, and ran for England on a number of occasions and the Empire Games in '68 - and he went in 1960 to Czechoslovakia to run in a marathon for Peace... and this flask came back with him. It’s very sentimental to me.

What’s your proudest moment?

The birth of my children. I have 6, so lots of proud moments. I have 5 girls and 1 boy.

I’m particularly proud today of our 3rd child; she’s a paediatric doctor, and today she’s flying to Bangladesh to work with Médecins Sans Frontières for 6 months in a huge refugee camp in Bangladesh. She's very fond of India, but has not been to Bangladesh before.

What’s something you regret?

Times I’ve been unkind. Times I’ve been a little insensitive.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from a mistake?

You can move forward, even from your worst mistakes.

What’s your hidden talent or a talent you always wish you’d had?

I’d love to have played a musical instrument really well. Two of my children are very talented musicians.

What’s your biggest fear?

The actions of Donald Trump.

If you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

There wouldn’t have been any point; I wouldn’t have listened!

What are your greatest strengths?

Working hard and being a caring person.

What are your biggest weaknesses?

Not relaxing enough. I find that I carry things in my mind - all the things I’ve got to do, all the things I’m concerned about, and I think I give them too much time and space, and forget to put them on the back burner at times.

What keeps you motivated/passionate when things get tough?

Love. My family, my faith, my friends. Sometimes when things get tough, you just have to tell yourself there’s nothing I can do about this.

Local Questions

What do you love about life in Cheadle?

I love the sense of community here. Having lived most of my life in larger places, it’s very nice to live in a smaller one. I love the closeness of the beautiful countryside we have so close by.

What would you like to see in Cheadle?

Really good facilities for young people. Life can be very volatile when you’re young, and they need things to channel their energy into. What we wanted when we were younger is probably quite different from what young people want now.

What’s disappeared that you would bring back in immediately if you were mayor or king for the day?

A deeper sense of neighbourliness. It’s happened everywhere - people don’t always know who lives around them. When I was young, we spoke to the neighbours all the time.

Likes & Dislikes

What’s your favourite book and why?

"Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. Beautifully illustrated, poignant, and true.

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. I first read it when I was 11, and I’ve gone back to it since. It’s beautifully written and so insightful.

What’s your favourite film and why?

Difficult, but I’ll go for "Cabaret," such an important theme, and also "Toy Story," emotional and great fun.

What’s your favourite piece of music/song and why?

Mozart’s "Ave Verum Corpus." It’s such beautiful music – and speaks of things important to me. In the past, I’ve sung it, but my sense of timing isn’t very good.

Which song can you listen to on repeat and never tire of hearing?

Probably none, but if I had to choose one, Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

If you were to star in a TV show or film, which role would you most like to play?

I wouldn’t.

One thing you’ve always wanted to try?

If I was fit enough, I’d like to walk the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. When I was 15, with my brother and two friends, we walked the Offa’s Dyke Path. It starts in Chepstow and finishes in Prestatyn. 168 miles, we carried all our stuff and camped. Our plan after that was to walk the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, but we never did. It’s one of my significant memories of when I was young.

Who do you most admire or who’s your hero?

A lady called Dot who nobody would know; she’s dead now. Before I became a Catholic, I was an Anglican Vicar, and she was one of my parishioners. She was a fairly ordinary person, lived in a council house with a big family, then her husband died when he was in his 50s. Her family made a lot of demands on her, which she always acceded to. She was so generous and kind and always very positive. With what she’d been through in life, she could’ve easily been angry and bitter, but she wasn’t. One Christmas, she made our family a knitted crib.

Who makes you laugh?

Miranda.

What’s for dinner?

If I had to choose, it’d be roast lamb.

If you are having a dinner party and could invite anyone, past or present, real or fiction, who would you invite?

I’d want to relax, so I’d simply invite people I’m comfortable with, family and friends.

SHAMELESS PLUG. You have 30 seconds to tell everyone about something dear to you that they can help with – go!

As Parish Priest of Saint Giles Catholic Church, I would encourage people to visit and support our beautiful historic church – people come from all over the world to see it, but some who live locally have never been in.

I would like to encourage people to use and support the Guild Hall, which we as a parish provide for community use.

I would like to encourage all of us to remember kindness and community and the world around us. We all benefit from small acts of kindness, and we all need to care for the environment. It’s tempting in difficult economic times to ignore issues surrounding the environment, but in the end, it is profoundly shortsighted and selfish of us to do so.

Father Eric Kemball - You've Been COGGED! - created 30th October 2026