Lancashire - The Red Rose County of England

Hello and welcome to my new blog all about the history of Lancashire.
As a Lancastrian, I was born in Preston, I often feel that Lancashire gets overlooked and even looked down upon in both the media and by our fellow countrymen.

Over the coming months I hope to fill these pages with plenty of facts, stories and information all about my home county, including the fascinating origins of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Queen's own private estate, the effect that The Wars of the Roses had, with the House of Lancaster being triumphant in the end and the tales behind the mills that drove the cotton industry throughout Lancashire in the 18th and 19th centuries.

I will also share with you many of my own photographs of the stunning landscape of the Ribble Valley and the Pennines, reaching as far over as Yorkshire to the east and up to Cumbria in the north. I hope that they can sit alongside my words to help bring alive the beauty of Lancashire for you.

I would also like to tell you of the proud history of my hometown of Preston. Including the world famous Preston Guild, held once every 20 years, it is the only surviving Guild that is still enjoyed in England and has a history spanning 800 years. The other star attraction of Preston is of course Preston North End Football Club, as founder members of the Football League, the first team to go unbeaten in a season and the first team to ever win the league and cup double, this is a heritage that I feel deserves to be talked about, they don't call us Proud Preston for nothing.

Hoghton Tower

So I am inviting you all to join me as I take you through the Red Rose county, I shall be visiting many of the attractions that I feel put Lancashire on the map, such as the Tudor mansion of  Rufford Old Hall and 'the house on the hill' at Hoghton Tower, both places that a young William Shakespeare is said to have stayed at en route to London.

We will also visit Blackpool and its famous Tower, Southport and its renowned Lord Street, which inspired many of the tree lined boulevards of Paris, and Leyland, a town that has seen many a bus and truck roll off it's production line and across the UK.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I will writing it.