On 27 February 1836, the Preston Chronicle carried an article on its page three outlining the development of housing for working people on agricultural land to the north of the town, describing what would become the Plungington and Maudland estates as the century progressed. The two estates were owned by the Tomlinson and Pedder families respectively. The article captures the district as building began right at the start of that development, with work just beginning on the large mills that were to mark the next stage of industrialisation in the town. Roads were unmade, and several still existed only in the dreams of the ambitious developers.
This was the period when the town broke out of its medieval boundaries, Preston Moor had only recently been enclosed and was being laid out to form what was soon being named Moor Park (Moor Park: the first municipal park). To the south, Avenham fields were being sold off for housing. St Peter’s church (Piety and profit in nineteenth-century Preston) had become the first church built outside the town centre, with its foundation stone laid just fourteen years earlier, surrounded by fields on a site between what were to become Adelphi Street and Brook Street, two of the principal streets of the Plungington estate. St Walburge’s church, now so dominant on the district’s skyline, was only being dreamed of at that date.
The maps below show the gradual development of the north of Preston before the Pedders and Tomlinson got to work
What is particularly interesting about the article, besides the light it sheds on the shaping of what it names as ‘a sort of new town’, is the attitude of the writer to the proposed development. He (it would be a he) sees it as providing homes for ‘a large portion of our operative community’. He praises the ‘neatness and convenience’ of the houses, close to the mills that will supply the operatives with work. How far from the truth this view of the housing was has been unpicked by Nigel Morgan in his book, ‘Deadly Dwellings’.
The writer of the article was hopeful that the siting of the mills and the workers’ houses on the opposite side of the town to Winckley Square would:
‘… supersede all idea (if such were entertained) of building such structures on the south or south west side of the borough, where their erection would be detrimental to the property in those quarters, and destroy the beauty of the finest part of the town – Ribblesdale-place and Avenham.’
The social class division in the town was being cemented, divorcing the south and west from the north and east (an exception was the middle-class estate opened up in Fulwood across from Moor Park). While the Tomlinsons and Pedders were packing the northern district with tight grid lines of through-lobby terraced housing, the Lutwidge family was carrying out a similar exercise in Ribbleton to the east. In the south-west, elegant Winckley Square was being laid out in what was rapidly becoming the town’s most desirable neighbourhood, as witness Nigel Morgan’s description of middle-class housing in the town in his book ‘Desirable Dwellings‘. Avenham Walks was extending on land supplied by one of the Tomlinsons, Avenham and Miller Parks would provide the affluent residents with their pleasure grounds, and a new Avenham Institute would appropriate for the middle classes what had been a Mechanics Institute for the town’s workers.
This last provoked the ire of the social campaigner Joseph Livesey, quoted in ‘Desirable Dwellings’, who condemned the blatant hypocrisy of siting an institution that had been set up to serve the educational needs of the town’s workers on the far side of the town from where those workers were now being housed. Nigel Morgan shows how the middle classes supplanted the working-class members of what is now known as the Harris Institute.
Later, middle-class estates were developed in Ashton and Fulwood. The Ashton development is the subject of a recent UCLan dissertation by Sue Latimer.
The extent to which these housing estates cemented the class divisions in the town can be shown by mapping the districts from which officers and other ranks were recruited for the First World War. In Spring 1919 lists were compiled of all the troops awaiting demobilisation, so that they could vote in the forthcoming general election. Gregg Swarbrick transcribed the list for Preston, and mapping the numbers of officers and other ranks onto the polling districts of the town brings out the class divisions in the town more clearly than words alone can demonstrate.
Great War conscription and Edwardian Preston’s ‘class ceiling’
Here’s the article:
ENLARGEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF PRESTON
There are few subjects of more general interest than the improvement and rapid increase of our manufacturing towns, and none of these can boast of stronger indications of growing prosperity, in this respect, than our own town of Preston. Within the last few years, a number of new mills, of large dimensions, (principally for the manufacture of cotton,) have been erected; streets have crept out in various directions, forming new and populous districts; shops and warehouses have been built or struck out, and the din of commerce is already heard in situations erewhile devoted to the dull monotony of private life; elegant mansions have been built by many of our active citizens on airy sites in the outskirts, while others have erected handsome villas in the neighbourhood, wherein, after a life of successful devotion to business, they may enjoy rural quiet anil amusement: the Moor, which was for ages little better than a bleak and profitless waste, has been enclosed, intersected with ample public rides and walks; here and there planted with decorative trees, and prepared for further improvement, while its outskirts are opened on easy terms for the building of detached houses and cottages: new churches and schools have also sprung up or are in progress; the railway from Wigan, which will form a main artery for the influx of trade, is in rapid course of formation; other projects are in contemplation, and all betokens the triumphs achieved by the industry and enterprise of our people. The whole of the gratifying changes thus going on, are, however, known to comparatively few of our townsmen whose avocations require much of their attention within doors; and now that the spring is advancing and the active operations of the artificers and others are resumed, we purpose to notice, from time to time, the advancement of such works as we conceive claim an interest in the public mind, and, to submit, also, with a view to their discussion, such projects or improvements as may be contemplated by others, or which may appear to us to be worthy of suggestion to those who may have the power to excite them.
