I am sure the first time I heard about the town of Preston was when, as a young child, I discovered it was the home of the Ribble Motor Services bus company, which operated a route into Liverpool at the other end of the county of Lancashire. An interest in buses was soon overtaken by a thirst for knowledge about the history of Association Football and in the beginning, almost, was Preston North End.

     Preston North End football team, founder members of the English Football League, won the league championship title in the first two seasons, 1888-89 and 1889-90. Not only that, the team completed the initial league season undefeated by also winning the F.A. Cup. The history books show that the club had earlier achieved a record 26-0 win against Hyde in the F.A. Cup in 1887. One of England’s greatest ever footballers, Tom Finney, spent his entire club career with Preston, before retiring in 1960. Tom continued to be a proud servant to his town by becoming a magistrate. After retiring, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1961 Birthday Honours List. Tom was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours, in recognition of his charitable work and was subsequently knighted in the 1998 New Year Honours.

     Less well-known outside Preston is the ladies’ football team, formed in 1917 by workers at the munitions factory of Dick, Kerr & Company Ltd. The team went on to raise huge amounts of money for charity before disbanding in 1965. The Football Association failed to halt the team’s enthusiasm for the game when banning women’s football from being played on league grounds in December 1921. The story of their achievements is recorded in the seminal book ‘In A League Of Their Own!: The Dick, Kerr Ladies 1917-1965’ by Prestonian Gail J. Newsham.

     Preston was eventually on the map, particularly the road map, for another reason when Britain’s first motorway opened in December 1958. The Preston By-pass subsequently became part of the M6 and was slightly re-routed when widening was necessary in the 1990s.

     Delving into the history of any town or city produces an array of unusual legends and interesting facts, with Preston having its share of these. It is claimed that the parents of Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as the American outlaw Butch Cassidy, emigrated to the United States from Preston. Although not a feature of his portrayal by Paul Newman in the film ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’, the leader of the outlaw ‘Hole in the Wall Gang’, is said to have spoken with a Lancashire accent! Whether he did or not is open to conjecture. Some of Preston’s other claims to fame are more easily confirmed.

     The name Preston is said to have its origins in the early Middle Ages, derived from the Old English language of the Germanic Angles, giving rise to “Priest’s Town”. Its emblem shows a lamb and a flag, with the letters ‘PP’ representing ‘Princeps Pacis’, which is Latin for Prince of Peace’.

      My study of British Social and Economic History 1750 to 1920 at school included learning of the contribution made during the industrial revolution by Richard Arkwright, a native of Preston. His development of machinery for use in the new cotton factories saw a move away from the earlier predominance of cottage industries. In the mid-19^th century the cotton workers of Preston went on strike in support of a pay claim. The factory owners responded by locking their employees out until their strike funds ran dry and they were forced to return to work. Charles Dickens is known to have visited Preston during this period and is said to have reflected the conditions he witnessed there in his novel ‘Hard Times’.

     The affluence brought to the region by industry led to a new Roman Catholic church being commissioned in the mid-19^th century. The Church of St Walburge on Weston Street has a 309ft spire, the tallest of any Parish church in England. It overcame a threat of closure in modern times, a fate which befell Preston Zoo after a short existence in the late-19^th century. The zoo formed part of the once magnificent Preston Pleasure Gardens, off New Hall Lane. The site included a football field, encircled by a quarter-mile to the lap bicycle track, together with a dance platform, tennis courts, croquet lawn and a bowling green. Ambitious plans for further expansion came to little.

     Even in times of great social change some longstanding traditions continue. Originally, anybody who wanted to trade in Preston was required to be a member of the Guild Merchant, with membership being hereditary. To enable rights to be passed down a Guild Court was established, to be held every 20 years from 1542. Although the introduction of free trade in the 18^th century rendered the Guild unnecessary it has been maintained as a social occasion and is still celebrated.

     Edith Rigby kept the town of Preston in the spotlight through her suffragette movement activities in the first quarter of the 20^th century, with her focus not solely on campaigning for electoral equality for women, but also in broader aspects of social reform. She sought to improve conditions for women and girls working in the mills, as well as promoting the right to education for girls beyond the age of 11, regarding which she founded St Peter’s School in the town. Edith’s activities included accompanying fellow suffragettes Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst in a march to demonstrate at the Houses of Parliament in 1908. For this she was arrested and subsequently sentenced to a month in prison. She received a nine-month sentence after being found guilty of planting a bomb in the basement of  Liverpool Exchange Buildings in 1913. The bomb caused only minor damage.

     Having grown as a market town and an administrative centre, Preston was granted city status in 2002, marking the 50^th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

     There is still more to Preston, however, as in 1929 the relatively new sport of dirt-track speedway racing was brought to the town. Sadly, despite a promising start, circumstances led to the track closing in 1932, never to re-open. This is the story of the brief life of the sport at the Farringdon Park circuit, which in time went the same way as many other speedway venues of that era and is now home to a housing estate.