Preston
City
From left to right: Top: Sessions House, Preston Cenotaph and Harris Museum Middle: the Corn Exchange and Friargate Bottom: County Hall and St Walburge's Church
The city flag
Preston City centre in the City of Preston district Show map of the City of Preston district Preston City centre within Preston unparished area Show map of Preston Preston Location within Lancashire Show map of Lancashire
Population	122,719 (Including Fulwood, which makes up the whole unparished area, 2011)
Demonym	Prestonian
District	Preston
Shire county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PRESTON
Postcode district	PR1-PR2
Dialling code	01772
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Preston Wyre and Preston North
List of places UK England Lancashire 53°45′32″N 2°41′56″W / 53.759°N 2.699°W / 53.759; -2.699

Preston (/ˈprɛstən/ ^ⓘ) is a city^[a] on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding district obtained city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.^[1] Preston has a population of 114,300,^{[citation needed]} the City of Preston district 132,000^[2] and the Preston Built-up Area 313,322.^[3] The Preston Travel To Work Area, in 2011, had a population of 420,661,^[4] compared with 354,000 in the previous census.

Preston and its surrounding area have provided evidence of ancient Roman activity, largely in the form of a Roman road that led to a camp at Walton-le-Dale. The Angles established Preston; its name is derived from the Old English meaning "priest's settlement" and in the Domesday Book is recorded as "Prestune". In the Middle Ages, Preston was a parish and township in the hundred of Amounderness and was granted a Guild Merchant charter in 1179, giving it the status of a market town. Textiles have been produced since the mid-13th century when locally produced wool was woven in people's houses. Flemish weavers who settled in the area in the 14th century helped develop the industry. In the early-18th century, Edmund Calamy described Preston as "a pretty town with an abundance of gentry in it, commonly called Proud Preston".^[5] Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning frame, was born in the town. The most rapid period of growth and development coincided with the industrialisation and expansion of textile manufacturing. Preston was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, becoming a densely populated engineering centre, with large industrial plants. The town's textile sector fell into terminal decline from the mid-20th century and Preston has subsequently faced similar challenges to other post-industrial northern towns, including deindustrialisation, economic deprivation and housing issues.

Preston is the seat of Lancashire County Council, houses the main campus of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and is home to Preston North End F.C., a founder member of the Football League and the first English football champions.

The demonym for residents of the city is "Prestonian".^[6][7]

Toponymy

Preston was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Prestune.^[8] Various other spellings occur in early documents: Prestonam (1094), Prestone (1160), Prestona (1160), Presteton (1180), and Prestun (1226). The modern spelling occurs in 1094, 1176, 1196, 1212, and 1332.^[9] The town's name is derived from the Old English words Presta and tun. The tun (enclosure, farmstead, village, manor, estate)^[10] of the Presta.^[11]

History

Early development

During the Roman period, Roman roads passed close to what is now the centre of Preston. For example, the road from Luguvalium to Mamucium (now Carlisle to Manchester) crossed the River Ribble at Walton-le-Dale, 3⁄4 mile (1 km) southeast of the centre of Preston, and a Roman camp or station may also have been here.^[12][13] At Withy Trees, 1+1⁄2 miles (2 km) north of Preston, the road crossed another Roman road from Bremetennacum (the Roman fort at Ribchester) to the coast.^[14]

An explanation of the origin of the name is that the Priest's Town refers to a priory set up by St Wilfrid near the Ribble's lowest ford. This idea is supported by the similarity of the Paschal lamb on Preston's crest with that on St Wilfrid's.^[15]

When first mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book, Preston was already the most important town in Amounderness (the area of Central Lancashire between the rivers Ribble and Cocker, including The Fylde and the Forest of Bowland). When assessed for tax purposes in 1218 – 19 it was the wealthiest town in the whole county.^[16]

Guild Merchant

The right to hold a Guild Merchant was conferred by King Henry II upon the burgesses of Preston in a charter of 1179; the associated Preston Guild is a civic celebration held every 20 years, the last being in 2012. It is the only guild still celebrated in the UK.^[17]

Before 1328, celebrations were held at irregular intervals, but at the guild of that year it was decreed that subsequent guilds should be held every 20 years. After this, there were breaks in the pattern for various reasons, but an unbroken series were held from 1542 to 1922. A full 400-year sequence was frustrated by the cancellation of the 1942 guild due to World War II, but the cycle resumed in 1952. The expression '(Once) every Preston Guild', meaning 'very infrequently', has passed into fairly common use, especially in Lancashire.

Guild week is always started by the opening of the Guild Court, which since the 16th century has traditionally been on the first Monday after the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist celebrated on 29 August. As well as concerts and other exhibitions, the main events are a series of processions through the city. Numerous street parties are held in the locality.

