[1] With the gradual abolition of the legal restrictions on the activities of Catholics in England and Wales in the early 19th century, Rome decided to proceed to bridge the gap of the centuries from Queen Elizabeth I by instituting Catholic dioceses on the regular historical pattern.
In the early period from 1850 the diocese was a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Westminster, but a further development was its assignment under Pope Pius X, on 28 October 1911, to a newly created province of Liverpool.
At the diocese's creation the territory assigned to it was the hundreds of Salford and Blackburn.
The Bishop's residence is Wardley Hall, Worsley, Greater Manchester.
[2] He was appointed by Pope Francis to succeed Terence Brain as the 11th Bishop of Salford on 30 September 2014 and was installed on 8 December 2014.