St Joseph's Church, Preston

St Joseph’s Church stands on Skeffington Road in Preston, Lancashire. It is an active Roman Catholic church in the Diocese of Lancaster and is listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. The church was built between 1873 and 1874 to the designs of J. O’Byrne. It was erected in a part of the town once filled with cotton mills and was dedicated to Saint Joseph, the patron saint of workers. In 1897 the interior was enriched with Stations of the Cross and further decoration.

The building is of red brick with sandstone dressings and a slate roof. The plan includes a nave, north and south aisles, a sanctuary with side chapels, a north vestry and a west porch. The west front is divided by stepped buttresses and features a gabled porch with an arched doorway of four orders of moulding. Above the porch are three tall two-light windows under a round-headed arch, and similar windows line the side walls. The sanctuary at the east end is apsidal, with an east window of five lancets.

Inside, the church has an open hall-like interior with polished pink granite columns and a barrel-vaulted nave ceiling. The sanctuary and side chapels have mosaic floors, and at the west end is a gallery with a wooden arcaded front. The reredos is richly carved, with a central crocketed canopy and life-size statues in the side arcades. The marble pulpit has arched niches and a curved staircase, while the stained glass includes work by Mayer of Munich and Casolini of St Helens. To the east is a Gothic-style brick presbytery with a crenellated porch, and to the southeast stands the former school with a tower and pyramidal spire.