History of Preston 1780 to 1900
Preston developed its cotton industry from around 1780. Early production was based on Hargreaves 'Spinning Jenny' and Cromptons 'Mule' which required hand, horse or windmill to power it. The reason for this being that Preston had no fast running streams so the Arkwrights water frame could not be used.
Names such as Horrocks are still known to this date. It is over 200 years since John Horrocks died. One of the major founders of cotton in Preston. The old wall that stood on London Road facing New Hall Lane was Horrocks mill and only recently became a Sainsbury Homebase. This factory was a massive undertaking filling a large area close to the centre of the town. A model is in the Harris Museum. High brick walls against the street are typical in Preston, there is one in Roebuck Street.
Several of Prestons finest buildings came from the era of the cotton moguls. Harris Library and Institute, Miller Arcade, Town Hall (destroyed by fire). The parks; Avenham, Miller, Moor, Haslam and Ashton were built around the mid-1800's largely to employ people hit by the cotton famine of the 1860's.
The first spinning mill was built by William Collison about 1777 in Moor Lane. In 1785 John Watson built a factory in Lower Penwortham. In 1785 a factory in Dale Street was built which was bought by John Watson in 1803.
John Horrocks built his first Preston factory in Dale Street in 1791. It was called the 'Yellow Factory' after its faded whitewash and was so large that its sponsors panicked. By 1820 Preston had around 12 mills and by 1846 there were 42 employing 20% of the population. In 1845 the largest power loom weaving shed in the world was built by William Ainsworth. By 1850 there were 64 mills. The peak of Prestons growth was being reached fairly soon in the Lancashire Cotton cycle as towns like Oldham built newer and larger mills later.
In 1799 Mr Cross bought a field from Mr Winckley and created Winckley Square. An area for the gentry, set away and upwind of the industry that was changing the town. The houses were all built to order over a period of 50 years by the wealthy of the day. The Horrocks brothers were wealthy enough to live out of town, at Penwortham Lodge and Lark Hill. The area also hosted the main educational establishments, Preston Grammar, Catholic College, Dr Shepherds Library, the Literary and Philosophical Society and gentlemens club, most of these were knocked down in the 1960's. The square originally took the form of flower beds and patches of trees but later was apportioned to the houses for gardens before returning to an open area.
The late 18th Century and early 19th Centrury was a time of war, with Britain on one side and France, Spain, Holland and America on the other. Shipping across the Atlantic was threatened by privateers who would take the cargo and the ships. Ships formed convoys to protect themselves and the main shipping port became Liverpool as it was large enough to harbour a convoy. Lancaster began to decline as a port. Cotton and Sugar being the main cargoes inbound. The Royal Navy was expanded and became master of the seas to underpin Britains trade. The Battles of Trafalgar, Waterloo and American War of Independance settled the situation and trade was able to flow better. Britain also looked towards Asia for trade.
In 1802 the Guild Merchant celebration was taken over by the cotton industry and adapted to the changes in the town.
An Ordnance Survey map of 1840 shows how the town developed. The central core of housing contained an orchard where the covered market stands, so Orchard Street led to an orchard. The Corn Exchange which became the Public Hall was a 2 storey market with a central courtyard area. At the back was the canal wharf with the Tram Road going to Avenham and the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Of note at this time are the mills which are not yet surrounded by housing except for Horrocks Yard Mill. For example Greenbank, Moorbrook, Brookfield, Ribbleton Lane Mills are in fields. Deepdale Road is there and there is a House of Recovery where the hospital used to be and a bit further out is the Workhouse surrounded by fields. Another item on this map is that the electoral wards are called; St Johns, St Georges, St Peters, Trinity, Christchurch and Fishwick - the church obviously played a big part. Another feature is that the route over the river at Penwortham uses only the little old bridge that is at the end of Broadgate. The railway line south, the Tram Road bridge and London Road / Walton Bridge being the other crossings.
The population of Preston grew from 12,000 in 1800 to 70,000 in 1850 and 100,000 by 1880. The housing development was largely ad hoc with building of terraced houses around mills. No made up roads that became full of mud and open sewage. These conditions gradually spread. Church Street, Avenham Lane, New Hall Lane, Friargate all contained closely packed houses with ginnels, industrial buildings, slaughterhouses. Except for Winckley Square with its pleasant Georgian houses.
