The Church and the Community
The foundation stone for the first church of St Gregory the Great – now the school hall - was laid and blessed by Archbishop Keating of Liverpool on the 26th August 1923.
The Diocese of Lancaster was formed in 1924, and on Sunday 14th December 1924 the first Mass in the new parish of St Gregory the Great was celebrated by the Very Rev Dean Pyke from the English Martyrs and at an evening service Fr Prescott was inducted as Parish Priest.
St Gregory’s is the first parish which was established in the then newly formed Diocese of Lancaster. The original church was a part of the present school. In the beginning there were four classrooms downstairs separated by moveable screens so that they could be drawn back and the building used for social and fundraising events.
The present church building was completed in 1936 and consecrated on the 24th June the same year. The church was re-ordered after the Second Vatican Council. We have a Parish Social Centre. We are especially proud of our lively and thriving Primary School. The first presbytery was a large farmhouse standing near the site of the present grotto.
The church is located the proverbial stone’s throw from Preston North End’s splendid football stadium. The Parish which was originally established for new housing development in Deepdale, then on the edge of Preston, now forms a link between the inner city and the leafy suburbs of Fulwood.
