PRES'TON. A manufacturing and market town in Lancashire, England, on the Ribble, at the head of its estuary, 21 miles north-northeast of Liverpool (Map: England. D 3). The town is well laid out and is surrounded with pleasing scenery. The chief public buildings are the town hall, which contains the guild hall and exchange; the Preston and County of Lancashire royal in firmary: the con) exchange and market house : the house of correction and court-house; the institu tion for the diffusion of useful knowledge: the public• library: and the institute and school for the blind. Saint \Valburge's Roman Catholic Church is noted for its lofty spire, 306 feet high. Preston's great municipal enterprise was the acquisition of the dock and harbor rights of the Ribble in 1583 for $364.000 and an outlay on im provements of over $6,000,000. The channel was deepened to admit vessels of 1000 tons, and a dock of 40 acres with warehouses and 0798 feet of quayage was built. About 2500 vessels of about 350.000 tons burden enter and clear the port annually. Its principal export is coal ; its im ports are grain, iron, and timber. Besides the Ribble harbor rights, the town owns its water supply, tramways, markets, refuse destructor, sewage farm. and maintains baths, free libraries,
and three large public parks. Cotton and linen are extensively manufactured. There are iron and brass foundries, iron ship-building yards, carriage work,, machine shops. and malting. brewing, and rope-making establishments. Several great fairs are held here (luring the year, besides the usual weekly markets.
Originally called Priest's Town, from its eccle siastical institutions, it received its first charter from Henry 11. The celebrated Preston guild of merchants has held bi-decennial festivals since 1329, the earliest on record. During the Civil War the town declared for the King, but was taken by the Parliamentary forces, and near the town Oliver Cromwell overwhelmed the Scots in HAS. It figured in the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. In 1332 Joseph Livesey here originated the total abstinence movement. Popu lation, in 1S91, 107,573: in 1901, 112.982. For histories of Preston. consult: Hewitson, History of Preston (Preston. 1883) : Fishwick, History of the Parish of Preston (Rochdale, 1900).