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Leyland, Lancashire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Leyland, Preston | |
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| Population | 103,900 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| District | Preston |
| Shire county | Lancashire |
| Region | North West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | PRESTON |
| Postcode district | PR25, PR26 |
| Dial code | 01772 |
| Police | Lancashire |
| Fire | Lancashire |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | South Ribble |
| European Parliament | North West England |
| List of places: UK • England • Lancashire | |
Leyland is a town in the South Ribble borough of Lancashire, England. Lying approximately six miles (10 km) south of the city of Preston, Leyland has a population of around 40,000.[citation needed]
Contents |
- Town Centre
- Broadfield
- Worden Park
- Moss Side
- Farington
- Midge Hall
- Wade Hall
- Earnshaw Bridge
- Seven Stars
It is unclear if Leyland means "flat" or "untilled land".
The town is famous primarily for the bus and truck manufacturer Leyland Motors, which between the 1950s and 1970s expanded and grew to own several British motor manufacturers, including BMC, Standard-Triumph, and Rover, culminating in the massive British Leyland (BL).
Although BL was progressively broken up in the 1980s, a series of mergers and buy-outs has seen the truck-making side of the firm survive and the truck building industry is still a primary employer in the town. In 1998 the American firm PACCAR took control of Leyland Trucks, and moved production of Foden (a brand already owned by the company) to Leyland from its original base in Sandbach in Cheshire.
Leyland is also home to one of the UK's leading maintenance and utility companies, Enterprise Plc, also one of the leading employers in the town.
Leyland was part of the Central Lancashire New Town designated in 1970, along with Chorley and Preston.
Leyland railway station is on the West Coast Main Line, the very placement of which moved the civic centre of the town briefly, including Leyland Police Station and a marker adjacent to the old Leyland Motors Spurrier works declares the halfway point on the railway journey between Glasgow and London, some 198 miles in either direction.
John Fishwick & Son serve the towns public transport needs. They also connect the town to Chorley and Preston.
Notable features include St Andrew's Parish Church, built around 1200 and a stone cross thought to date back to Saxon times.
Leyland has undergone a series of redevelopments, with a series of retailers moving into the area, on both sides of the town. This has seen the demolition of old factories, and their replacement by retail facilities. For example, the old BTR Factory was knocked down to make way for attractive new studio apartments and housing in 2004, with a Morrisons store and Homebase added in June 2006.
Leyland is the home to Wellfield Business & Enterprise College, which is the first ever school in the UK to have a wind turbine on their grounds. The school also received a 5 Star Ofsted report in 1998, 2000 and 2005.
Also, Leyland is the home of Runshaw College which received the best Ofsted report for any further education college in the UK in 2005.
Economically, Leyland is comparable with many other West Lancashire towns of its size such as Southport, Lytham St Annes, Ormskirk and Hesketh Bank but the rate of change Leyland is experiencing at the moment suggests that Leyland will become wealthier than Ormskirk in the year 2010, although it still falls far behind its neighbour Chorley according to research undertaken by Runshaw College.
Schwan Food Company has had its UK base on the Moss Side Industrial Estate near the former Leyland Trucks vehicle test track, known as Schwan's Consumer Brands, since 1989, where it makes the Chicago Town brand of frozen food for distribution throughout Europe, employing around 350 people.
- Hunt, D., (1990), The History of Leyland and District, Carnegie Press, ISBN 0-948789-48-4
- Hunt, D. and Waring, W. (1995), The Archive Photograph Series: Leyland, Chalford Publishing Company, ISBN 0752403486
- Smith, J., (2003), Then and Now: Leyland, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-2672-9