Long Preston Heritage Archived
Documents & Photographs
can be found in 2 places
SECONDLY a separate archive has also commenced on and as part of the Dales Community Archive 'Capturing the Past' via this link: http://www.dalescommunityarchives.org.uk/ . This website is a portal to collections of historical material relating to the North Craven area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. You can browse and search collections in 23 local archives, find links to other community archive groups in the area and contribute your own historical articles and comments. The site is provided by Friends of the Dales.
Publications
A total of seventeen of publications have been produced over the ten years; they are listed on the Archived Publications Page.
These, and later publications, are available to purchase at most Heritage Project events. and can also be ordered via the current Heritage Project Publications page:
Origins of the Village
This short section features the Tithe Survey of 1841, with associated property maps of the villge and surrounding fields. Indications are that the village developed from a single centre at Domesday and the basic structure of both the Long Preston townscape and landscape has changed little between the 14th century and the present day.
There are lnks to further documents recording the history of Long Preston.
Old Photographs
This Gallery contains over 750 old photographs of life in Long Preston. These are organised in separate galleries covering a diverse range of subjects, from Entertainment, People & Families, to Houses, Schools & Shops.
Old Documents
Nearly 200 images of old documents relating to Long Preston; covering Property Sales, Health, Transport, Schools, Baptist Church Records & other topics.
Old Newspapers
Over 3,00 newspaper articles have been scanned, covering 17 different subject areas, from local papers for the period 1798 to 1897. There are also many searchable transciptions of articles in PDF form.
These provide a fascinating insight into daily life at that time.
Transport
The development of rail transport in the middle of the 19th century greatly affected the lives of people in Craven. Communications for the first time were fast and cheap, with the cost of rail fares being only a fraction of the cost of coach fares.
This section explores the impact in detail, and contains analyses of the goods traffic from Long Preston.
There is also an extensive photo gallery for both the railway & cars.
Oral Histories
The reminiscences of twenty two residents of the village have been recorded as audio files, and can be listened to here. They provide a fascinating record of what life was like during earlier times.
The Bells Restoration
Two of the three bells in St Mary's church were silenced in 2006 after cracks were found in them, caused by the 18th Century founding techniques and excessive movement of the beams that support the bell frame. An appeal to restore the bells was launched and a great deal of work was undertaken to research the task and identify suitable funding. Removing the bells for restoration is more difficult than usual due to the bottom of the tower being solid. With the Heritage Lottery Grant for the restoration confirmed in June 2008, work on the bells began in December.
This section records the removal, restoration and replacement of the bells, and outlines their history.
Monks & Beams
In North Craven several monasteries had a huge impact on the lives of local people and on the shaping of the landscape in which they lived. As many of the documents were lost at the Dissolution, it is difficult to discover the detail of the land the monasteries owned and where their tenant farmers lived.
The Heritage Lottery Fund supported a project to research the links between Long Preston and Bolton Priory, using surviving documents and archaeological detective work on surviving building fabric, stone walls and field patterns to unearth this important story.
Big Dig Project
A series of archaeological digs were planned in 2015. These comprised a test pit about one metre square going down to about one metre. This type of dig has proved successful around the country as evidenced by Time Team. The aim was to see if we can find the reasons why Long Preston started where it did including whether there was any evidence of Long Preston being once an Anglo-
We already had active academic support for the idea from Dr Carenza Lewis of Cambridge University (who used to be on Time Team) as well as Chester University Archaeology Department.
