History

This is an embroidered postcard from the First World War, with pocket and card insert, ‘To my dear mother’.  The card inside is printed ‘Many happy returns’, and handwritten on the reverse is ‘From your loving son Joseph’. This card is one of more than 500 postcards and greetings cards which date from the early 19th century to the 1990s and include Valentine’s cards, birthday cards, with sympathy cards, anniversary cards.

The term ‘Tommy Dodd’ refers to the making of a decision on the toss of a coin and in the mid-1870s was the subject of several popular songs and was used in boys’ stories by Charles Hamilton and Rudyard Kipling. It was also a slang term for a shunting signal on The Great Eastern Railway. This music sheet cover is one of 1600 in the Peter Edwards collection at the Harris.

This portrait of Henry Hunt – of Peterloo fame – was owned by William Sisson. He voted for Hunt in 1830 when he became Preston’s first radical MP, and was sacked from his job in a Preston factory when his employer found out. The painting hung in pride of place above the family mantelpiece for a century afterwards. The portrait is part of a small collection of election medals, a small number of ceramics and items more widely associated with voting, the 1832 Reform Act and protest.

Simpsons of Preston opened in 1831 and became Britain’s largest gold thread company, feeding the global demand for gold-embellished uniforms, banners and luxury textiles. They later moved into communications technology and synthetic gold thread like these bobbins of Lurex thread.

The Harris holds collections of Simpsons gold thread samples, embroidered badges and pieces of civic regalia that incorporate Simpsons gold thread.

In 1975, permission was given to take Caribbean Carnival celebrations onto Preston’s streets. The first Preston Carnival was held on 26 May 1975 – the Spring Bank Holiday. People in costumes paraded and danced to steel band music and a dance was held in the Guild Hall. This set in motion a yearly tradition, which is still as vibrant today. This flyer shows the route for the 1996 carnival. The Harris has a small collection of items relating to Preston’s Caribbean carnival including photographs, a costume, vinyl singles and photographs.

Preston North End Football scarf produced as merchandise for the club shop at Deepdale Stadium. Bought at Preston North End v Torquay United in 1994 – the last game played at Deepdale on artificial turf.

This is part of other items relating to Preston North End which are also associated with other small sporting collections such cricket in Preston.

Preston grew up around its market place. This bushel measure is the oldest object from Preston’s markets and was used to measure a volume of grain – known as a bushel – to make sure that traders weren’t cheating their customers.

There are a few other items associated with Preston’s markets including more than 100 photographs of the Flag Market.

This model of Horrockses Yard Works in Stanley Street Preston was made for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1913. The Yard Works was the largest cotton manufacturing site in Europe at the time the model was made. Horrockses was the jewel in the crown of Preston’s booming cotton industry, exporting cotton goods all over the world and launching a fashion label in 1946. There are extensive collections at the Harris on Horrockses including items associated with the manufacture of cotton, finished goods, archival material and Horrockses Fashions dresses. They also relate to items from Courtaulds rayon factory, which produced synthetic fibres in Preston from the 1930s.

Preston dock was the largest single working dock in Britain until 1981. It was a major employer in the town, handling exports of coal for Ireland and bananas imported from the West Indies. There are more than 1000 items in the collection associated with Preston Dock, including archaeological finds from its construction, dockers’ personal items, and photographs of shipping.