Winckley Square is being restored and work is well underway. Paths are being resurfaced and a direction marker will be placed in the centre pointing to items of historical interest around the square. The Peel statue will be cleaned and an illuminated walkway across the square created.
Until the work is completed Groundworks are running a guided tour at 12noon every Friday from the Winckley Street entrance.
More information about the Winckley Square area is on our website including some sketches of lost buildings.
Several interesting projects are moving ahead in Preston as reported only 2 months ago and now we have 3 more with progress to report.
Work has started to restore Winckley Square which will have as its main feature a lit walkway from the Peel Statue to a central area and then straight across to the other side. Barton Grange, known best for their top quality garden centre, are doing the work.
Also the council approved the covered market proposal which will create an indoor market inside the larger canopy and a market made of containers under the smaller one. As the canopies are listed buildings and their full extent is one of their major features care is being taken to ensure they can be appreciated, we hope.
Also Hemingway Design have been been appointed to interpret the public interface of the Harris Museum, Library and Art Gallery along with Purcell to be architects. It will be interesting to discover what is being proposed.
Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Saturday 10th September, 10am to 5pm. Architectural Gem Tour 12noon. Egyptian Balcony 1pm t0 3pm. Virtual Egyptian Balcony Tour 1pm and 2pm.
Haslam Park & Local Nature Reserve, Saturday 10th, Sunday 11th walks at 11am and 2pm.
Hidden Art Nouveau, 1&2 Lune Street, Saturday 10th September, 10am to 5pm. Sunday 11th September 11am to 3pm.
Lancashire Archives, Saturday 10th September, 10am to 4pm
Museum of Lancashire, Saturday 10th September tours at 11am, 12noon, 1.30pm, 2.30pm.
Preston Playhouse, Sunday 11th September, 10am to 4pm.
Winckley Square Gardens, Saturday 10th September and Sunday 11th September, tours 11am, 1pm, 3pm.
For full information and any booking details where necessary, download the pdf that is on our website click on this link:
June brought us four interesting proposals for existing major buildings in Preston.
First we had a proposal to turn the historic Corn Exchange into a swish VIP bar and nightclub.
Next came a plan for the iconic Park Hotel building overlooking Miller Park, realising the potential of one of Preston’s outstanding features. This is to turn it from offices to being a hotel with a bridge to the railway station. Also to knock down the 1960’s building next door, a wonderful idea giving full prominence to the hotel’s features and location. This sounds a great scheme from every aspect assuming it has a financial basis or even if it hasn’t maybe to those who enjoy Preston’s vistas. The plan includes transferring the building to Lancashire County Council Pension Scheme.
The proposed hotel overlooking Miller Park Preston
Then it was announced that Signature Living of Liverpool were in the process of buying the old Post Office building next to the Cenotaph for use as a boutique hotel. They already have two hotels in Liverpool. This fits well with the leisure schemes for the area.
Finally in late June there is a proposal to change the frontage of the Guild Hall and introduce a bowling alley and other features. The frontage being moved to face onto the redeveloped bus station.
Completing four out of four will be rated outstanding with 5 stars.
The Lancashire Archives are held in Bow Lane Preston and contain an extensive collection of textile information reflecting Lancashire’s position as the centre of the world’s textile industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The plan is to hire an archivist to catalogue and promote the collection. An appeal for £12,000 has been made and donations can be made either on line or by post. Please read more on the Friends of Lancashire Archives Website linked below.
It was announced that the proposed Youth Zone building was too close to the listed bus station building (something we commented on in our first post on the subject). The building has been moved to retain the integrity of the Grade 2 listed bus station design and reshaped from the rather ugly rounded shape to a square one. This is quite an improvement although it seems a bit blank on the upper section.
Preston Bus Station and Youth Zone modified design
The new road layout on Fishergate is looking good. Friendly to pedestrians which is what city centres should be about. But it is more pleasant for walkers overall.
Work in Winckley Square has been started. It will restore the garden look of the square. Some of the big trees are being felled and will be replaced with smaller ones. A heritage budget of £1.2m has been obtained.
The vision is to make the Harris a big regional tourist attraction. There must be a lot of opinions ranging from academic and cultural interest to all out commercial interest. How would the Virgin Harris Museum sound? How do you fit in the Lancashire Library or should it be there at all. Madame Tussaud’s hasn’t got a library. Click on the survey and have a say.
As part of the City Deal, Preston will get new homes in the centre at Avenham and Winckley Square, plus new homes at the north west corner.
New roads including a Broughton by-pass and western link road from the M55 and potentially a Penwortham by-pass and later a new western bridge over the Ribble.
Couple that with the electrification of the railway and nearly 300 new trains on order, change is going to come.
Lancashire County Council put a number of proposals forward to reduce their expenditure to meet the allocated budget from the government.
