A History of Preston

For a century and a half Preston was the archetypal Lancashire cotton town, with mills and terraced houses for the workers. Behind the economic might of firms such as Horrocks, there was hardship and squalor: Charles Dickens used Preston as the darkest face of Victorian industry in his novel "Hard Times". Yet Preston had been an important market town, administrative centre and transport hub for hundreds of years before the first mill, and since the demise of cotton the town has resumed these ancient roles with renewed vigour. With city status recently gained, and the 2012 Guild fast approaching, now is the time to re-evaluate Preston's unique and important place in the nation's history. This is a wonderful book, fully illustrated.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface to the first edition x Preface to the second edition xii 1 Early Preston 1 The first farmers 2 The Preston Dock finds 5 The Roman crossroads 7 Ribchester, Walton and Kirkham 8 Early Preston 12 The Cuerdale Hoard 14 Preston in the Domesday Book 15 2 The making of the royal borough 18 The great market 18 The early charters 22 The origins of Preston Guild 26 Priests, lepers and friars 29 Early prosperity and progress 33 3 The medieval landscape 39 The town's lands 43 Preston townfields 44 Avenham and the open fields 47 The Forest of Fulwood 49 4 Preston under the Tudors 54 The capital of Catholic Lancashire 58 5 Dr Kuerden's Preston 69 6 Life among the Prestonians 84 The Four and Twenty 89 Preston Court Leet 91 The economy and trade 93 Farming operations 101 Public health? 104 Civil disputes: fighting 107 7 The Civil War 110 The great Battle of Preston, 1648 121 The aftermath of war 125 8 The Jacobites 127 The Battle of Preston, 1715 130 The Young Pretender in Preston, 1745 136 9 Georgian Preston 138 Preston and the slave trade 139 Preston in 1774 144 Eighteenth-century Guilds 148 The Devis family of painters 150 The Derby Interest 151 The 'Great Election' of 1768 158 10 The early cotton masters 161 John Watson & Sons 165 John and Samuel Horrocks 169 The handloom weavers 175 The cotton masters and the Derby Interest 180 11 The making of a mill town 183 The new Preston 186 From tramway to railway 193 Progress of the cotton industry 199 The mill architecture of Preston 201 12 The making of livings 204 The Cotton Lords of Preston 204 A life in the mills 208 The Spinners' Strike of 1836 211 The Preston Chartists 214 The Great Lock-Out 217 Radical Preston 219 The end of the Derby Interest? 220 Sectarianism 222 13 Victorian Preston 223 Joseph Livesey and the seven men of Preston 224 T. B. Addison and the workhouse question 228 Missions and missionaries 231 The Lancashire Cotton Famine 237 The progress of Preston 240 Success to Preston Docks 248 Preston Scientific Society 252 Preston North End: The Invincibles 254 14 Preston between the wars 256 War work 258 Preston under the hammer 264 The depression and recovery 267 The new industries 269 The housing boom: the new suburbia 272 North End between the wars 276 Wartime Preston 279 Bombs and rockets 281 Little America 281 'How are things in Preston?' 282 15 The Brave New World 284 Preston weaves out 284 The technological revolution 285 Towards a prouder Preston: housing 291 Town-centre developments 295 The Preston by-pass and the new roads 297 The new city 300 A cosmopolitan society 303 Keep right on to the end of the road - 304 16 The City of Preston 308 The story so far 308 Life among the Prestonians 309 The Preston Metropolis 314 England's newest city 317 The Italian Job 318 'The third city of the North West' 322 Notes to the text 325 Index 344

About the Author :
Dr David Hunt is curator of South Ribble Museums