AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



PRESTON 



years small weekly gifts of groceries, &c, in the 

 nature of pensions have been given. The capital is 

 now £618, producing about £14 6s. a year. 



Edmund Robert Harris of Ashton in 1876 left 

 £500 to provide a fund for gifts of clothing, bedding, 

 &c, to the poor of Ashton, Lea, Ingol and Cottam 

 on St. Thomas's Day yearly. The income is £l$, 

 which is now usually given in money doles. 



PRESTON 



Prestune, Dom. Bk. ; Preston, 1 1 69 ; Prestone, 

 1292. 



Approached from the south, Preston, in spite of 

 its factory chimneys, has a pleasing appearance, as 

 across the broad stream of the Ribble, which forms 

 the foreground, two well-planted public parks occupy 

 the ascending bank at the other side. The town 

 hall, which has a lofty clock-tower, 1 is about half a 

 mile north of the river, and from it the principal 

 thoroughfare of the town, the wide street called 

 Fishergate, goes west to the railway station, and then 

 turning to the south-west descends to the river- 

 side, 8 and bending south 3 along the Ribble reaches 

 Penwortham Bridge. The continuation of Fishergate 

 east from the town hall is called Church Street,* the 

 parish church standing on its south side ; after a short 

 time it divides into three main branches — to the 

 south-east and south as Stanley Street 5 and London 

 Road, crossing Fishwick to reach Ribble Bridge, the 

 main road southward ; to the east, as Ribbleton 

 Lane, to Ribchester ; and to the north as Deepdale 

 Road, in which stands the Infirmary. East from 

 Stanley Street begins New Hall Lane, which goes 

 past the cemetery and is continued as the Blackburn 

 Road. On the north side of the town hall is the 

 open market place, around which may be seen the 

 Harris Free Library, the new sessions house, 6 com- 

 pleted in 1903, and the post-office, opened in the 

 same year.' An obelisk in the square commemorates 

 the local men who fell in the Boer War. From this 

 square Friargate leads north-west for about a quarter 

 of a mile, when it divides ; Moor Lane leads north, 

 past Moor Park and then across Fulwood to Garstang 

 and Lancaster, while the Fylde road goes west to 

 Kirkham. From Fishergate Lune Street goes north 



1 The building was designed by Sir 

 G. G. Scott. The spire is 150 ft. high. 

 8 Here it is called Fishergate Hill. 



3 Here called Broadgate. 



4 Anciently Kirkgate. 



5 Formerly Finkale Street. 



6 It has a tower 179 ft. high. The 

 county records are preserved in this build- 

 ing, having been collected from different 

 repositories. The borough sessions house 

 is near. 



7 For the development of the local 

 post office see Hewitson, Preston, 336-41. 



8 The area of the county borough, ac- 

 cording to the Census Report of 1 90 1, is 

 3,971 acres. It is that of the old town- 

 ship, together with the whole of Fish- 

 wick, large parts of Ashton and Ribble- 

 ton, and bits of Grimsargh and Pen- 

 wortham ; these were all united into one 

 township or civil parish in 1894.; Loc. 

 Govt. Bd. Order 31607. The 3,971 

 acres include 79 of inland water ; there 

 are besides 85 acres of tidal water and 

 14. of foreshore. 



9 The population of the larger area of 

 the county borough was 112,989. 



10 The station was on the site of the 

 existing one. These details are derived 

 chiefly from A. Hewitson, op. cit. 199, 

 &c. 



11 The station was on the north side 

 of Fishergate, but was soon afterwards 

 connected with the station on the south 

 side, the line being thus made con- 

 tinuous. 



12 The Blackburn terminus occupies 

 its original position. 



18 The Southport (West Lancashire) 

 line had its terminus in Fishergate Hill. 



14 The terminus was in Maudlands. 



16 Foot passengers can also cross the 

 Ribble by the East Lancashire railway 

 bridge, that to Blackburn, by a side walk. 

 This bridge had fifty-seven arches in all, 

 mostly south of the river, but nearly all 

 have now been covered by an embank- 

 ment. 



16 St. Stephen's cross is named in un- 

 dated deeds ; Add. MS. 32106, no. i486, 

 1543, fol. 308, &c. Fishwick cross, 

 probably on the boundary, is named in 

 1339 (ibid. no. 1614) and the Butter 

 cross *- 1562 ; ibid. no. 847. See also 



9 1 



to Friargate, and from Church Street Lancaster Road 

 and North Road run north to join Moor Lane. On 

 the south side of Fishergate Chapel Street, passing 

 Winckley Square, goes down to the two parks by 

 the Ribble, already mentioned, Avenham Park and 

 Miller Park. In Winckley Square there is a statue 

 of Sir Robert Peel, erected in 1852, and in Miller 

 Park one of the fourteenth Earl of Derby, 1873. 

 In Avenham Park are two of the Russian guns 

 captured in the Crimea. Cross Street, in which is 

 the grammar school, begins on the east side of 

 Winckley Square ; while lower down Avenham Lane, 

 an old thoroughfare, leads circuitously from the park, 

 by Stonygate, to the parish church. 



The whole township, which has an area of 2,127 

 acres, 8 is covered with a network of streets of dwelling- 

 houses and shops, among which rise the numerous 

 great cotton-spinning factories and other works which 

 produce the town's wealth. There was a population 

 of 101,297 in igoi. 9 



The different railways had formerly separate termini, 

 but now all are made to meet at the large station 

 in Fishergate. The London and North-Western 

 Company's main line to Scotland is formed of the 

 Wigan and Preston Railway, opened in l838, 10 and 

 the Preston and Lancaster Railway, 1840. 11 The 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's system has 

 amalgamated the lines joining Preston with Black- 

 burn, 18 Bolton, Liverpool and Southport. 13 The two 

 companies together hold the Wyre Railway u and the 

 Preston and Longridge line, which latter has a station 

 in Deepdale Road, its original terminus in 1840. 

 The Lancaster Canal, first formed in 1798, begins 

 on the north side of Fishergate, near the railway. 



The railways have three bridges across the Ribble ; 

 there is only one bridge for ordinary traffic, that to 

 Penwortham, and another for foot passengers, viz. 

 the old tramway bridge at Avenham Park. 16 



Fairs are held annually in the first week of each 

 year for horses, on 27 March, 25 August and 

 7 November for cattle and earthenware, and on the 

 last Friday of March, June and November for cheese. 



Though the town has a pleasant aspect and a long 

 history, its buildings are all modern. The ancient 

 crosses and wells have gone. 16 In addition to public 

 buildings there are banks, 17 clubs la and theatres. 



Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soe. xx, 156-62. 

 The crosses known were the high cross 

 in the market-place, afterwards replaced 

 by an obelisk 5 a butter cross in Cheap- 

 side ; a cross near New Street and another 

 in Friargate, and one on the Moor. Our 

 Lady's Well was near the Friary. The 

 butter cross was taken down in 1739 by 

 order of the corporation, and the 

 materials used to repair the market- 

 place, as appears by the records. 



17 The Old Bank was opened in 1776 ; 

 for a long time the Pedder family were 

 chief proprietors. It failed in 1861. 

 See Hewitson, op. cit. 238, where is 

 given a view of the house (c. 1690) in 

 which business was done. 



The Preston Banking Company, 

 founded in 1844, had its head office in 

 Fishergate. It has been absorbed by the 

 London City and Midland Bank. Four 

 other banks have branch offices. 



The Savings Bank was opened in 1 81 6. 



18 These include the Conservative Club, 

 the Reform Club and the Winckley Club. 

 In 1824 there were two news-rooms, one 

 in the coffee-house in Church Street and 



