My Lancashire - My accounts of the local area

The Mystery of Preston's Last Tram Stop I can't remember how I first came to be looking at this roadside shelter structure.  I have passed it on numerous occasions, which amounts to several hundred times, at least.  However, I can't say that I have given it a second look, until recently.  I'm not sure how it first came to my attention.  I think that there was a picture of it on one of the local photographer's Flickr site. The Mystery of Preston's Last Tram Stop When I searched for information about it, the structure was purported to be an 'original historic cast-iron tram shelter'.  To me that was odd thought, as it was positioned somewhere that was not on a historical tram route. The Historic England Blog includes it in an article entitled, "The Stories Behind England’s Street Furniture". Whilst, The Beauty of Transport website also features it in their "Iron Ladies (cast iron tram/bus shelters of the British Isles)" article. The ...

A Revisit to the History of a Preston Foundry... Following Watching a Video About Moving Buildings in Manchester I watch quite a bit of content on YouTube . One of my favourite creators is a young bloke called Oliver Thompson, who goes under the handle of ' Bee Here Now '. He specialises in Manchester History. Whilst watching his latest creation this week, I noticed something related to Preston in the footage. There was a stove in one of the public houses that he was discussing, which was marked with ' J. BOOTH PRESTON '. A stove in one of the public houses marked with 'J. BOOTH PRESTON'. My first encounter with the name was in December last year.  I spotted a coal grid in front of 15 Ribblesdale Place, whilst leaving Winckley Square and heading to Avenham Park. ◇ THE PATENT SELF LOCKING COAL GRID ◇ ◇ J BOOTH PRESTON ◇ I must have walked past or over this dozens, if not hundreds, of times. It was first time that I had noticed it. The Patent Self Locking Coal Gri...

Preston's Windmills - A Mill Town Before Cotton (Revisited) Alternatively titled... "How come Eskimos have fifty words for snow and we only have one word for mill?" Preston's seven central windmills can be seen on this map.  Of those Seven, only one still remains.  That is the Singleton Row Windmill, which is now known as the Craggs Row Windmill, since the name of the street on which it resides has had its named changed.  Whilst the windmill remains, externally it is only the tower.  There is no cap or sails.  There were at least another three windmills further away from this central area.   Preston's Windmills - what3words Windmill Locations Considering that I have been in the area for more than half a century and have visited a lot of places in and around the city, I was totally unaware that Preston had a windmill, let alone quite a lot in a reasonably concentrated area in days gone by. It started with an idea that I could cycle around the county and...

My Uncles (The Easter Egg) I was going to post this on Easter Monday, when I discovered it.  However, I refrained from doing that, as I thought people might take it for an 'April Fools' post. I have always liked looking at maps from planning bike rides, walks, road trips, holidays, etc. to just looking at them out of sheer curiosity. More recently the Internet opened up even more opportunities with things like freely available satellite images and street views.  It is only a few years ago when someone made me aware of old maps that had been digitised and published online. It's been a real 'virtual' adventure looking at them. Particularly the early Ordnance Survey Maps from 1848 and (around) 1910. The ability to view them and compare them to modern maps and satellite image really helps bring the history to life. So far, I have tended to focus around Lancashire and Preston specifically, being a local and all that.  I thought I had spotted most things of interest alrea...