St Walburge's Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in Preston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England, northwest of the city centre on Weston Street. The church was built in the mid-19th century to a design by the Gothic Revival architect

Joseph Hansom Joseph Aloysius Hansom (26 October 1803 – 29 June 1882) was a British architect working principally in the Gothic Revival style. He invented the Hansom cab and founded the eminent architectural journal ''Building (magazine), The Builder'' i ...

, the designer of the

hansom cab The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safet ...

, and is famous as having the tallest spire of any parish church in England. St Walburge's is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. In 2014

Michael Campbell Michael Shane Campbell (born 23 February 1969) is a New Zealand professional golfer who is best known for having won the 2005 U.S. Open and, at the time, the richest prize in golf, the £1,000,000 HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the ...

, Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, entrusted the church to the

Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, , abbreviated as ICKSP and ICRSS, is a society of apostolic life of pontifical right in communion with the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The institute has the stated goal of honouring God and ...

as a

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

for Eucharistic Devotion.Lancaster Diocese Pastoral Letter April 4 2014
, accessed 7 April 2014

Dedication

St Walburge's is dedicated to

Saint Walpurga Walpurga or Walburga (; ; ; 71025 February 777 or 779) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary to the Frankish Empire. She was canonized on 1 May c. 870 by Pope Adrian II. Walpurgis Night, Saint Walpurgis Night (or "Sankt Walpurgisnacht") is the name fo ...

, an English saint, born 710 AD., daughter of St Richard, a West Saxon king. With her two brothers, St Willibald and St Winibald, she went to Germany as a missionary. She was renowned for her miraculous healing of illnesses.

History

St Walburge's Church is situated in the Maudlands district of Preston, so called because of its association with St

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

of which name the word "Maudlands" is a corruption. St Walburge's is located near the site of a 12th-century leprosy hospital dedicated to St Mary Magdalene.Open Churches Trust
accessed 25 October 2008 In 1847, at the time of the Roman Catholic revival in England, and with prosperity brought by the textile mills of Lancashire, the architect

was commissioned to build a large church. Work began on the construction of the church in May 1850, and it was ready for its opening ceremony on 3 August 1854. The church was further extended in 1873 by the addition of a polygonal sanctuary with a central window high. In 2007 St Walburge's, along with several other churches in Preston, was threatened with closure by the Catholic Diocese of Lancaster. The quality of its architecture, its significance to the parish and its landmark status in Preston led to great interest in its fate, and the closure was given a stay of seven years from August 2008 while local fund-raising drives sought to supplement grants for the restoration of the building.The Victorian Society
accessed 25 October 2008 David Garrard, the Historic Churches Adviser of the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by l ...

said:

An outstanding building by an ingenious and imaginative architect, St Walburge's is one of Preston's greatest historic buildings. It was built to express the pride and confidence of the Roman Catholic community after legal restrictions on religious observance were lifted in the 19th century. To close it now would cost local people access to some of Lancashire's richest heritage.

On 4 April 2014

, Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, announced in a pastoral letter that

...Gilles Wach, General Prior of the
Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, , abbreviated as ICKSP and ICRSS, is a society of apostolic life of pontifical right in communion with the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The institute has the stated goal of honouring God and ...
, and I – together with Father Simon Hawksworth - have agreed, to establish a foundation of the Institute at the Church of St Walburge, Preston - hopefully in the autumn. The arrival and presence of the institute in the church and presbytery at St Walburge's will enable the sustainability and care of this magnificent church so that it can be open each day as a shrine or centre for Eucharistic devotion and adoration. St Walburge's will remain part of the Parish of St Walburge and the Sacred Heart but will specifically provide for the celebration of Holy Mass and the other Sacraments in the
Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite In the Catholic Church, preconciliar Latin liturgical rites ("preconciliar": before the Second Vatican Council, which began in 1962) coexist with postconciliar rites. In the years following the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI initiated sign ...
. It is envisaged, however, that the current Ordinary Form Mass, will continue to be celebrated here on Sunday for as long as there is a pastoral need...

