Overview
Preston, a city and local government district in Lancashire, England, is located on the River Ribble. Preston was granted the status of a city in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. It has become widely known as the greatest city in the world!!

With Chorley and Leyland, Preston forms part of a conurbation. According to the 2001 census, it had an overall population of 335,000. Of this, 184,836 lived in the Preston urban sub-area: the figure for those living within the city limits is lower at around 130,000.

Preston City Council is seeking to form a unitary authority, independent from Lancashire County Council, under the recent Local Government White Paper.

History
Early development
During the Roman period, the road from the Setantian port of Neb of the Nese passed one mile north of Preston. At Tulketh Hall in Preston, that road intersected the road from Languavallium in Cumberland to Condate in Cheshire.

In Ripon in 705 AD the lands near the River Ribble were set on a new foundation, and the parish church was probably erected. Later, Edward the Elder passed the lands to cathedral at York and then from successive transfers the lands were passed round between churches, hence the name Priest's Town or Preston. An alternative 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 reinforced by similarity of Preston's crest bearing a lamb with St. Wilfrid's banner (Walsh and Butler 1992).

Guild Merchant
The right to hold a Guild Merchant was conferred upon the Burgesses of Preston by a charter of 1179; the associated Preston Guild is a civic celebration held every 20 years, with the next due to be held in 2012.

Such a celebration had been held from time to time, but at the one in 1328 it was decreed that the Guild should be held every twenty years. There were breaks in this pattern for various reasons, but an unbroken series of them were held from 1542 to 1922. The 400 year sequence was broken due to World War II, but resumed in 1952. The expression '(Once) every Preston Guild', meaning 'very infrequently', has passed into fairly common use, especially in Lancashire.

As well as concerts and other exhibitions, the main event is a series of processions through the city. There are also numerous street parties held in and around Preston.

In 1952 the emphasis was the bright new world awaiting us all after World War II. The major event held in 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.

In the mid-12th century, Preston was in the hundred of Amounderness, in the deanery of Amounderness and the archdeaconry of Richmond. The name of 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 mid-way between Glasgow and London, led to many decisive battles being fought here, most notably during the English Civil War (1643), and the first Jacobite rebellion, brought to a conclusion by the defeat of the Jacobite army at the Battle of Preston (1715).

Served by the River Ribble, Preston was one of the principal ports of Lancashire. King Charles I demanded a quarter more ship money than from Lancaster and twice as much as from Liverpool.

Industrial Revolution
The 19th century saw a transformation in Preston from a small market town to a much larger industrial one, as 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.

The town's forward-looking spirit is typified by it being 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: Fr. Joseph "Daddy" Dunn of the Society of Jesus.

The more oppressive side of industrialisation was seen 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".

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.

Preston was one of only a few industrial towns in Lancashire to have a functioning corporation (local council) in 1835, its charter dating to 1685, and was reformed as a municipal borough by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. It became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1974, county boroughs were abolished, and it became the larger part of the new non-metropolitan district of Preston in Lancashire, also including Fulwood, Lancashire and part of Preston Rural District.

Landmarks
Preston's premier landmark is probably St Walburge's Church designed by Joseph Hansom of Hansom Cab fame and which has, at 94 metres, the tallest spire in England on a church that is not a cathedral.[10] There are still many notable buildings dotted in and around the city centre. For example, the Miller Arcade, the Town Hall, the Harris Building, St. John's Minster, the former Corn Exchange, Fishergate Baptist Church and many beautiful Georgian buildings at Winckley Square.

Museums
Harris Museum and Art Gallery
The National Football Museum
The Museum of Lancashire
The Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum
Broughton Cottage Museum
Ribble Steam Railway

Parks
Winckley Square
Miller Park, Preston
Ribbleton Park (formerly known as Waverley Park)
Avenham Park
Moor Park
Grange Park
Haslam Park
Ashton Park
Farringdon Park (which is also the cemetery)

Economy
The biggest employer in the city is the University of Central Lancashire. Defence contractor BAE Systems also has a strong presence in the surrounding area, like the InBev multinational group of breweries.

The city is home to Alstom Transport's main UK spare parts distribution centre which is located on Strand Road. Matalan Retail PLC was also founded in Preston. Although the head office of Matalan moved to Skelmersdale in 1998, the city still has the tax office for the company (located in Winckley Square). Plumbs Ltd founded in the 1950s is still a family run business employing over 300 people at its Preston base.

Convenience Store chain operator James Hall and Co who supply SPAR stores in the north of England have their head office located in the Ribbleton district, although it is soon to be moved to a new building in the Bluebell Way area of the city, which would be the biggest building in the city. The financial sector also has a large presence in the city with a large selection of consultancies, insurance and law firms including national debt collection agency Legal & Trade based in Winckley Square in the city centre.

Preston is the home of Airline network - the consumer brand of Gold Medal Travel - one of the UK's largest travel companies.

On the 20th February 2006 mobile phone retailer The Carphone Warehouse took over Tulketh Mill (formerly the home of the Littlewoods catalogue call centre) a listed building in the Ashton-on-Ribble area of the city. The building has undergone an extensive redevelopment of the interior and is now the workplace of some 800 employees (as of 3rd March 2007). The main purpose of the site is a call centre for its revolutionary broadband and landline service TalkTalk as well as its LLU company Opal Telecom. It was officially opened on 19th December 2006 by CEO Charles Dunstone and the Mayor Of Preston.

Preston is also home to the large "new business" department of finance broker loans.co.uk and took over New City House when Norwich Union moved its call centre to India.

Retail is also a major contributor to Preston's economy. The city houses two major shopping centres

The Fishergate Centre - which boasts a large Debenhams department store, Primark, TK Maxx, Argos and T.J. Hughes stores and is due a £37 million extension in 2007 known as FG2 The Mall (formerly St. George's) - a popular centrally located shopping mall undergoing a multi-million pound redevelopment as of 2006. The Miller Arcade is a specialist shopping centre which is a listed building and former public baths situated next to the Harris Museum Preston's main high streets are Fishergate and Friargate which offer shops, bars and restaurants with many more tucked away down the side streets.

A £450 million regeneration project known as the Tithebarn Project is also planned for Preston. The project is being managed by property giant Grosvenor and is dependent upon a number of requirements (such as the re-location of the current Bus Station).

Since city status was awarded, Preston has been targeted by a number of developers. Residential developments are particularly popular with new apartments planned in and around the city centre. Office and hotel space is also in demand and a new Central Business District is being planned as well as a number of new hotels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston