Ashton on Ribble is today a leafy suburb on the west side of the City of Preston. The parish of St Michael and All Angels was created from the parish of St Andrew (1836) in 1929, but the church itself was built between 1908 and 1915, replacing a mission church established in 1883. The church is a particularly fine example of the work of the Lancaster architects Paley & Austin, the leading English ecclesiastical architects of the early 20th century.

The parish occupies the southeastern part of the former township of Ashton, Lea, Cottam and Ingol and includes Preston Dock within its boundaries. The dock closed in 1981 and, since then. the area has been comprehensively redeveloped for retailing, office and residential uses, with several large blocks of private flats occupying waterfront positions.

The former parish of St Mark is situated entirely within Preston and is an urban area, developed from the 1850s with terraced housing and industrial sites. Its church (completed in 1868) has now been converted into flats. The present parish, formed by the union of St Michaels and St Mark in 1993, therefore has therefore three very different areas within its boundaries - older 19th century area with industrial and a high volume of terraced housing; later 19th century and Edwardian suburbia; and newly redeveloped dockland.

Our Church

St Michael's has a long-standing choral tradition and a robed, mixed choir leads the main Sunday morning worship and occasional choral evensong. We have a thriving Junior Church that regularly leads worship in All Age services.

Together with St Andrew's CE Church, Ashton Methodist Church and Sacred Heart RC Church we are the Ashton Covenanted Churches. We share ecumenical services,  Advent and Lent Study Groups and social and fund-raising events.