Preston, Avenham Park, The Forty Steps 1924

Photo ref: 75842

This was almost certainly a bandstand. There is a bandstand of the right shape marked near the bowling greens on the 1932 25" OS map, surveyed in 1929; this was not marked on the 1912 edition, surveyed 1910. A similar bandstand was built in Centre Vale Park, Todmorden in 1914, which is now listed, see https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1467822 as the only known surviving example of this design. ...see more

During WW2 as a young lad I lived in Ribblesdale Place and Avenham Colonnade and remember that the timber bridge decking was almost completely removed apart from a narrow walkway to hinder invading troop vehicles, After the war we used to visit a little timber shack next to the playing fields at the southern end of the bridge where Stanley Worden sold soft drinks and snacks. Seventy years on I still remember hot Vimto for 2d.!

In my father's diary for 1952 - I have all his diaries here in Frankfurt, Germany, where I have lived since 1973 - there is an entry : Stanley Watson, Governor of the Harris Orphanage, was sent for trial. Unfortunately he did not say why! Does anyone know this and can tell me? We lived in Oak Villa, opposite the Orphanage, and used to see the childen leaving after attending school there. Once, in ...see more

As a child (b1940) I lived at 3 Avenham Colonnade from 1946 until I married in 1964. The late Georgian terrace (built abt 1836) comprises 6 houses built on the slope alongside Avenham Walks ("The Top Walks") . The terrace survives virtually unchanged today, save for the early demolition of the eponymous single storey "Colonnade" in front of the houses which was demolished in the19th century to ...see more