MORE BLUE PLAQUES

Preston's Blue Plaque Trail covers just a few of the plaques found within the city's boundaries. The next batch I have selected cover a wide range of famous folk who have either passed through or lived here.

We shall begin with royalty. On 14th November 1745, during the Jacobite Rebellion, Prince Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender to the British throne, spent a night in The Bull and Royal in Bolton Court. The plaque is to be found in the courtyard.

John Wesley visited in Preston and preached outside the Market Tavern in Lowthian Street on 16th April 1790. One of his devout followers was a young woman called Martha Thompson who had invited Wesley to come to Preston. There is a plaque commemorating this on the wall of the now derelict pub, the Old Dog Inn on Church Street. I have a copy of an interesting article by Keith Johnson about Martha, covering her life and dealings with John Wesley and her contribution to the growth of Methodism in Preston published in the Lancashire Post on October 5th this year, I am happy to give anyone a copy of same.

Literature is represented by a novelist and two poets. Charles Dickens stayed at the Old Bull Hotel in Church Street, The plaque has sadly disappeared now, possibly it fell victim to metal thieves! In Winckley Square there is a stone tablet dedicated to the poet Francis Thompson and in Christian Road, a plaque to Robert William Service, born in Preston, but becoming famous as the Yukon poet having settled in the USA.

Science is represented by a plaque mounted on the wall at the entrance to the Harris Building on Corporation St. This commemorates John Tyndall FRS (1820-1893). He was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution and in 1842 had been a student at the Harris Institute.

Finally, we come to politics, both national and local. On the wall of the Trustee Savings Bank on Fishergate, we find the memorial to Henry "Orator" Hunt, called by some a rabble rouser in 1831. He stood against Edward Smith-Stanley, Earl of Derby and won. Considering the way politics operated at this time and also the fact that the Earl served as Prime Minister twice. Hunt's victory was quite an achievement. A very new plaque was erected at 7, Ribblesdale Place on 2 November 2022. This remembers Avice Margaret Pimblett, the first woman town councillor, first woman alderman and first woman mayor in 1933. She was an ardent campaigner for the needs of women and children.

Next time we will take a trip to the railway station where there are blue plaques in abundance.

Barbara Hothersall