Diary Of Preston Heritage Weekend – Sunday 10th September 2017 Preston Cleansing Department

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The second of two days of Preston’s free Heritage open day weekend, and I got to take in three attractions over the day. To say something amounted to a ‘load of old rubbish’ would normally be insulting or suggesting it wasn’t very good but in this case exactly the opposite applies. This was a rare opportunity to explore the city Cleansing Department facilities where most of the litter and rubbish is taken for recycling, compacting and preparing for landfill. Though they could have focused on the present day cleansing operation, the tour, led by the most enthusiastic guide I ever met, centred on the history of the cleansing of the town. The department headquarters, close to the Preston North End football ground in Deepdale was established in response to the cholera outbreak that killed thousands of people in the early Industrial Revolution. Houses were fitted with flush toilets feeding initially into side-cesspits properties had to have and tiled patio gardens as poultry and pigs often shared the houses with the people. Rubbish and excrement was taken by hand cart, and later by horse drawn carts for disposal at the cleansing department, with excreta spread over nearby moorland. With the coming of electricity a giant incinerator was added to the cleansing centre, and known as The Destructor. It was seen as a true marvel of the age and generated enough power to run the town’s trams for twenty years before buses rendered the tram system obsolete. The Destructor has been removed but we were shown where it used to stand. Old photos of the horse drawn operation were fascinating and one lady on the tour remembered feeding the horses apples and sugar on her way to school of a morning. The old stables are now used to park street cleaning vehicles and store their brushes. A fascinating look at the work of the people who have kept our city clean and disease free for over 150 years. Arthur Chappell