My Lancashire - My accounts of the local area

John Whitehead and Co. Syke-street, Preston Our Local Industries. No. 18. Published in the Preston Chronicle in November 1884, this article forms part of the newspaper's "Our Local Industries" series, which highlighted the leading manufacturers and businesses of the town. It provides a fascinating contemporary tour of the Albert Works in Syke Street, home of John Whitehead & Co., one of Britain's foremost makers of machinery for the brick, tile and sanitary pipe industries. As well as describing the workshops, foundry and machine shops in remarkable detail, the article reflects the pride Victorians took in engineering achievement, export success and industrial innovation. Like many nineteenth-century newspaper features, it also contains a generous measure of promotional enthusiasm, but it remains an invaluable snapshot of a Preston engineering firm whose machines were being exported throughout the world. ~ OUR LOCAL INDUSTRIES. MESSRS. JOHN. WHITEHEAD AND CO. BRIC...

Opening of the Harris Free Library and Museum. Interesting Ceremonial. The Harris Free Library & Museum in Preston on a 1903 Postcard Saturday October 28th 1893 | Preston Chronicle The following article is a contemporary newspaper account of the opening of the Harris Library in Preston, recording the speeches, ceremonies, and civic context surrounding one of the town’s most significant late‑nineteenth‑century benefactions. It documents not only the formal inauguration of the building, but also the wider legacy of Edmund Robert Harris and his trustees, whose endowments shaped Preston’s educational, cultural, and charitable institutions for generations. This text has been transcribed directly from the original printed source. The wording has been preserved verbatim, with only obvious mechanical OCR errors corrected. No attempt has been made to modernise language, alter emphasis, or abridge the content. The editorial material is confined strictly to this introduction; everything that...