In 1952 the emphasis was on the bright new world emerging after the war. The major event, held in the city's Avenham Park, had every school participating, and hundreds of children, from toddlers to teenagers, demonstrated different aspects of physical education in the natural amphitheatre of the park.

The 2012 guild formally opened on 2 September with a mayoral proclamation and the return of "friendship scrolls" that had travelled the world.^[18] Highlights in the programme for the 2012 celebration included two concerts in Avenham Park - one by Human League and another, a "Proms In The Park", featuring José Carreras, Katherine Jenkins and the Manchester Camerata.

Pre-industrial Preston

In the mid-12th century, Preston was in the hundred of Amounderness, in the deanery of Amounderness and the archdeaconry of Richmond. The name "Amounderness" is more ancient than the name of any other "Wapentake" or hundred in the County of Lancashire, and the fort at Tulketh, strengthened by William the Conqueror, shows that the strategic importance of the area was appreciated even then.^[19]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

'Preston', a poetical illustration by L. E. L.

The location of the city, almost exactly midway between Glasgow and London, led to many confrontations with Scotland. Preston was burned by the Scots during The Great Raid of 1322 but two years later had quickly recovered. Decisive battles were also fought here, most notably during the English Civil War at the Battle of Preston (1648), and then the first Jacobite rebellion, whose invasion of England was brought to a conclusion by the defeat of the pro-Catholic and pro-monarchial Jacobite army at the Battle of Preston (1715). Letitia Elizabeth Landon alludes to this latter defeat in her poetical illustration, Preston, to an engraving of a painting by Thomas Allom, in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book 1834.^[20]

In the last great Jacobite Rising, on 27 November 1745 the Jacobite Prince of Wales and Regent, Bonnie Prince Charlie passed through Preston with his Highland Army on the way south through Chorley and Manchester to Derby intending to take London and the Crown. Preston was the first of quite a few places in England where the Prince was cheered as he rode by and where he was joined by some English volunteers for his Army. One Jacobite eyewitness noted that from Preston onwards, "at every town we were received with ringing of bells, and at night we have bonfires, and illuminations".^[21] Another Jacobite eyewitness noted in a private letter from Preston on 27 November 1745: "People here are beginning to join very fast; we have got about sixty recruits today".^[22] From 10 to 12 December the Prince gave his retreating Army a rest in Preston on their long, last and fatal retreat from Derby through Lancaster and Carlisle to their dreadful day of destiny the following 16 April on Culloden Moor near Inverness.^[23]

Industrial revolution

The 19th century saw a transformation in Preston from a small market town to a much larger industrial one, as the innovations of the latter half of the previous century such as Richard Arkwright's water frame (invented in Preston) brought cotton mills to many northern English towns. With industrialisation came examples of both oppression and enlightenment.

The town's forward-looking spirit is typified by it being the first English town outside London to be lit by gas. The Preston Gas Company was established in 1815 by, amongst others, a Catholic priest: Rev. Joseph "Daddy" Dunn of the Society of Jesus. The Preston and Wigan Railway arrived in 1838, shortly afterwards renamed the North Union Railway. The Sheffield firm of Thos. W. Ward Ltd opened a ship breaking yard at Preston Dock in 1894.^[24]

The more oppressive side of industrialisation was seen during the Preston Strike of 1842 on Saturday 13 August 1842, when a group of cotton workers demonstrated against the poor conditions in the town's mills. The Riot Act was read and armed troops corralled the demonstrators in front of the Corn Exchange on Lune Street. Shots were fired and four of the demonstrators were killed. A commemorative sculpture now stands on the spot (although the soldiers and demonstrators represented are facing the wrong way). In the 1850s, Karl Marx visited Preston and later described the town as "the next St Petersburg".^[25] Charles Dickens visited Preston in January 1854 during a strike by cotton workers that had by that stage lasted for 23 weeks. It is believed that the town of "Coketown" in the novel Hard Times was inspired by this visit to Preston. In 1858, the Preston Power Loom Weavers' Association was founded, and by 1920 it had more than 13,000 members in the town.^[26]

The Preston Temperance Society, led by Joseph Livesey pioneered the Temperance Movement in the 19th century. Indeed, the term teetotalism is believed to have been coined at one of its meetings. The website of the University of Central Lancashire library has a great deal of information on Joseph Livesey and the Temperance Movement in Preston.^[27]

Preston was one of only a few industrial towns in Lancashire to have a functioning corporation (local council) in 1835 (its charter dating to 1685), and was reformed as a municipal borough by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. It became the County Borough of Preston under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1974, county boroughs were abolished, and it became part of the larger part of the new non-metropolitan district, the Borough of Preston, which also included Fulwood Urban District and much of Preston Rural District. The borough acquired city status in 2002.

Preston since the early 20th century

By 1901, nearly 120,000 people were living in Preston, now a booming industrial town.

