International sports stars, actors, TV presenters and more, lots of people born in the city are very familiar faces.
Here is our tribute to 20 of the more well-known names linked to the city. This is not a definitive list – just a flavour of what we have had to offer the worlds of music, theatre, broadcasting, sport and beyond.
1. John Thomson
Actor and funny man attended All Hallows Catholic High School and Runshaw College
2. Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff
A Prestonian born and bred. Born in 1977, he was a pupil at Greenlands County Primary School and Ribbleton Hall High School where he passed nine GCSEs. He played cricket for the Lancashire Schools under 11s and under 15s teams as a boy. A fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, he became an integral part of the England team and was named 'Man of the series' during the 2005 Ashes where England was victorious. He was then awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours and the Freedom of the city of Preston. Now has made a very successful transition to being a TV presenter and personality.
3. Edith Rigby
Born in 1872, Edith Rigby (born Rayner) was an English Suffragette who founded a school in Preston, Lancashire, called St Peter's aimed at educating women and girls after the age of 11. A prominent activist and contemporary of Sylvia Pankhurst, she married Dr Charles Rigby and lived with him in Winckley Square in Preston. She was jailed seven times for her beliefs in fighting for the equal rights of women.
4. Nick Park
Nicholas 'Nick' Park was born in 1958 in Preston, Lancashire, and is best known as creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. Brought up in Brookfield, Preston, his family later moved to nearby Walmer Bridge. He attended Cuthbert Mayne High School (now Our Lady's Catholic High School). His sister still lives in Longton. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of six times, and won four with Creature Comforts (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995), and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).