Welcome to the Long Preston Heritage and Village website.
Where the Yorkshire Dales meet Bowland.
Long Preston is an attractive Yorkshire Dales village on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is sited on the main A65 road, twelve miles from Skipton (popularly known as the 'Gateway to the Dales') and four miles from the historic market town of Settle. The village is centered around Maypole Green where the welcoming Maypole Inn offers accommodation and a restaurant. The Village Stores & Post Office is just a couple of minutes walk from the Green as is the original Rohan shop.
To the north the landscape rises to the fells, moors and picturesque valleys of the Yorkshire Dales; to the south are the wetlands of the Ribble Valley which, in turn, sweep upward to the magnificent wilderness of Bowland.
The village boasts a number of Greens, most of which date back to Domesday when they existed as just one large Green. The surviving croft lands surrounding can also be traced back to then. In 1086 Long Preston was known as 'Prestune' - the priest's farmstead or town. 'Long' was added later to distinguish this settlement from the many other Prestons and refers to its linear development.
Long Preston is on a regular bus service route between Skipton and Settle with Kirkby Lonsdale buses (website is klch.co.uk/bus-services) and also on the Leeds to Carlisle and Leeds to Morecambe rail lines. Indeed Long Preston is an ideal station to board trains for the Settle – Carlisle railway as it is the station before Settle and the crowds.
You will see at the bottom of this page that we operate an email list to give people details of local news and events. However some emails ‘bounce back’. If you think you are on the list but haven’t been receiving emails, please re-apply.
To find us on the map, click here.
The Heritage Group
The former longprestonheritage.org.uk site for the Heritage Group and longpreston.info site for the Village have now been amalgamated under the longpreston.info banner. For information from the former longprestonheritage.org.uk site, please refer to the Archive page within Heritage.
The Long Preston Heritage Group has been very active since its inception in 2007, exploring the history and heritage of the village.
On history, very little had been published until the Heritage Group started. You can see what has been achieved here from our list of publications. We have built on what was known and now have good knowledge back to Domesday and even the Mesolithic Period around 8000 years ago. The first major project was the Bells Restoration, then the Monks & Beams Project, followed by the World War 1 project and the Big Dig archaeological project. We would like to thank the Heritage Lottery fund for their involvement.
The oral history of many residents have been recorded. Areas of the village have been improved – the former Baptist Chapel site with its graveyard is now in public ownership and protected for the future. The money to buy this land for the village was raised from our own fundraising events. The small Millennium Green next to Maypole Green has also been improved and benches installed.
The village is lucky to have so many people willing to give their time and support not just to the Heritage Group but also to all the other village groups who work so hard to make this a wonderful place to live.
The Heritage Group
If you want to be more involved in the Heritage Projects
then please contact us.
You can just be a member, or give as much or as little of your time as you wish.
For further information, or to offer any help,
please contact the secretary:
Gillian Jones: tel. 01729 840 505
Email: secretary@longprestonheritage.org.uk
The Village
The village benefits from several large, tree lined, village greens, with many footpaths leading direct to the surrounding hills. Long Preston has just over three hundred households, and is a friendly community with many residents working in the village, as well as commuting to the neighbouring towns.
The village boasts an excellent pub with first rate cuisine - The Maypole Inn on Maypole Green.
The village's other pub, The Boar's Head, is currently closed. Long Preston's other main focal point is the village shop & post office - open daily (9am-6pm), seven days a week. The village's Endowed Primary School is well attended, serving not only Long Preston but also some of the outlying hamlets, and has recently had an annexe added for pre-school children.
The residents organise a wide range of village clubs and activities, many centred on the Village Hall. The annual May Day celebrations on the first Saturday in May are a popular event, with maypole dancing on the village green, and stalls and displays on the playing field.
The railway station on the edge of the village gives access to Skipton, Bradford and Leeds in one direction and to Settle, Carnforth and Carlisle in the other. There are also regular bus services to Skipton and to Settle, except on Sundays.
Links to Village and other Organisations
Long Preston Primary School Long Preston Pre-school
Long Preston Church Long Preston Floodplain Project
Long Preston Water Trust Long Preston Parish Council
Long Preston Village Hall Dales Community Archives
Moonbeams Long Preston Moonbeams, a local band now finished although their music is still available.
To report any problems in viewing this site,
or any broken links please
email: webadmin@longprestonheritage.org.uk
Mailing List
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when there are any updates to this site then you can be
ADDED to the mailing list by clicking here.
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