Things You Didn’t Know: Preston

Here at Clearview, we’re based in a little town called Leyland which is just outside of Preston. We supply to people and families all over the North West but Preston, being the most local City to us is obviously a big one for us too.

Preston is the newest City in England and it gained its City status in the 50^th year of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. The City of Preston has a whole population of 132,000 and there’s a number of different facts about the City of Preston that you may or may not have known and we’re going to run through some of these now.

Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice

Let’s start with the most recent one. The Apprentice in 2012 featured a woman called Jenna Whittingham on it. The star of Sir Alan Sugar’s TV programme owns her own beauty salon in Penwortham just outside of Preston.

Kirsty Henshaw a contestant on another one of TVs finest shows, Dragon’s Den, won entrepreneur of the year at the 2011 Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBA) and she’s also from Preston.

More Facts…

• Everyone knows and loves KFC. Well, the very first KFC in the UK was opened in Preston in 1965.
• The first concrete road in the country was built in Preston in Hutton near to the police HQ.
• The creator of Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park is from Preston.
• Preston’s bus station was the largest in Europe and is still one of the largest in Europe.
• Sir Tom Finney, one of the greatest ever English footballers was Preston born and bred and played only for his home town team, Preston North End.
• One of the founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin visited Preston and stayed in a house on Friargate briefly before leaving for America in 1775.
• The first motorway in the UK, also known as the ‘Preston Bypass’ was opened in the city.

Preston North End Football Club

There are many teams in the UK that have dominated the English leagues from Manchester United to Liverpool before them but before all that, there was only one team that were dominating English football, Preston North End.

They currently hold the record for the highest scoring competitive win in English football when they beat Hyde United a staggering 26-0. Then, the following season they went on to become the original invincibles having gone a whole season unbeaten and also, they never conceded a goal in the FA Cup.