The Shrine Church was officially opened on 27 September 2014, with a High Mass celebrated by Gilles Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King, in the presence of Bishop Campbell. The Mass is celebrated daily at the Shrine and the Sacraments are offered in the Traditional Roman Rite according to the charter of the Institute of Christ the King."Who we are", Institute of Christ the King
, accessed 7 April 2014

Architecture and features

Spire

Externally, St Walburge's spire, rising to is the dominant landmark in Preston and is one of the tallest structures of any sort in Lancashire. After

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

and

Norwich Cathedral Norwich Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Norwich and the mother church of the dioc ...

s, it is the third tallest spire in the United Kingdom, and is the tallest on a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

. The steeple is constructed from limestone sleepers which originally carried the nearby

Preston and Longridge Railway The Preston and Longridge Railway (P&LR) was a branch line in Lancashire, England. Originally designed to carry quarried stone in horse-drawn wagons, it became part of an ambitious plan to link the Lancashire coast to the heart of Yorkshire. The ...

, giving the spire a red tint during sunset. In 2014 the church was featured in the BBC series ''Fred Dibnah's Magnificent Monuments'' when the spire was the last to be worked upon by steeplejack and TV personality

Fred Dibnah Frederick Travis Dibnah, (28 April 1938 – 6 November 2004), was an English steeplejack and television personality. Having a keen interest in mechanical engineering, he described himself as a "backstreet mechanic." When Dibnah ...

. Unable to complete the work due to television filming commitments, Dibnah's ladders were left at the church and were eventually given to the workman who completed the job. The tower contains a single

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

of 31 cwt (1.5 tonnes) cast by Mears and Stainbank of

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

which is the heaviest swinging bell in Lancashire. The use of the bell is restricted, due to protected birds nesting in the belfry, meaning it can only be rung in winter months. The spire is occasionally open to the public at weekend evenings, via on-line booking. A small ticket charge is made in aid of church funds.

Exterior

St Walburge's is renowned not just for its height but also for the inventive quality of its architecture, in which the architect has looked to Gothic models, employing the traditional features in a creative and harmonious way. The Open Churches Trust says of St Walburge's that it "undoubtedly an architectural gem of the North West of England." The

New Red Sandstone The New Red Sandstone, chiefly in United Kingdom, British geology, is composed of beds of red sandstone and associated rocks laid down throughout the Permian (300 million years ago) to the end of the Triassic (about 200 million years a ...

facade presents as an unaisled church with a very steep gable. A strongly horizontal arcade, divides the facade into two zones, balanced by strongly projecting buttresses and corner pinnacles typical of many English Gothic cathedrals. The arcade is countered by the verticality of strongly projecting buttresses and corner pinnacles typical of many English Gothic cathedrals. The upper zone is dominated by a rose window in diameter occupying almost the full width of the nave.

Interior

The interior, which seats about 1,000 people, is long and wide. The open wooden roof of is supported by fourteen

hammerbeam A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams proj ...

s, on the ends of which stand lifesized carved the figures of saints. The church contains an organ by William Hill of London, 1855. Other significant features include a wooden

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

and a crucifix with the shield of Preston and the motto "Princeps Pacis". St. Ignatius of Loyola is also prominently represented to the right in the sanctuary, echoing the influence of the Jesuit priests still active in the city. The

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

s of Great Britain are also represented.

Gallery

File:St Walburge RC Church.jpg, Inside the nave facing east towards the altar File:St Walburge RC Church 2.jpg, Inside the nave facing west towards the back of the church File:St Walburge on winter evening.jpg, By night, from the east File:St Walburge's Church spire, Preston 231-10.jpg, Viewed from the top of the car park of the Mall (St George's) Shopping Centre File:St Walburgh Catholic Church, Preston - geograph.org.uk - 746343.jpg, West end from Weston Street File:St Walburgh Catholic Church, Preston, Doorway - geograph.org.uk - 746303.jpg, Doorway

Notes

External links

Saint Walburges Church WebsiteThe Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Saint Walburge Saint Walburge Saint Walburge Roman Catholic churches in Lancashire Grade I listed churches in Lancashire Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster Grade I listed Roman Catholic churches in England Roman Catholic churches completed in 1873 Buildings by Joseph Hansom 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Roman Catholic shrines in the United Kingdom