And so, to take a peak at what things looked like back in the day in the 1950s, take a look at some of our best archive pictures of Preston some 70 years ago.
Also, be sure to check out some of our other recent retro content…
1. Junction of North Road & Gardner Street, Preston c.1950 A poster advetising the upcoming production of 'Murder Mistaken' at The Royal Hippodrome theatre can be seen. This production by the Preston Rep commenced Monday Sep 7th. 1951
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2. Loxhams Garage, Preston. May 27, 1950. This 51 year old Wolseley car, a single-cylinder 3 1/2-h.p. is being driven from John O' Groats to Lands End by Mr. St. John C. Nixon of Surrey. The car took part in the 1,000 mile trial in 1900 when Mr. Nixon was one of the competitors. Mr. J.A. Wood, Managing Director of Loxham's Morriservices is seen greeting the car and driver. One year earlier, St.John C. Nixon wrote the book Wolseley, A Saga of the Motor Industry
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3. Passengers thronged on Preston railway station in 1950 heading to Fleetwood to catch the ferry to the Isle of Man for their holiday
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4. Looking across the River Ribble from Penwortham towards the coal conveyor at Preston Dock. The larger single funnel vessel, believed to be the MV Chirripo, is berthed on TW Wards gridiron waiting breaking up The vessel on Ward's gridiron is either "Chirripo" scrapped at Preston in 1952 or "Tilapa" scrapped in 1959. From the caption date, I suspect it is the former. Both were built for Elders and Fyffes as "banana boats", "Chirripo" was launched at the yard of Workman Clark, Belfast in 1919 and "Tilapa" by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead in 1927, both of very similar design and dimensions. "Tilapa" is the more famous of the two. Her launching in 1927 was recorded as a Gaumont Newsreel but more importantly she was the first vessel to bring bananas to the UK after World War II. Importation of bananas was banned by the Ministry of Food in 1940 and only lifted after cessation of hostilities. You can view a short British Pathe Newsreel recording the event although the ship is not named and hardly features. For years Fyffes was synonymous with bananas until Geest came on the scene in the 1950's, Preston being chosen as one of their ports, its rail connection being of fundamental importance.
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