For anyone who doesn’t know, the Preston Guild is a fortnight long festival held once every twenty years ever since King Henry II granted guild status to the town. It’s heyday was really the nineteenth and early twentieth century when the prosperous cotton town had something to celebrate. The craft Guilds, the churches and various other interests would take part in parades. These days the pride and community spirit is more than a little lost and the whole thing can be a bit of a damp squib. The last Guild in 1992 was pretty dull stuff, and I don’t hold out a lot of hope for 2012. But all the same, it is a unique event, with no comparison anywhere in the world. And the expression ‘Once in a Preston Guild’ is actually a byword for something that doesn’t happen very often.
This is the first actual confirmation that Earl lives in the city of Preston in the 26th century. The park in which we first met him was never actually named in the story, but he does mention it being built by unemployed factory workers during the cotton famine that followed the American Civil War. Avenham Park in Preston was built for that reason. It has the fountain and the bandstand, and a Japanese Garden. The River Ribble forms the boundary of it at one end, and the city itself at the other, while two railways, one disused, split it into distinct sections.
The white house at the top of the hill is real. It is called Tower House or Avenham Tower and is a private house that belongs to somebody very well off and very lucky, since it is one of the finest houses in the area. The idea that Earl’s bedroom is the top room of the tower overlooking the park where he met Sukie was irresistible.
The Flag Market was until the mid nineteenth century more or less the centre of Preston both geographically and socially. The town hall was at the top beside Cheapside and Fishergate. Friargate, the other main arterial road, went the other direction. In 1802, it was the centre of the Guild celebrations, including the place where the main parade ended before the VIPs went inside for a banquet and the ordinary people partied outside. It was also the place where a masked ball took place with all of the same VIPs.
The Town Hall that I had in mind for those activities was the Victorian one with a church like clock tower, but that one was built in 1862 and burnt down in 1947. In 1802, the town hall was a Tudor building that I actually don’t like the look of very much. But that is the one that should have been the scene of the foiled alien invasion.
The
Old Bull is one of the oldest pubs in the city and was around in 1802,
but I can’t find any pictures of it from then so I’m just
guessing what it was like.
Nicholas Grimshaw was Mayor of Preston twice, in the Guild years of 1802 and 1822, and there is a street named in his honour. It is rather a grim Victorian street, but they really did mean it as a compliment to him!
Incidentally, I wrote most of this story in a notebook while in hospital after being savaged by a dog and contracting blood poisoning. The story of Nicholas Grimshaw actually proved a topic of conversation in the dull time before tea on the trauma ward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston
http://www.grimshaworigin.org/WebPages/NichPres.htm
http://www.preston.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/guild-2012/guild-history/once-every-preston-guild/
