Historic photographs are a fascinating window into the past and due to the advances in the colourising of images we are nowadays able to see the colourful scene that the camera lens captured. These images bring Preston¡¯s past to life. In the photographs that pioneering photographer Robert Patteson took around the town in the 1860s we can now appreciate the colours that he saw with his own eyes as he focussed his camera lens in Avenham, Winckley Square and beyond. Likewise, those images by the press photographers of the 1920s onwards can now be seen in a cavalcade of colour. All the pomp, pageantry and processions of old produced parades teeming with colourful banners, participants and crowds. Royal visits, military parades and Preston Guilds were all occasions to hang out the bunting and wave the multi coloured flags. The mill girls from Horrockses took part in many a procession and they showed it was not only about clogs, aprons and shawls as they paraded in the colourful fashionable frocks produced by them in their Preston factory and worn throughout the land.

This book will take you on a journey into Preston's colourful past. Life in Preston has always had a dash of colour about it but this does not show it through rose-tinted glasses ¨C here we see the true life of bygone days. These pictures transport you back in time as you reflect on the life of Preston and the lives of folk who have dwelt there.