To commence with the enlargement of the town; – on the north side, nearly the whole of what is known as the Green Bank Estate, (the property of Messrs. T. and W. Tomlinson,) extending from Moor Lane and FyIde-street, northward, to the Moor Park Brook and comprising an area of about 34 acres, is laid out in streets, some of which, on the south side, are already filled up with handsome small houses. The whole of this land, which has long been occupied as gardens and fields, and forms an airy and salubrious eminence rising towards the middle, will, probably, in a year or two, become a sort of new town, or compact manufacturing district; and the neatness and convenience of the houses will we doubt not, render it the favourite residence of a large portion of our operative community, for whom it is principally intended. The works in which this population will find employment, will for the most part, be situate along the valley of the brook before alluded to on the north, and beyond which is the open country. The supply of water afforded by the brook, as well as by springs and streamlets on each side, together with other local advantages, render this valley a peculiarly suitable site for a considerable number of cotton works, and will probably supersede all idea (if such were entertained) of building such structures on the south or south west side of the borough, where their erection would be detrimental to the property in those quarters, and destroy the beauty of the finest part of the town – Ribblesdale-place and Avenham. One mill on the estate (Mr. Crankshaw’s) is already completed – at the north-east corner, and near the junction of Moor Lane with the Lancaster Road. Contiguous, on the east side of that road, is the new mill built by Messrs. Sleddon and Threlfall. A little to the west side of Mr. Crankshaw’s, and on the top of the brow, another extensive mill is being erected by Mr. Hawkins, – the bricks made and burnt on its very site, and the lodge almost already formed by a natural hollow in tile hill. Three other mills, it is anticipated, will, ere long, be built near the brook further west; and beyond these, on the other side of the canal (under which the road passes by a tunnel or aqueduct) stand the three recently. built mills, the property respectively of Mr. Dawson, Mr. Dewhurst, and Mr. W. Taylor. The whole of these are extensive buildings, fitted up (or to be fitted) with the most approved machinery, and when all are completed, will furnish employment to a vast number of men, women, and children.
The plan on which the land at Green Bank is laid out for building, is, we think, judicious, and comprises some important improvements in the adjoining parts of the town. The streets, with a few unavoidable exceptions, cross each other at right angles. The Fighting Cocks Inn, which almost directly faces the north end of Friargate, will be taken down, and a straight street, (in continuation of the line of Friargate’) to be called Adelphi-street, is carried through the hill, at the back of the present old buildings, the full extent of the land northward, crossing Moor Park Brook valley by a mound and culvert to the Ox Heys Estate, on the opposite side – the property of the same parties, and containing about 20 acres of land, with a fine southern aspect, to be also laid out in building, – making in all about 54 acres. West of this street, parallel with it, and running in a continuous line with the straight part of FyIde Road near St. Peter’s Church is another main street, called Brook-street, of equal extent, and already partly built up at the south end. Another still wider street, to be called Moor Park street, will run from the back of the Fighting Cocks in a direct line, N.E., to a little beyond the Windmill, in Moor lane – cutting off a crooked portion of that lane on the south, and forming, in place of it, a wider and more direct entrance from the Lancaster road into Friargate. Crossing Brook street and Adelphi street, and extending to Moor Park street, are a number of streets (including the south and north sides of St. Peter’s-square, already built) running east and west, over great part of the property. The streets to occupy the triangle bounded by Brook street, the Brook. and the Canal, will principally lie north and south, and all parallel and equidistant. The terminating street on the north will run eastward from the canal aqueduct, and will be called “Aqueduct street.” At its western extremity, near the canal, a number of neat houses are already built, and these having the brook, and a row of trees skirting it, in front, have a pleasing rural appearance. That part of the property facing Fylde road is already occupied by new houses, including, opposite the Moss Cottage, a pleasant row, with flower gardens in front, called “Green Bank Terrace.” A handsome new School Room has also been erected in Brook street; some smaller streets westward are in rapid progress, and before the close of the season, such is the activity of speculators, a large portion of the ground will doubtless be taken up. The proximity of the Marsh, and the fine scenery of Tulketh Hall, as well as the Moor and the open country to the north are additional attractions; and the manner in which the whole is laid out, together with the neatness and comfort of the houses – required of those who build – are highly creditable to the proprietors of: the land.
On the other side of the canal, a large portion of the elevated ground (perhaps twenty acres,) known as the “Maudlands” is also being laid out for building in an appropriate and tasteful manner, by the. proprietor, J. Pedder, Esq. Five streets of good dimensions are already opened out, extending southward from Water-lane, and others will be proceeded with in the course of the summer. But we must defer further notice of town improvements. &c. until next week, and shall proceed, as time and occasion present themselves, to make the circuit of the town.
The Preston Chronicle article is online here: https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=2c6808e7-46b0-48b0-9976-3922816f3df2&hitCount=292&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=73&docId=GALE%7CY3207414192&docType=Article&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZBLC-MOD1&prodId=BNCN&pageNum=4&contentSet=GALE%7CY3207414192&searchId=R2&userGroupName=lancs&inPS=true
preston history 