For over 50,000 years, most of Britain was covered by a thick sheet of ice. Only the south was free of this bleak polar desert. Notably, the English Channel did […]

On a fine Sunday in 1823, Andrew Ryding, a young man of Preston, decided to attack one of the largest mill owners in the town, with a blunted meat cleaver.  […]

The renowned historian and TV presenter AJP Taylor was brought up in Preston, by his ardently socialist parents. Paradoxically his father was partner in Bute Mill, once of Essex Street, […]

For 40 years the Courtaulds factory dominated the outskirts of Preston. At its peak over 4,000 people worked there. The factory was a pioneer of employing Muslim workers, and its […]

Ribble Motor Services was one of the biggest bus operators in the North West, if not the country. By the time they were bought by Stagecoach, in 1988, they had […]

The Preston Digital Archive has a fascinating collection of old trade advertisements from local guides and newspapers. Most magazines carried advertisements for everything from underwear to quack cold remedies. Here […]

Hoghton Tower has a long history stretching back to the 12th century. The building has seen attacks by Parliamentarian troops and visits from the King. Sir Henry Philip De Hoghton gambled […]

Preston was founded as a market town and was still largely agricultural, on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. The American War of Independence was coming to a close and […]