Preston - The Cenotaph

The northern edge of the Flag Market is dominated by Preston's Cenotaph built to honour the dead of World War One, and unveiled in 1926 by the English Admiral Earl Jellicoe (1859-1935).   A tribute to the dead from World War Two has also since been included.  

'Cenotaph' derives from two Greek words meaning "empty tomb"  indicating the monument is honouring people whose remains are elsewhere.    The top of the monument is made to look like an empty coffin. 

The memorial was designed by the English architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), who also designed the famous, red Jubilee telephone boxes which have become an icon of Britain.  If you look down the street to the left of the memorial you will see a whole line of his phone boxes - almost like a tribute to his talent.  

Other famous creations of his include Battersea Power Station (London), Waterloo Bridge (London) and Liverpool Anglican cathedral.  His very rectangular style is present in much of his work.

The central sculpture of “Victory” is by Henry Alfred Pegram (1862-1937).  His sculptures can be found in London, Norwich, New Zealand,  Birmingham, Cape Town, Cardiff, Liverpool and Shanghai. 

Restoration work on the memorial was carried out between 2013 and 2014 in preparation for the centenary of World War one in 2014.

Incidentally it was Scott's grandfather Sir George Gilbert Scott who designed the glorious Town Hall which once stood on the south side of this market square.

This northern edge of the square once stood beneath a row of houses, and the entrance to Friargate was a lot narrower - making the square a fair bit smaller than it appears today.

Previously on this spot stood a different war memorial.  This was built in memory to the fallen of the Boer War.  The monument was moved to Avenham Park where it still stands.

Preston's recognition of its war dead does not stop here.  Inside the Harris Museum carved in stone are the names of around 2,000 casualties of the first world war.  It is a sobering experience to stand on the stairs in the foyer of the Harris and look at the names of so many snatched away by a horrific war.  

this is an extract from the FREE tour of Preston Flag Market found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

London - St Paul's Choristers School

A school for St Paul’s choristers was formed in 1123 for eight boys, and for centuries the boys’ education and singing practise co-existed.  Then the Grammar school side was more formally pursued in 1511 when John Colet (1466-1519) founded the St Paul’s School for 153 boys.  The school buildings stood to the north of the cathedral.  Colet was a bold and inspirational minister and deeply influenced men like Erasmus and Thomas More.  That school eventually moved to Hammersmith in 1884.   

Meanwhile the education of chorister’s remained here.  Small and focused.

Today schooling for day students is available from ages 4+, but the main focus is the Choristers (boys only) who are admitted to boarding school from the age of seven.  Applicants have an informal music audition, a formal audition and academic testing to be admitted.  Around 34 choristers are resident at any time, and places are hard to come by often requiring registration of interest four years ahead of time.   

This is an excerpt from the FREE tour St Paul's Precincts found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

Preston - 33 Market Place

As you look at the modern shops fronts on the west side of Preston's Flag Market it immediately becomes apparent that Thomas Yates the Jewellers is a rare gem squeezed between some rather bland, modern buildings.   Built circa 1580, this timber framed  building has the distinction of being the oldest shop in Preston.

For over four centuries this building has watched the market square transformed.  It is a Grade II listed building which started life as a town mansion, and by the 1690’s was the home for the town’s surgeon, Dr. Wortton.  The mansion used to be much larger including numbers 34 and 35, but when Dr. Wortton left it was split into three properties.    So began four hundred years of housing various traders at number 33 Market Place.  These included Straw Hat Manufacturers, Painters & Glaziers, Fruiterers, Drapers, Grocers, Coffee and Wine Dealers, Engravers & Copper Plate Printers, Basket & Skip Manufacturers, Chemists, Fish, Fowl & Poultry Merchant, Linen & Wool Drapers, Tobacconists and finally a Jewellers.

Thomas Yates the Jewellers

Thomas Yates (1811-1892) opened his own watchmaker’s shop on Friargate in 1840, and traded in Preston through most of Queen Victoria’s reign.  Thomas was famous for inventing the slow beat lever in watches in 1846.

The business has continued since then with various locations and owners, and moved into these premises in 1983.   Thus one of the oldest businesses in Preston is now housed in the oldest shop in Preston.

From the FREE tour of Preston Flag Market on www.obelisktours.co.uk

London - St Augustine

The tower of St Augustine is all that remains of the 11^th century church which was destroyed in the 1666 fire, rebuilt by Wren, renovated further in the 1800s and then bombed in 1941.   The surviving tower has been incorporated into the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir School.  

This is an excerpt from the FREE tour St Paul's Precincts found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

Preston - bull baiting

Beneath your feet is a little bit of history that often goes unnoticed.  It may look like a poor bodged job of landscaping, but you can see the remnants of an iron ring once used for the cruel sport of baiting.  Many towns and villages would have a baiting ring and it was a popular form of entertainment.   A bull, and sometimes even a bear,  would have a collar placed around its neck and would then be tethered to a stake or iron ring like this one.

Dogs would then be released on the captive animal and attempt to bring it down by grabbing it by the nose which would bring it to the ground.  The struggling, tossing and fighting would often end in death for either the dogs or the bull.   The bull was on its way to the slaughter house anyway, so this was seen not only as a way to have a bit of ‘fun’ and a wager but also as a means of tenderising the meat. 

 This sport was how the Bulldog got his name.  In one aspect they could be ferocious yet they rarely complain and only bark when there is real reason.    A good bulldog would bite on and not let go.  It is no wonder that the Bulldog has been used to symbolise England and Winston Churchill.

A French visitor to England witnessed a bull baiting and reported:

“After a coming Bull-baiting had been advertised, the bull, decorated with flowers or coloured ribbons would be paraded round the streets of the town, and the dog which pulled off the favours in the subsequent baiting would be especially cheered by the spectators.  The parade ended, the bull, with a rope tied round the root of his horns, would be fastened to a stake with an iron ring in it, situated in the centre of the ring.”

The sport was eventually declared illegal by the Cruelty to Animals Act in 1835 which protected the rights of bulls, dogs, bears and sheep and prohibited bear baiting and cockfighting.  

This is an excerpt from the FREE tour Preston Flag Market found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

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London - Amen Court

The homes along Amen Court were built for the canons of St Paul’s around 1671-73.     These homes are typical of the thousands of homes built after the Great fire.  Today there are only a handful left, but this gives you a sense of what the streets of the City would have looked like.  

When St Paul’s was a Catholic church there were the traditional stations of the cross around the cathedral precincts. 

The apocryphal story claims that returning to their homes at night the clergy would walk with their rosary beads and pray themselves home through Paternoster Square, over Ava Maria Lane to their homes in Amen Court.    As they walked they would have been able to say their prayers as they went:  Paternoster = Our Father, Ava Maria = Hail Mary, Amen and straight to bed.  

This is an excerpt from the FREE tour St Paul's Precincts found on www.obelisktours.co.uk