Some headlines are the closure of the Museum of Lancashire on Stanley Street, plus several other museums including Helmshore and Queens Street Mill in Burnley which are interesting presentations of Lancashire’s cotton industry. Helmshore having a display of Richard Arkwright, born in Preston and inventor of the water frame.
Over half of the Lancashire Libraries are slated to be closed. Some unofficial comment being that areas with 2 libraries will have one closed. Also rural bus services are to be cut back including the Fleetwood to Wyre Ferry which has been on regional TV.
In some cases it appears the proposal has been made in the hope that it will encourage other funding sources to come forward. Perhaps the Fleetwood ferry is one and all over the country libraries are being kept open by volunteer staff.
Some comment on the news from an East Lancashire MP was that Lancashire has taken on board Preston bus station and is a waste of money.
Whether thse proposals are approved will be discussed in council this week.
Preston Historical Society along with the Harris Museum, UCLan and Lancashire Archives are putting on a series of events related to the Battle of Preston, the last battle on English soil. Also an excellent series of articles in Blog Preston written by Karen Doyle of PHS, linked below.
A sound, light and performance on Church Street. Sunday 15th November 4.30 to 6.30pm.
On 10th November at 1.30pm in the Market Square there will a Proclamation of James III.
Plus several talks, debates and study sessions:
Wednesday 11th November 7.30pm Jacobites in the Archives at Lancashire Archives, Bow Lane.
Wednesday 11th November 7.30pm The Build up to the Battle of Preston, at Garstang URC Hall, small charge.
Saturday 14th November 10am to 4pm Discover the Battle of Preston activity day in Preston Minster.
Sunday 15th November 3pm to 3.50pm Commemorative Service in Preston Minster.
Tuesday 17th November 12.30-1.30pm Reflections on Rebellion, talks and debate with historians from UCLan at the Harris.
Thursday 19th November 12.30-1.30pm Reflections on Rebellion, talks and debate with historians from UCLan at the Harris.
Saturday 21st November 9.30am to 4pm The Jacobite Rebellion study day at UCLan, £10.
Monday 7th December 7.15pm Battle of Preston aftermath, talk by Bill Shannon. Preston Minster, £5.
Commemoration events Battle of Preston-1715
An excellent series of articles in Blog Preston written by Karen Doyle can be found on the link below:
Disappointing news that J.Fishwick of Leyland will cease trading after 108 years. The last bus service was on Saturday 24th October 2015. An announcement on their website said that anyone who had paid a deposit on a holiday would be contacted separately and the payment was covered by an insurance bond. That must be relief to anyone who was worried about losing their money and it’s certainly to their credit that the company took this measure which must have cost them to take out.
An announcement reported in the Chorley Guardian said cashflow was the problem and it was becoming more difficult for small companies to operate. Stagecoach have taken over the routes and a bus labelled Stagecoach Merseyside was operating last week.
There are quite a lot of small companies operating buses and they do seem to move in and out of routes using small buses. It doesn’t look easy and there have been threats to remove subsidies for rural routes.
Fishwick began trading as a haulage company in 1907 but soon moved in to buses and in the 1960s into holiday trips. There are several buses in preservation carrying the green livery, one usually in the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland. Quite a surprise, sad feeling coupled with some annoyance to find they’ve gone. The world is a less varied place without them.
Denis Healey, a forceful Londoner brought up as a Yorkshireman, died this weekend at the grand age of 98. After impressive war service, gaining an MBE in 1945, he joined the Labour Party becoming an MP in 1952. He was a minister through a turbulent time in British politics between 1964 and 1979 and in the shadow cabinet up to 1987, retiring in 1992. As new Defence Secretary in 1964 he made decisions that had a major effect in Preston.
The TSR2 was a big project to build Britain’s next bomber. Stuffed with the latest high technology it was a large aircraft to be able to fly at supersonic speed beneath the Iron Curtain at night. The British aerospace industry had been restructured around the aircraft with Preston’s English Electric Aviation plants transferring to the newly formed British Aircraft Corporation.
On election in 1964 the new government significantly cut defence expenditure and with it the TSR2, which was to be replaced by the American F111, an order that was also later cancelled at some cost.
At the time this resulted in thousands of redundancies, but it also spawned the beneficial era of international collaboration in defence projects. At the Preston area sites this includes; the Anglo French Jaguar, the Anglo-German-Italian Tornado and 4 nation Eurofighter Typhoon which have brought expansion, good jobs and continuity of work to the area despite ups and downs.
Sometimes major disruption can be for the better in the longer term although the cycle continues.
Just a footnote perhaps in the career of Denis Healey. RIP.
The fairly new mall next to Preston Railway Station is to be given a facelift subject to Council approval. The £25m development will include a Vue Cinema, new restaurant area and better links into the car park.
