Attempt to protect the Preston Guild

Plans are afoot to try to ensure the historic Preston Guild festival survives the abolition of the council responsible for staging it.

The once-in-20-year city celebration, which dates back more than eight centuries, is next due to take place in 2032 – four years after it is expected Preston City Council will have ceased to exist.

The authority – together with Lancashire’s 14 other councils – is set to be wiped from the map as part of a huge shake-up ordered by the government. The city will then become part of a new, larger council covering a much wider – and as-yet-undecided – area than just Preston.

Against that backdrop, Preston City Council has now agreed to begin the long process of organising the 2032 event – starting slightly earlier than it would otherwise have done – in an attempt to guarantee that it takes place even though the local authority itself will have been consigned to history.

A meeting of the city council heard that the usual lead-in time for arranging a Guild is between four and five years – which would coincide precisely with the likely time of the authority’s demise.

Councillors therefore voted to establish the Guild Committee – which oversees the development of the festival – with a full seven years still to go before the spotlight shines on the city for its famous jamboree.

Deputy council leader Martyn Rawlinson said there were preparations that could be made even at this early stage – but stressed that the principal reason for the move was “to make a statement that Preston Guild must go ahead”.

The Labour politician added:   “We want to respect the traditions and carry [them] on – that’s 800 years of tradition.

“It sets down a marker [as to] how important this is to Preston – and hopefully we can protect it whatever happens in the next few years.”

The cross-party committee of five councillors will initially have £500,000 of funding at its disposal, but a separate budget group is usually established as the Guild draws closer to oversee the much larger overall cost of delivering the event.

Last time around, in 2012, the total bill for the 10-day programme was £5.4m – and the meeting heard that that is about how much is expected to be in the kitty by the time the next one is due.

A significant portion of that pot will come from the half percent share of council tax income that started to be set aside for the next Guild from 2023 – continuing each year through until the 2032 event – albeit that the future of that arrangement will eventually depend on a decision by Preston’s successor council to proceed with it.

However, Cllr Rawlinson said more would be needed in order to realise the city’s ambition for the next gathering to be “bigger and better than ever before”.  He has previously predicted the 2032 Guild might cost double the amount needed in 2012. Part of the bill is usually covered by grants, sponsorship and revenue from merchandise.

Liberal Democrat deputy opposition leader Neil Darby welcomed the formation of the Guild Committee, but accused Labour of playing catch-up after his group and some local businesses had been calling for it for ”a couple of years”. But Cllr Rawlinson rubbished the suggestion that the Guild was ever going to be “forgotten about or neglected”.

Meanwhile, Sharoe Green ward councillor Connor Dwyer said it was important the city council demonstrated to its replacement authority the importance of the long-term future of the Guild and Preston’s other “civic traditions” – including by making a formal proposal for the new body to form a separate committee dedicated to preserving them.

LEAVING A LEGACY 

Each Preston Guild is designed to generate a legacy that benefits the city long after the festivities have finished.

Cllr Rawlinson said he had already received some good suggestions for projects that could be delivered in connection to the 2032 event – and cited the Guild Wheel as a perfect example of such a scheme from 2012.

However, Lea and Larches ward councillor Sean Little said parts of the 21-mile cycling and walking route were not “quite fit for purpose in [their] current state”.

The deputy leader left the door open on the possibility of the newly established Guild Committee being able to consider what could be done “to protect and enhance” previous legacies.

WHY DOES PRESTON HAVE A GUILD?

The first Preston Guild can be traced back to 1179 following King Henry II’s decision to draw up a royal charter for the city and award it with the right to have a Guild Merchant.

The events became once-in-two-decade affairs from 1542 onwards and have been staged rigidly to that timetable ever since – save for a war-enforced absence in 1942. That year’s Guild was eventually held a decade late, before returning to the usual pattern.

The Guild was an organisation of traders, craftsmen and merchants, all of whom had a monopoly on trade in the town. Only members of the organisation could conduct business locally and any newcomers could only ply their trade once they had its permission.

Gatherings for renewing membership were always infrequent and it was ultimately decided that they were required only once in a generation – resulting in the regularisation of the event once every 20 years.

Its rarity and the large number of people drawn to Preston for the occasion made the Guild a special moment and led to it being marked by processions and feasts, including a mayoral banquet and other entertainment for the great and good.

Freedom to trade in Preston without Guild membership came about in 1790, but even as the reason for the Guild gatherings passed into the city’s history, the event itself did not – and it is a tradition that generations of Prestonians have ensured persists to this day.