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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Preston
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(178,000 in 1991) Port at the head of the estuary of the river Ribble, and the administrative centre of Lancashire. Of strategic importance from Roman times as a river crossing, and rich from the weaving of wool in the Middle Ages, its modern importance has been as one of the first cotton-spinning towns of the *Industrial Revolution. The Harris Museum and Art Gallery, opened in 1893, occupies a spectacularly grand classical building by a local architect, James Hibbert (1853–1903).
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It has an outstanding collection of another local man, the painter Arthur Devis (c.1711–87), who is known for the period charm of his stilted conversation pieces; they reflect the custom of the time by which painters used flexible wooden figures or dolls to compose the picture. Every 20 years (most recently in 1992) the Preston Guild Merchants hold a great festivity on the first Monday after August 29, celebrating the founding of their guild in 1179.
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