It’s an interesting plan to have a restaurant areas in what is a more relaxed spot than most and the cinema can present an alternative activity.
Since Curry’s, Hughes and the Discount Book Store closed the centre has seemed to be reduced as an attraction, this should help recover it.
Preston Bus Station’s winning design. Not the one we’d have preferred as it looks a bit conventional and lacking impact. Also it sits too close to the Bus Station. A Grade 2 building is meant to be protected. One of the features of the bus station is its lines which are shortened by the addition. Also the extension presents a plain wall to the front of the building which will be a cold and lonely place.
We thought we’d do a bit of walking on the 21 miles long Preston Guild Wheel circular trail. To date the only section we’ve walked is from Avenham Park to the Docks or vice versa. Although it’s not exactly tranquil it’s quite decent walking with good river bridge views.
The most obvious start is in Avenham Park and walk either to the Docks or to Brockholes Wildlife Trust Reserve. Although getting back from Brockholes probably favours parking there and doing a section in either direction and doubling back.
Walking along the Lancaster Canal Millenium Link and north is another decent section.
There are stretches that not walker friendly: the A6 at Broughton and D’Urton Lane, the section from the Crematorium to the M6 access road and Riversway. Also the route is intersected by main roads. But otherwise there are some good stretches for fairly peaceful walking and well finished paths.
So now it’s seek out start and finish points with either a bus service or car park.
In February UCLan unveiled ambitious plans to better integrate the university into Preston City Centre getting rid of the roundabout at Adelphi. The plans have wide local political support and will start with the new Engineering Block next year.
Having been a part-time engineering student at the Harris College in the 1960’s and early 70’s it’s hard to comprehend the growth in full time student numbers. The Harris used to offer City & Guilds, HNC and HND and the students I recall were mainly from the British Aircraft Corporation, British Gas, Norweb and Dorman Smith. HNC students did one day and one night a week, HND students full time study with work placements.
Graphic Artists were in the building off Corporation Street and Fine Artists in the Avenham Institute Building. At some stage we were based in Trinity School which seemed a bit like a prison camp. In the 70’s you could still park your car in most places in the town centre and getting a spot in the college car park was possible if you arrived early enough.
University of Central Lancashire, UCLan, recently announced a new Engineering Innovation Centre to be opened in 2018. The new building will be located near the Adelphi close to the heart of the UCLan Campus. It will contain equipment to enable technology demonstration and specialist work with an objective of producing engineers trained with a broad scope of relevant technical and personal skills and the ability to use teamwork and project management. The centre will also liaise with local schools to promote engineering and provide the skills that will be needed in the future.
UCLan already provides courses in aerospace and motor sport, robotics, electrical and mechanical engineering. This new centre will enable specialist and project based work and support local industry also new courses in oil and gas safety and aerospace engineering.
This sounds an interesting scheme, we frequently hear that companies like Rolls Royce Aero Engines have to recruit qualified engineers from Germany. There is a skills gap in the UK caused largely by the decline in engineering base since 1950, and its lack of modern image. Yet working on unmanned aircraft and cars, creating apps and devices we don’t yet know about is surely an exciting prospect for anyone with a willingness to seek the future. It’s vital to the UK to keep abreast with technology if we’re to create jobs needing specialist skills with good salaries, and pay our way in the world.
UCLan Engineering Innovation Centre planned for 2018
Preston is home to Lancashire County Council and perhaps that is why Preston has never rocked the boat and become a Unitary Council such as Blackburn & Darwen and Blackpool. Talk of devolution to the north of England opens the doors to many options and perhaps is one reason why it’s unlikely to happen.
Lancashire already has the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and a City Deal to focus investment covering Preston and it’s surrounding area. Recently Manchester has been given bigger powers and control of budgets in return for having an elected Mayor. Could this be done for Preston and in effect would this be more like splitting Lancashire into west, east and perhaps north. With Preston being the centre of the western part.
The metropolitan boroughs such as Wigan and Bolton are effectively single tier government. With Wigan having 75 councillors by combining what was formerly 14 separate councils. Greater Manchester is managed by a Combined Authority of a representative councillor from each borough.
Whether dividing Lancashire into Preston, Lancaster and Burnley regions would provide advantage isn’t clear. It would reduce elections if Lancashire was run like Greater Manchester. There are personal attachments to the name Lancashire so sentiment might play a part as much as logic.
The rural areas of such a region would be Conservative while Preston itself would be Labour. Who would hold the balance? This creates another difficulty as the strongly Conservative rural areas would not want to effectively give up their autonomy if it could be outvoted in a bigger council and vice versa. Wigan and its merged constituents is almost entirely Labour so there is no political obstacle.
It could also be said that local accountability is better based upon Lancashire and the smaller local councils that we have now.
