After the Reformation, the Catholic community in Salisbury celebrated mass in a house on Cathedral Close owned by Baron Arundell of Wardour.

On 8 April 1847, the foundation stone was laid by Bishop William Ullathorne, the Vicar Apostolic of the Western District.

[3] The church is built of flint and stone, and originally had a chancel, nave and south aisle, and a south-west tower with a pyramidal roof.

[5] Julian Orbach, revising Pevsner's volume in 2021, prefers to describe the church as "plain rather than inspiring".

[4] A church school was built in 1867 on the north part of the site, in matching flint and stone, to designs by Pugin's son E. W.