New industries arrived in Preston during the interwar years which helped ease the pain felt through the sharp decline of the cotton industry. Electrical goods manufacturing and engineering arrived in the town, and the building sector enjoyed a boom with nearly 3,000 council houses being built between 1920 and 1939. Some 1,500 houses were built for private sale.^{[citation needed]}

Despite its heavy industry, Preston endured only a handful of Luftwaffe air raids in World War II and there were no fatalities in the town, although an air crash in the Freckleton district claimed the lives of 61 people in 1944.

For some 20 years after 1948, Preston became home to a significant number of Asian and Caribbean Commonwealth immigrants, who mostly worked in the manufacturing industry. However, an economic decline hit the town once again in the 1970s, capped by the closure of the Courtaulds factory in 1979 (nearly 3,000 job losses) and the decline of the docks on the River Ribble, which finally closed in 1981. Mass unemployment was firmly back in Preston by the early 1980s, although it was now very much a national crisis due to the recession of that time.

The rehousing of families from town centre slums to new council houses continued after World War II, though it slowed down to a virtual standstill after 1975.^{[citation needed]} The face of the town centre began to change in the 1960s, with old developments being bulldozed and replaced by modern developments such as the St George's Shopping Centre, which opened in 1966, and the Fishergate Shopping Centre which was built nearly 20 years later. The remains of the Victorian town hall, designed by George Gilbert Scott and mostly destroyed by fire in 1947, were replaced by an office block (Crystal House) in 1962, and a modern-architecture Guild Hall opened in 1972, to replace the Public Hall.^[28]

The town was by-passed by Britain's very first motorway, built and operated by engineer James Drake, which was opened by Harold Macmillan in December 1958. Within a decade, this formed part of the M6 – giving Preston a direct motorway link with Manchester and Birmingham. The late 1960s saw the completion of Ringway, a bypass around the town centre, as well as a new bus station.^[29]

On 6 April 2012 the city's residents performed the Preston Passion, a dramatised version of the Passion of Christ, which was broadcast live by BBC One.^[30]

Governance

The unparished urban settlement of Preston is represented by 19 of the 22 council wards within Preston City Council which is based at Preston Town Hall on Lancaster Road. Preston is currently divided between two Westminster constituencies, namely Preston and Wyre and Preston North. The County Hall is located on Fishergate and is the main office for Lancashire County Council.^[31]

Geography

The River Ribble provides a southern border for the city. The Forest of Bowland forms a backdrop to Preston to the northeast while the Fylde lies to the west. At 53°45′N 2°42′W / 53.750°N 2.700°W / 53.750; -2.700, Preston is approximately 27 miles (43 km) north west of Manchester, 26 miles (42 km) north east of Liverpool, and 15 miles (24 km) east of the coastal town Blackpool.

The current borders came into effect on 1 April 1974, when the Local Government Act 1972 merged the existing County Borough of Preston with Fulwood Urban District as an unparished area within the Borough of Preston. Preston was designated as part of the Central Lancashire new town in 1970.

Climate

A panoramic view of Preston, viewed from Penwortham Lane.

The climate of Preston is of a temperate maritime type, with a narrow range of temperatures, similar to the rest of the British Isles. Being relatively close to the Irish sea, this is more pronounced than areas to the south and east of Preston. The official Met Office weather station is located at Moor Park, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the city centre, and surrounded by built-up areas, suggesting a degree of urban warming is likely, particularly during clear and calm nights.

The absolute high recorded at the weather station was 38.2 °C (100.8 °F)^[32] during July 2022. In a typical year the warmest day should reach 27.6 °C (81.7 °F)^[33] and 5.9 days^[34] in total should attain a maximum temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or more. In October 2011, a new record October high temperature of 26.9 °C was set.^[35]

The absolute minimum is −13.3 °C (8.1 °F), recorded during February 1969.^[36] In a typical year the coldest night should fall to −6.8 °C (19.8 °F),^[37] and 40.2 nights^[38] should receive an air frost. The lowest temperature in recent years was −9.2 °C (15.4 °F)^[39] during December 2010.

Annual rainfall totals just under 1000 mm per year,^[40] with over 1 mm of precipitation falling on 150 days.^[41] All averages refer to the period 1971–2000.

In October 2014 Preston was officially ranked "the wettest city in England", and third wettest in the UK behind Cardiff and Glasgow.^[42] It was also ranked "the gloomiest city in England", as it gets fewer hours of sunshine in a year than any other English city or town.^[43] However, in March 2018 the Lancashire Evening Post reported that Preston has lost its "soggy city status" to the neighbouring city of Lancaster.^[44]

On 10 August 1893, approximately 32 millimetres (1.3 in) of rain fell in Preston in 5 minutes, being a record for the most rainfall to fall in that time in the United Kingdom.^[45]