Leyland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Map sources for Leyland at grid reference SD544214
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| Leyland | |
|---|---|
| Grid reference: | SD549232 |
| Status: | Town |
| Region: | North West England |
| Admin. County: | Lancashire |
| Area: | |
| Admin. HQ: | Preston |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Density | |
| Ethnicity: | |
| Politics | |
| Leadership: | Leader & Cabinet |
| Executive: | Labour |
| MPs: | David Borrow |
Leyland is a town in the borough of South Ribble, Lancashire, United Kingdom, approximately 6 miles south of Preston. Population of the entire South Ribble area is 103,900 (Source 2001 Census), with approximately 40,000 residents of Leyand and its divisions. It is unclear if Leyland means "flat" or "untilled land".
Contents |
[edit] Divisions of Leyland
- Town Centre
- Broadfield
- Worden Park
- Moss Side
- Farington
- Midge Hall
- Wade Hall
- Earnshaw Bridge
- Seven Stars
[edit] History
Image:St Andrews Parish Church Leyland.jpg Notable features include St Andrew's Parish Church, built around 1200 and a stone cross thought to date back to Saxon times.
The town is famous primarily for the bus and truck manufacturer Leyland Motors, which between the '50s and '70s expanded and grew to own several motor 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.
[edit] Leyland today
Leyland has undergone a series of redevelopments, transforming with a series of retailersmoving into the area, on both sides of the town. This has seen the demolition of old factories, and their replacement with 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 recieved 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.
[edit] References
- Hunt, D., (1990), The History of Leyland and District, Carnegie Press, ISBN 0-94878-948-4
- Hunt, D. and Waring, W. (1995), The Archive Photograph Series: Leyland, Chalford Publishing Company, ISBN 0-75240-348-0
- Smith, J., (2003), Then and Now: Leyland, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-75242-672-9
