Preston Gallery

Blackpools Tram Cars

Blackpool's Luxury Streamline Tram Cars, including double ('Balloon') and single decker varieties and a fully open boat tram. Many of these vintage tramcars are still running, maintained by enthusiasts and the money from holidaymakers who have made the resort famous. The Blackpool tramway runs from Blackpool to Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England, and is the only surviving first-generation tramway in the UK. Built by the English Electric Company of Preston, Lancashire. Date: 1930s

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

King James I knights a tasty loin of beef - Arise Sir Loin

King James I knights a tasty loin of beef at Hoghton Tower, near Preston, Lancashire, in 1617. Historians are somewhat unsurpringly divided as to the likelihood and validity of this tale. A number of legends claim the naming of the sirloin cut from it being knighted by a monarch, although it is variously ascribed to Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James I. According to the Lancashire tradition, James I drew his short sword and told the Hoghton Tower pages to bring the beef to him. They went down on their knees and the king said "Arise, Sir Loin." Date: 1617

© The Russell Butcher Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

Church Road, Churchtown, Lancashire

Church Road, Churchtown, Garstang, near Preston, Lancashire, England. Showing the Punch Bowl Hotel Date: 1910s

© The Wentworth Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

1910s, Bowl, Church, Churchtown, England, Garstang, Historical, History, Hotel, Lancashire, Preston, Punch, Road, Showing