This population growth also demanded an increase in religious establishments and the first half of the 19th century saw a period of large church building. In 1840 there were 7 main CofE churches, 4 RC, 13 classed in 1840 as dissenters (which also at that time included RC), which were: 2 Independents, 2 Wesleyian, 2 Baptist, Unitarian, Friends, Primitives, Episcopalians, Huntingdonians, Scotch, Sandemanians. At that time St Andrews wasn't considered as in Preston(check?).
The growth in population was noted by the army who transferred the 20th Fusiliers from Devon to Lancashire in 1798, initially to Preston and recruited 300 new soldiers in the town. They later changed name to the Lancashire Fusiliers and moved to Bury where there is an interesting and modern Royal Fusiliers museum.
It was 1880 before rules became established about such taken for granted things as a front door step so that the ground floor was above the level of the road, backyards containing a water closet with an access along the back of the house. In the late 19th Century Preston was for 15 years the town with the highest numbers of infant mortalities in Britain with figures of over 250 deaths per 1000. Surprising that with development of transport and communications; canals in 1790's, railways in 1830's, telegraph in 1850's, docks in 1880's, sporting clubs in the 1860's and fine public parks that life wasn't more amenable.
The latter part of the 19th Century brought some significant buildings; the Town Hall 1862 (burnt down 1947), Covered Market in 1875, Harris Library and Art Gallery finished in 1893, Miller Arcade finished 1898 so Preston was taking on a look that is familiar today.
The Town Hall was built in the period 1862-6 on the place of the existing town hall next to the Flag Market. It was a Gothic style similar to many built in that era and affordable through the wealth of cotton. The architect was Sir George Gilbert Scott a leading designer of the time who also built St Pancras station in London. Preston Town Hall though not too grand in size, unlike Manchester Town Hall which was built later at enormous cost, had a lot of fine detail and was considered one of the best in the UK. It had the look of a church with a clock tower like Big Ben. It is said that if Preston had waited a bit longer a grander hall would have been built. Unfortunately it burnt in 1947 and the council voted to have the remains destroyed.
The Harris Museum was built adjacent to it in the late 1880's to a classical style by a local architect James Hibbert. The classical style was said to be out of date by some at that time, although it's now a jewel, Grade 1 listed.
The 1882 Guild took on a more regional and national view with mayors from the surrounding towns and cities invited.
1887, a wrecked boat, the Mexico, a German ship, was salvaged and repaired in Preston after sinking in the Ribble estuary. Previously in December 1886 it set off from Liverpool to Ecuador, became grounded and began to break up at night in the mouth of the River Ribble in a bad storm. Three lifeboats set out from St Annes, Lytham and Southport rowing in heavy seas. Two lifeboats were lost with 27 crewmen only 2 surviving, the biggest loss of lifeboat crew in the UK. The Lytham boat managed to reach the wreck and save all the 12 crew who were brought to land before they set out again to find the lost lifeboatmen. Imagine doing that, I bet their wives were worried. The great bravery of these men is commemorated at St Annes with the lifeboat memorial, a statue close to the pier. The Lytham coxswain Thomas Clarkson getting an RNLI Silver Medal. 30,000 people attended the first Lifeboat Saturday Fund event in Manchester which was started as a result of the disaster by St Annes businessman Sir Charles Macara. This eventually became the Lifeboat Flag Day run by the RNLI.
On the 30th November 1899 1100 men of the South Lancashire Regiment and 150 reservists of the North Lancashire Regiment who had been based at Fulwood Barracks marched through Preston to the railway station. This was quite an occasion in Preston said never to have been repeated with such exuberance. The people of Preston had donated a pipe and one pound of tobacco to each of the troops and as they marched, accompanied by bands, down Deepdale Road, Church Street and Fishergate the roads were packed with thousands of well wishers. They boarded the train which was to take them to Liverpool and every station on the route was packed with well wishers. At Liverpool they boarded the SS Canada and sailed to South Africa to the Boer War. Another battalion of the South Lancs was said to have left Warrington watched by 80,000 people. (ref. Red Roses on the Veldt, Lancashire regiments in the Boer War 1899-1902 by John Downham).
Winckley Square website: http://www.winckleysquare.org.uk/