The Extension of the Church - 1888
 

The beginning of the extension work at the sanctuary end of the church is clearly marked by two pillars. Above the round pillar immediately before the pulpit, on the intersection of the arches, are to be found the arms of the Pope of the time, Pope Leo XIII, along with his papal tiara. On the pillar directly opposite, on the other side of the centre aisle, are the arms and mitre of Dr. O'Reilly, Bishop of Liverpool. Preston, of course, was in Liverpool diocese until 1924, and both the church and the presbytery bear coats of arms to remind us of this.

On the sanctuary itself, the new high altar showed the increased public devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. The spire, which is over both the tabernacle and the stand for the Benediction monstrance, rises to thirty-three feet. The paintings were removed, we know not where, and the figures which were below them were placed higher up. Stain-glass windows were added, as they were on the north side of the church and along the sacristy corridor ~ the latter depicted Lancashire martyrs. Behind the high altar, at the top of the steps behind the Benediction throne, were placed two stone shields to commemorate the alterations - one marked '1888', and the other 'J.P.', the initials of Joseph Pyke.

Behind the sanctuary a committee room was built. It was sometimes used by the choir, in more recent times by the Legion of Mary, and now for the children's' liturgy at 10 a.m. Sunday Mass. Two large sacristies were also added ~ a vesting sacristy and a working sacristy - as was the whole corridor or cloister which runs down the whole of the north side and connects with the presbytery. On the outside of the building John Hanley of Chester, who had served his time with the great Pugin, carried out a labour of love -he ornated the thirty blocks of stone which finish off the chancel windows with the heads of English Martyrs. He had studied their lives in order to represent their features.

The two new confessionals, making a total of five, perhaps showed that by 1888 Catholics in England had overcome their dislike of the 'foreign box' which they had had less than a hundred years before. The common English way was to make one's confession not in a confessional box but directly to the priest, either in the sacristy or the priest's house. At times there were queues waiting in the hall-way outside the presbytery parlour. This part of the country still remembered such characters as Mr. Gradwell, Parish Priest of Claughton-on-Brock, who not only disliked the new title 'Father' for secular priests and the new Roman collar they had begun to wear, but also refused to allow Benediction or Blessed Sacrament processions. Perhaps such an authentic Prestonian 'it's-never-been-done-afore' attitude was learnt just a few hundred yards from English Martyrs' church - his family ran a corn mill on Moor Lane.

On Thursday 9th February 1888, all the new work in the church was seen for the first time. Whilst under construction a large screen had blocked off the work being done. Attendance at the reopening was by ticket only, and tickets had been given to any parishioner who asked - first come, first served. As it was, many were disappointed. The whole parish could obviously not fit in, and quite a few tickets had been sent out to guests. It might be hard for us to take it all in one hundred years after the event, but this turned out to be not just an occasion for Preston pride but a national event too. Naturally, as they did in those days, all the Preston papers gave quite some space in reporting it, this 'Unique Spectacle' as the Chronicle called it. But, the national hierarchy had themselves asked that this should be a day to be remembered by the whole country.

 
The Interior of the Church before the extension                        The Interior of the Church 1967

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