Preston () is a city 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. Preston had a population of 147,835 at the 2021 census, the City of Preston district 156,411 in 2023City of Preston: 132,000.Preston (Local Authority): Key Figures for People and Society: Population and Migration (), Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 August 2010.The population for the unparished area is calculated by subtracting the populations of the three rural Middle Layer Super Output Areas, Preston 001 (5,185), Preston 002 (6,417) and Preston 010 (6,134). Preston 001 (Middle Layer Super Output Area): Key Figures for People and Society: Population and Migration (, Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 August 2010.Preston 002 (Middle Layer Super Output Area): Key Figures for People and Society: Population and Migration , Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 August 2010.Preston 010 (Middle Layer Super Output Area): Key Figures for People and Society: Population and Migration , Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 August 2010. and the Preston Built-up Area 313,322. The Preston Travel To Work Area had a population of 420,661 in 2011, compared with 354,000 at the previous census. The south bank of the Ribble is part of the Preston urban area, although it forms the South Ribble borough that is administratively separate.
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". 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. In the 21st century, tertiary education and the defence industry have been major employment sectors.
The demonym for residents of the city is "Prestonian". Preston is the seat of both Lancashire County Council and Preston City Council, it houses the main campus of the University of Lancashire and is home to Preston North End F.C..
Toponymy Preston was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as .Hunt, 1992. p. 9. 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.Hunt, 1992. p. 10. The town's name is derived from the Old English words and . The (enclosure, farmstead, village, manor, estate) of the .Hunt, 2003. p. 31.
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, south-east of the centre of Preston, and a Roman camp or station may also have been here.William Dobson, Rambles by the Ribble, Volume 3, "Ch. 8, Walton-le-Dale ", Publisher: W. and J. Dobson, 1864Charles Hardwick, "On the Roman Remains Recently Discovered at Walton-le-Dale, Near Preston", in Transactions, Volumes 7–8, Historic Society of Lancashire and Published 1855, pp. 127 At Withy Trees, north of Preston, the road crossed another Roman road from Bremetennacum (the Roman fort at Ribchester) to the coast.Hodge, 1997. pp. 3–5.
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.Walsh and Butler, 1992.
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 county.Hodge, 1997. pp. 6–10.
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.
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. Preston Guild – Friendship scrolls return Retrieved 3 September 2012. 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
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.
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.
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".SP 36/75, fol.84, fols.177a, 179, Alexander Blair to Mrs Blair, 5 December.1745. Another Jacobite eyewitness noted in a private letter from Preston on 27 November 1745: "People here are beginning to join [us] very fast; we have got about sixty recruits today".SP 36/75, fol.87, – to Lady Gask, 27 November.1745. 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.Fitzroy Maclean, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' 1988
Industrial Revolution Merchants from Preston took part in the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century.Melinda Elder, Slave Trade and the Economic Development of 18th-Century Lancaster. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press 1992, 124
The 19th century saw a transformation in Preston from a small market town to a much larger industrial one. 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.
Preston was 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.
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". 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.
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.