---
title: "St Walburge, Preston"
description: "Located in Preston, Lancashire. Built 1850–54; tower c.1857; spire 1867; apse 1872. Diocese of Lancaster. Grade I. Gothic Revival (French C13 nave; East Midlands C15 steeple) style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Catholic Church","Lancashire","Preston","Grade I","Gothic Revival","Joseph Hansom","Spire"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-walburge-preston"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:32:59.003Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T16:06:53.170Z"
location: "Preston, Lancashire"
country: "England"
county: "Lancashire"
town: "Preston"
address: "Weston Street, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 2QE"
postcode: "PR2 2QE"
built: "1850–54; tower c.1857; spire 1867; apse 1872"
consecrated: "3 August 1854 (opening)"
architect: "Joseph Aloysius Hansom; Nichols of London (apse 1872)"
denomination: "Catholic Church"
dedications: ["Walburge"]
diocese: "Lancaster"
grade: "I"
style: "Gothic Revival (French C13 nave; East Midlands C15 steeple)"
materials: "Coursed brown sandstone rubble, sandstone dressings, slate roof; white limestone steeple"
website: "https://icksp.org.uk/preston/"
openingHours: "We open from 7.30am to 7.30pm every day of the year. Sunday from 9am to 7pm at the moment."
parish: "St Walburge and the Sacred Heart"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1207341"
gridReference: "SD 529 298"
accessNotes: "Accessible toilets in church. Level access throughout. Level access to the main areas"
---

# St Walburge, Preston

St Walburge’s on Weston Street, Preston, is a Grade I Roman Catholic church by Joseph Aloysius Hansom, famous for the tallest parish-church spire in England, in the Diocese of Lancaster.

## Overview

The Jesuits commissioned Hansom in 1847 for the Maudlands district, near the site of a twelfth-century leper hospital of St Mary Magdalene. The foundation stone was laid in May 1850; the church opened on 3 August 1854. Historic England records the tower completed about 1857 and the spire added in 1867, all by J. A. Hansom, with a short three-sided apse of 1872 by Nichols of London. The nave is a single-cell French thirteenth-century Gothic vessel of brown sandstone with a steep slate roof and a 22-foot rose window; the white limestone steeple, built of former railway sleepers, rises 309 feet (94 m) — the third-tallest spire in the United Kingdom after Salisbury and Norwich cathedrals, and the tallest on a parish church. The hammerbeam roof carries life-sized saints. Listed Grade I on 12 June 1950 (NHLE 1207341). Since 2014 the church has been a shrine of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, with Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

## Further Information

- [St Walburge’s Shrine](https://icksp.org.uk/preston/)
- [Historic England list entry 1207341](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1207341)
- [Taking Stock](https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/preston-st-walburge/)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Walburge,_Preston)