Around Preston

Freckleton is a village on the north side of the Ribble Estuary, between Preston and Lytham. The A584 now passes by the north of the village. The centre of the village is marked by a fenced off garden with the war memorial; previously this was the village green.  The village green is formed from three roads that make up a triangle. From here roads lead in various directions. To the south-southeast the road goes to Lytham, via Warton. To the north-northwest, there is a road to Kirkham. To the southeast in Preston Old Road, which then heads east, then northeast, at which point is crossed Freckleton Pool, and headed east-northeast to a tollhouse, and then due each towards Preston, across Freckleton Marsh. The tollhouse is still there are visible from the A584; it is now a farmhouse. In 1920, a new road was built, now called Preston New Road, coming in to the village green from the northeast. A roundabout less than 100 m up the road makes the start of the bypass, built in 1992. This vi...

Ormskirk is a sizeable town about half way between Preston a Liverpool that I had not even been though until today.  Ormskirk is Norse for dragon church, though the dragon part was probably the name of the guy who founded a church here. that said, there are no records or archaeology to support the claim. The south end of Burscough Street is the most attractive part; it is narrow and pedestrianised. This is looking south from where it is crossed by Derby Street - north of here is not so attractive. You can just see the Buck i' th' Vine pub; here it is in all its glory. This grade II listed building was built in the seventeenth century as a coaching inn for the road from Liverpool to Preston. Originally the Roebuck , I understand it is generally just called the Buck . Ormskirk has its own arcade... Blink and you miss it. At the bottom of the street in the clock tower which, I guess, marks the centre of the town. I was there on market day! South from the clocktower is Aughton Str...

 Friargate is the second main shopping road in Preston. Its south end joins Market Street at the Flag Market, just north of Fishergate, the biggest shopping street. It heads northwest, to meet Fylde Road at the university. Apparently Friargate was home to Preston's first catholic church and first Indian restaurant, and at one time was the main commercial road. The name relates to a Franciscan monastery founded in 1221, and apparently the exact location of the friary is unknown . Franciscan monks dressed in grey robes, and hence there is a Wetherspoons called  The Grey Friar. In 1991 the street was bifurcated by the Ring Road, which did it no favours. The shorter section south of the Ring Road is still busy - though a lot of shops are empty - but the north section not so much. There is work in progress to pedestrianise the north section, which may improve it, and its proximity to the university certainly helps. We will start from the end of Flyde Road, where this page...

History Marsh Lane runs from Friargate in the east to The Strand in the west. In the nineteenth century the first bit was Bridge Street, as far as the canal (which is no longer there), and was then Bridge Lane as far as Bow Lane (the north end of which was Spring Street at that time). From there, it was Marsh Lane, so called because it went to Preston Marsh. In 1825, New Quay was built just beyond the end of the lane, which was very quickly renamed Victoria Quay, and was about where Evans Halshaw is today. At this time there was a pub at the end of the lane called the New Quay Inn. When the dock was built, the course of the river was modified, and a new quay, Diversion Quay, built to handle ships while the dock was built (more on that here ). However, the road entrance to the docks remained at the same place, even after the dock opened (with a second at the north end of The Strand, and later a third opposite Old Docks House), and by 1890 a second pub across Marsh Lane from the New Quay...