| Brindle was affected by the penal laws which meant that no priest could say Mass - the penalty for doing so was death. Mass was offered in Mass Houses & Brindle Catholics had their own secret means of communicating the location of the next Mass: clean washing was hung on hedges. Throughout this time in Lancashire, priests were offering Mass "by stealth", though no names are recorded; some were Benedictines, some Jesuit. | |
| 1677 | Alice Gerard of the Well gave ground for a chapel, Newhouse, at Back Gregson Lane (now called Brindle Road, near the Cottage Garden Centre). |
| 1678 | Fr Birkett S.J. of Hough Hill was arrested & sent to Lancaster Jail. |
| 1718 | Newhouse Chapel & land forfeited. |
| 1718 | Closure of house & chapel near Hough Hill, Top o’th’ Lane. |
| 1721 | Fr William Placid Naylor established a chapel in the cottage next to the present presbytery. |
| 1726 | Stansfield House bought & held in trust. (The Test Act made it impossible for Catholics to inherit or acquire property & offered rewards for informing on a priest. This shows what a risk was taken by non-Catholics (James Woodcock & others) who bought & held Stansfield House (now the presbytery) in trust until it could be handed over safely to Fr Naylor). |
| 1731 | Stansfield House handed over to Fr Naylor. |
| 1774 | Vestments & chalice found in a cottage on the road to Townhouse. Similar finds had been made about 50 years earlier in cottages at Jack Green & had been hidden. |
| 1786 | Present church built by Fr Lawrence Hadley. |
| 1787 | George Smith erected a school at Coupe Green (still there today - a pair of white cottages called Ampleforth & Ampleforth Cottage, confirming the strong Benedictine links with the parish). |
| 1831 | Joseph Knight, a local boy made good, provided a new school near the Church. |
| 1832 | Church enlarged. |
| 1882 | Fr I Brown gave the best set of vestments to Stonyhurst & took the rest to Parbold. |
| 1889 | New apse & altar. |
| 1893 | Pictures of St Benedict & St Lawrence installed. |
| 1896 | Lady Chapel extended. |
| 1900 | Baptismal font installed. |
| 1901 | Stations of the Cross. |
| 1902 | Lady Chapel screen erected as a tribute to Fr Wilfrid Brown |
| 1924 | The Great Pilgrimage at Brindle (Tercentenary of Edmund Arrowsmith’s release from prison). |
| 1927 | Vestments returned from Parbold. |
| 1931 | Oak panelling added. |
| 1944 | Lady Chapel window shattered by a flying bomb which exploded in Gregson Lane on Christmas Eve. This was not repaired until 1953. |
| 1949 | Electric lighting fitted. |
| 1977 | Tercentenary of the Parish celebrated with Archbishop Derek Worlock (Liverpool), Abbot Ambrose Griffiths & Cardinal Basil Hume. Consecration of the Church. |
| 1975 | New school opened at Bournes Row, Hoghton. Old school becomes Parish Hall. |
| 1986 | Bicentenary of the Church. Urgent need for restoration work on the Church & roof discovered. Church closed for restoration estimated at £170,000. In the meantime, Sunday Masses are celebrated in the Parish Hall, weekday Masses in the dining room of Stansfield House - the chapel from 1731 in use again. |
| 1987 | Church reopens after restoration which finally cost £193,417.57. |
| 1990 | Half of the restoration debt paid. |
| 1996 | Restoration debt paid off in full. |
| 1997 | Parish Hall refurbished. |
| 1997-98 | Some of the "12 apostle" lime trees in front of the church are found to be diseased and were removed. |
| 1999 | Parish priest moves to St Benedict's Monastery
in Bamber Bridge. New bookshop built in church porch area. Officially opened & blessed by Fr Geoffrey Lynch on 14th December. |