Preston Guild 1922

The Guild, an event only held every 20 years, is a marvellous celebration of Preston trade and commerce in what was once a thriving seaport on the estuary of the River Ribble.  The Port of Preston has long gone, the victim of silting sand.

The Guild was founded in 1179 from a charter granted by Henry II and was held regularly until 1542, when it was determined that once every 20 years would be sufficient.  The only Guild to be ever missed was in the war years of 1942 when it was postponed by 10 years to 1952 at which time I was excited to attend as a schoolboy.

Written records remain for the past 26 Guilds, covering a span of 530 years.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>