The first stone of St. Paul’s Church was laid on Tuesday, 21st October, 1823.  Out of the million pounds granted by Parliament for the erection of churches, some time prior to the date given, Preston, through Dr. Lawe, who was then Bishop of Chester, got 12,500 pounds.  It was originally intended to expend this sum in the erection of one church—­St. Peter’s; but at the request of the Rev. R. Carus Wilson, vicar of Preston, the money was divided, one half going to St. Peter’s, and the other to St. Paul’s.  Some people might consider this like “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” but it was better to halve the money for the benefit of two districts, than give all of it for the spiritual edification of one, and leave the other destitute.  The land forming the site of St. Paul’s was given by Samuel Pole Shawe, Esq.  The full cost of the building was about 6,500 pounds.  Around the edifice there is a very large iron-railed grave yard, which is kept in pretty good order.  St. Paul’s is built entirely of stone, in the early English style of architecture.  It has a rather elegant appearance; but it is defective in altitude has a broad, flat, and somewhat bald-looking roof, and needs either a good tower or spire to relieve and dignify it.  In front there are several pointed windows, a small circular hole above for birds’ nests, two doorways with a window between them, a central surmounting gable, and a couple of feathery-headed perforated turrets, one being used as a chimney, and the other as a belfry.  There is only a single bell at the church, and it is pulled industriously on Sundays by a devoted youth, who takes his stand in a boxed-off corner behind one of the doors.  At the opposite end of the church there are two turrets corresponding in height and form with those is front.  Two screens of red cloth are fixed just within the entrance and, whilst giving a certain degree of selectness to the place, they prevent people sitting near them from being blown away or starved to death on very windy days when the doors happen to be open.

The interior consists of a broad, ornamentally roofed nave (resting upon twelve high narrow pillars of stone), and two aisles.  The pillars seriously obstruct the vision of those sitting at the sides; indeed, in some places so detrimental are they that you can see neither the reading-desk nor the pulpit.  Above, there is a very large gallery, set apart on the west for the organ and choir, and on each side for general worshippers, school children, as a rule, being in front, and requiring a good deal of watching during the services.  In some parts of the gallery seeing is quite as difficult as in the sides beneath, owing to the intervening nave pillars.  Efforts have been made to rectify this evil, not by trying to pull down the pillars, but by removing the pulpit, &c, so that all might have a glance at it.  The pulpit is situated on the south-eastern side, near the chancel, and one Sunday it was brought into the centre of the church; but it could be seen no better