St Walburge's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Preston, Lancashire, 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, the designer of the hansom cab, 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 as a Grade I listed building. In 2014 Michael Campbell, Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster, entrusted the church to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest as a shrine for Eucharistic Devotion. Dedication St Walburge's is dedicated to Saint Walpurga, 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 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. In 1847, at the time of the Roman Catholic revival in England, and with prosperity brought by the textile mills of Lancashire, the architect Joseph Hansom 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. David Garrard, the Historic Churches Adviser of the Victorian Society 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