[2] In 1848, two years before the Restoration of the English hierarchy, a Roman Catholic mission was started in Swindon.

A priest would come from St Thomas of Canterbury Church in Fairford to say Mass once a month in the town.

By 1882, the chapel was seen to be too small to accommodate the increasing local Catholic congregation so they bought a disused Unitarian church in Regent Circus in the town.

[3] In the 1900s, with the local Catholic population increasing, plans were made to build a new, larger church.

[2] From 1926, efforts were made by the parish priest, Canon J. J. Noonan, to raise between £6,000 and £7,000, to pay the debt from the construction of the church.