To be a burgess at Preston Guild is quite an honour. Putting yourself into a line that goes back centuries. It is a hereditary role so new ones are joined at the Guild Ceremony by existing burgesses and those who have had the honour passed down.
A former colleague who is a hereditary burgess jokingly described that when he appeared in the procession his pompous boss standing in the crowd nearly had a seizure.
Twenty new honorary burgesses for 2012 will be formally appointed at the Adjourned Guild Court on Saturday 8 September in the Guild Hall.
Their names have just been announced, it is an impressive list and good to read what they have done. They include some I’ve met and some recognised from their work such as:
Stephen Sartin who was art curator at the Harris Art Gallery and now presents interesting courses on the history of Preston at Alston Hall. With one on Preston Guild on the 10th August.
Alan Crosby of the Lancashire Records Office who knows all there is to know about the history of the area and also gives great local history lectures, without notes it seems.
Some of Preston most successful businesses: Edwin Booth of Booths Supermarket and Eddie Topping of Barton Grange. Ian Hall and Chris Miller whose businesses are familiar via their lorries have been a part of Preston for as long as most can remember.
Peter Ward who has spent a lot of time in Trade Union politics and charity work and who was once a long distance cyclist who we went to specially to watch in the Milk Race a very long time ago, maybe 50 years ago.
The full list with description of their work is contained on the Preston Council website which is linked here and downloads a pdf file. Impressive work.
Click here to the Council Guild Burgess webpage, the link to the names is halfway down on the left.