MAY 19TH, 2009
By ADMIN

Preston

Preston Lancashire UK Hub

Approximate Population: 131,900

Preston is a city and non-metropolitan district of Lancashire, in North West England. It is located on the north bank of the River Ribble, and was granted city status in 2002, becoming England’s 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Preston has a population of 131,900, and lies at the centre of the wider Preston sub-area, which has a population of 184,836, and the Central Lancashire sub-region, with a population of 335,000.

In the mid-12th century, Preston was in the hundred of Amounderness,in the deanery of Amounderness and the archdeaconry of Richmond. The name “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.

In the last great Jacobite Rising, on 27 November 1745 the Jacobite Prince of Wales and Regent, Bonnie Prince Charlie passed through Preston with his Highland Army on the way south through Chorley and Manchester to Derby intending to take London and the Crown.

Preston was the first of the very few places in England where the Prince was cheered as he rode by and where he was actually joined by some English volunteers for his Army. From 10 to 12 December the Prince gave his retreating Army a rest in Preston on their long, last and fatal retreat from Derby through Lancaster and Carlisle to their dreadful day of destiny the following 16 April on Culloden Moor near Inverness.