We've moved!

Preston Samaritans are delighted to announce the relocation of our branch from St Wilfrid Street to a modern office in Navigation Way.

The difficult decision to leave the old branch was made by the Branch Leadership Team last year as the branch needed repairs and modernisation that was going to cost a significant amount of money and wouldn't solve all the problems that the site had.

The Preston branch of Samaritans has been located at St Wilfrid Street since 1972, two years after being founded in 1970. After outgrowing the Vestry at Preston Methodist Church, where the charity branch began, the charity bought the property with loans from the volunteers at the time and Samaritans headquarters. Led by Director, Ada Forshaw, loans were paid back by the end of the year and the charity started 1973 debt-free. A generous donation from local manufacturing company, Baxi, helped a lot!

The branch went from strength to strength and received a generous donation in 1988 which allowed the renovation of the upstairs into a training and meeting room.

The branch has served the charity well for over 50 years but the time had come to find a modern office space to ensure the continued growth of the branch which helps so many people every single day of the year.

After months of searching, the property on Navigation Way was found, as well as a buyer for the old branch. After weeks of hard work, the sale of both properties went through.

The new branch has now been set-up for our volunteers and we are open again. The new branch is complete with a duty room (where we answer your calls), a kitchen, a large training room and two small meeting rooms.

One of the major benefits is that the new branch is wheelchair friendly - something the previous branch lacked. We are fundraising to install a lift to make the branch fully accessible. See our fundraising page for more details and to donate.