After Preston fell to the Parliamentarians in 1643, the escaped Gilbert Hoghton was pursued to Hoghton Tower. Captain Sharkey the Parliamentarian commander, approached the stronghold with trepidation. Importantly, several cannon […]

Brother fights brother as war erupts in Lancashire. Preston was often the centre of battles due to its strategic position on the North-South road to Scotland. Furthermore, early on during […]

Over the past month, I’ve been discovering some of Preston’s former cinema sites with the aid of local historian John Cotterall’s book ‘Preston’s Palaces of Pleasure’. It has been wonderful […]

The National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF) has given Mirador and the Ribble Rivers Trust the go-ahead to submit a development application with the aim of delivering the full, ambitious programme […]

Whittingham Hospital near Grimsargh was once the largest mental institution in the country. It was also used in both world wars, to treat soldiers. Whittingham eventually became like a small […]

Last month I posted the first part in my quest to locate some of Preston’s former cinema sites. At the height of the cinema boom, Preston boasted 22 cinemas, inspiring […]

People often say to me: “You must be fun at parties,” which is baffling, because I genuinely am not. In this though, I like to think I’ve found a kindred […]

The launch of Whittingham Lives new website is the legacy of a two-year arts and heritage project that explored the 150-year history of Whittingham Asylum in Preston. The project researched and critically […]