Preston - why my City is famous...

Top ten things that made Preston famous

• The city is home to Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2 in Star Wars, lightweight boxer Paul Burke, Sir Tom Finney, the former England and Preston North End football player, cricketer Andrew Flintoff, ex footballer and commentator Mark Lawrenson and Nick Park, the Oscar-winning animator and creator of Wallace and Gromit.


• Richard Arkwright's Water Frame (invented in Preston) brought cotton mills to many northern English towns.


• St Walburge's Church designed by Joseph Hansom of Hansom Cab fame and which has, at 94 metres, the tallest spire in England on a church that is not a cathedral


• The Preston by-pass, opened 5 December 1958, became the first stretch of motorway in the UK and is now part of the M6 with a short section now forming part of the M55.


• Preston North End is one of the founder members of the Football League.


• The first Kentucky Fried outlet in the UK was opened on Fishergate in Preston.

• The parents of legendary American outlaw Butch Cassidy reportedly emigrated from Preston to escape religious persecution of their Mormon faith. It was said that, unlike Paul Newman's cinematic portrayal, Butch spoke with a thick Lancashire accent.

• Preston has the largest civilian cemetery in Europe.

• The town of 'Coketown' in Charles Dickens' book Hard Times is based on the city of Preston. In order to gain research for an 'industrial' novel, Dickens visited Preston in January 1854 during a strike by cotton workers that had by that stage lasted for 23 weeks.

• Benjamin Franklin (one of the founding fathers of the USA) apparently once owned a property on the site of a coffee bar on the corner of Cheapside and Friargate. A plaque on the wall of the building commemorates the spot.