Preston, Tynemouth

Preston is a township in North Tyneside, near the towns of North Shields and Tynemouth. It derives its name from the old English "Preosta", meaning Priest and "Tun", meaning enclosure or homestead. It is first mentioned in a charter dated between 1106 and 1116 and is recorded in the St. Alban's Register. At about this time the lands of Preston were granted by King Henry I to the monks of St. Oswin at Tynemouth. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, the lands were returned to the Crown. In 1649, the Township was enclosed and convert|265|acre|km2 of land were divided and granted to various copyhold tenants. In 1832 Preston Township, together with Tynemouth, North Shields and Cullercoats was constituted a Parliamentary Borough and by an order granted on August 6th 1849, the four were incorporated into Tynemouth Borough for municipal purposes. Preston Township lies between North Shields to the south and Monkseaton to the north. To the east is Tynemouth and to the west, Chirton. In addition, when the Shire Moor was enclosed in 1788, approximately 94 acres of land were annexed to Preston Township. This annex was originally known as Northumberland Place but is nowadays known as West Allotment.

The main industries in the area were coalmining from the 12th to the 20th centuries, the tanneries of the 13th century, the breweries of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the damask factory of the 19th century and the carriage works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Within the township is Preston Village, described by Parson and White in their descriptive book on Durham and Northumberland of 1828 as: " a very pleasant village 1 mile north of North Shields to which its Township extends. It occupies a fine eminence which commands an extensive and beautiful prospect. Here are several gentlemen's villas, two public gardens, two common breweries, four public houses and a linen manufactory: besides about 100 houses and cottages which have a neat and clean appearance."

Preston is home to Tynemouth swimming pool, and formerly to Preston Hospital, which was replaced by North Tyneside General Hospital. Adjacent Preston Grange used to have a shopping centre that boasted the very first "Presto" store—its name taken from the name of the township—but this was demolished and replaced by the large Morrisons supermarket.

William Harold Smurthwaite published a detailed history of Preston in 1992 entitled "Our Heritage - Preston Township and Preston Village". It was illustrated by Kevin Bradley, who had previously produced a book about the Township, entitled "An Illustrated Guide To Preston Township"

Preston is also home to Preston Grange otherwise known as the church wall a famous meeting place for local kids. Established in the summer of 1991 as a mecca for underage binge drinking and habitual drug abuse, the wall became somewhat of a magnet for local kids who should have known better. In the grounds of the church of Jesus Chris and Latter Day Saints a striking contrast was drawn between the teetotal church goers and the detritus of Saturday Night's beer and hash fueled criminal damage.