Editing Preston, Lancashire (section)

===Industrial Revolution===
The 19th century saw a transformation in Preston from a small market town to a much larger industrial one, as the innovations of the latter half of the previous century such as [[Richard Arkwright]]'s [[water frame]] (invented in Preston) brought cotton mills to many northern English towns. With industrialisation came examples of both oppression and enlightenment.

The town's forward-looking spirit is typified by it being the first English town outside London to be lit by gas. The Preston Gas Company was established in 1815 by, amongst others, a Catholic priest: Rev. Joseph "Daddy" Dunn of the [[Society of Jesus]]. The [[Preston and Wigan Railway]] arrived in 1838, shortly afterwards renamed the [[North Union Railway]]. The [[Sheffield]] firm of [[Thos. W. Ward]] Ltd opened a [[ship breaking]] yard at [[Preston Dock]] in 1894.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ribblesteam.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/preston-dock-shipbreakers/ |title=Preston Dock – Shipbreakers |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=12 October 2013 |website=ribblesteam.wordpress.com |publisher=The Ribble Pilot |access-date=16 November 2017 |archive-date=9 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109144835/https://ribblesteam.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/preston-dock-shipbreakers/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The more oppressive side of industrialisation was seen during the [[Preston Strike of 1842]] on Saturday 13 August 1842, when a group of cotton workers demonstrated against the poor conditions in the town's mills. The [[Riot Act]] was read and armed troops corralled the demonstrators in front of the [[Corn Exchange, Preston|Corn Exchange]] on Lune Street. Shots were fired and four of the demonstrators were killed. A commemorative sculpture now stands on the spot (although the soldiers and demonstrators represented are facing the wrong way). In the 1850s, [[Karl Marx]] visited Preston and later described the town as "the next [[St Petersburg]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1854/08/01a.htm|title=Karl Marx in the New York Daily Tribune 1854|date=1 August 1854|access-date=20 September 2006|archive-date=9 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109144910/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1854/08/01a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Charles Dickens]] visited Preston in January 1854 during [[Preston strike of 1853–4|a strike by cotton workers]] that had by that stage lasted for 23 weeks. It is believed that the town of "Coketown" in the novel ''[[Hard Times (novel)|Hard Times]]'' was inspired by this visit to Preston. In 1858, the [[Preston Power Loom Weavers' Association]] was founded, and by 1920 it had more than 13,000 members in the town.<ref name="marsh">{{cite book|last1=Marsh|first1=Arthur|last2=Ryan|first2=Victoria|last3=Smethurst|first3=John B.|title=Historical Directory of Trade Unions|volume=4|date=1994|publisher=Ashgate|location=Farnham|isbn=9780859679008|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars/page/113 113–115]|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars/page/113}}</ref>

[[File:Fishergate, Preston, about 1904.jpg|thumb|Fishergate and the [[Preston Town Hall#Fourth town hall|Town Hall clock tower]] in about 1904]]
The Preston Temperance Society, led by [[Joseph Livesey]] pioneered the [[Teetotalism|Temperance Movement]] in the 19th century. Indeed, the term [[teetotalism]] is believed to have been coined at one of its meetings. The website of the [[University of Central Lancashire]] library has a great deal of information on Joseph Livesey and the Temperance Movement in Preston.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uclan.ac.uk/library/usersupport/lrs/collections/livesey/index.htm|title=The Livesey Collection|access-date=20 September 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060911182933/http://www.uclan.ac.uk/library/usersupport/lrs/collections/livesey/index.htm |archive-date = 11 September 2006}}</ref>

Preston was one of only a few industrial towns in Lancashire to have a functioning corporation (local council) in 1835 (its charter dating to 1685), and was reformed as a [[municipal borough]] by the [[Municipal Corporations Act 1835]]. It became the [[County Borough of Preston]] under the [[Local Government Act 1888]]. In 1974, county boroughs were abolished, and it became part of the larger part of the new non-metropolitan district, the [[Borough of Preston]], which also included [[Fulwood Urban District]] and much of [[Preston Rural District]]. The borough acquired city status in 2002.