Leyland is quite a large area, found to the North East of Chorley heading towards Preston. There are excellent transport links to the Motorways and excellent rail links, from the town's train station.Leyland is surrounded by open land and has several open areas within.

For most, Leyland will always be best known for it's history of vehicle manufacture, an industry which still continues today...Leyland, like most of the Preston area actually began as a textile industry.

Leyland is a very northern and traditional town, boasting many facilities, leisure centres, parks and shopping centres. It did used to be quite difficult to get hold of your everyday needs, the town centre has smaller, less commercial shops, there isn't a Woolworths, Dixons or WH Smiths. For some things you did have to travel further afield to Chorley or Preston.

Just a few seconds from the famous Leyland Cross and close by to Runshaw college is Worden Park, which is well known throughout the area. It is a large 157 acre park with something for everybody, open fields for walking, playing fields, there is an arts and crafts centre, a maze, model railway, crazy golf, and a duck pond.The park is very well kept and always neat and tidy.

There are several churches in and around Leyland, from the Historic St. Andrews, which dates back to the doomsday book, to more modern American styled Churches.

Leyland is a very colourful, traditional place to live. It is a town of true character. Unlike many towns in this area, Leyland has embraced its past, as you drive through the town you can see the strong links back to its proud history, past and present truly come together in Leyland.

With the building of the new Tesco supermarket on the old market place, you can now get anything you need, from your everyday tin of beans, sprouts and biro, to a 28" widescreen Dolby Prologic flat screen TV, organic parsnips and books on the works of several lesser known artists from the Fauvist movements.

Leyland is currently undergoing several programs to further improve the town, new shopping developments as well as new housing estates.Even though Leyland is a large town, there is a strong community and family atmosphere present.Every year there is a Leyland festival that the whole community joins in with, and there are many clubs, from accordion clubs to the historical society.

The property in Leyland is extensive, everybody is catered for, from the historic alm houses, the step houses built to home the early weavers, to more modern developments and estates. There are few condensed areas, and lots of greenery.

Leyland is deeply rooted in History, and it can be traced much further back than you can imagine. Get your Time Team hats on, prep the geo phys machine, get the helicopter fueled up, we're traveling into history.....

The very earliest information to Leyland's history is an artefact found dating back to 96AD, it was found in 1819 on Leyland moss, several other finds have also been made dating back to 258 AD.

The first main settlers and expansion of Leyland most likely began with the Romans. Leyland is geographically in an excellent spot, close to the important station of Walton le Dale, and just a while up the road is the Roman fort and baths at Ribchester. A Roman road did run through the Leyland and Chorley area (thought to follow the path of the modern day A49), its exact location still remains unknown

Given the excellent location, transport links, and fertile land it is very likely that there were Roman Settlers in the Leyland region. When the Romans left, the population up here came in to contact with many new people, Anglo Saxons, Welsh, Nordic Folk, Scandinavian folk, all bringing new influences into the region, from the languages and new ways of living to laminate flooring and odd shaped furniture.

The first record of Leyland is in the Doomsday book when it became part of the Leyland Hundred, at this time it was known as Lailond, Leyland has had it's fair share of names throughout history Lailande (meaning grass land), Lailond in the Doomsday book , Leiland in 1212 and finally Leyland in 1243

19th century

As cotton arrived in the early 19th century Preston became a major centre due to the cheap local labour. Leyland changed from a farming community to an industrial area which is a bit odd as there are no strong running rivers to power the mills, and no canal system from transportation.

Weaving remained a home profession until the early 1800's when it was integrated with spinning and bleaching at the local mills. When the railway arrived in the 1840's Leyland was now linked to both London and Scotland.

Expansion of Leyland began to slow down. In the early 1900's Leyland was still quite a small area being known as the Garden of Lancashire, just one or two factories and a new rubber industry starting up.

download an 1890's map of Leyland (large file)
During the 19th century production began to shift in Leyland, many new industries began to form, a shift towards engineering began. There was ample farmland available for development, and due to the new railway, had excellent transport links.

The Leyland Steam Motor Co was set up in 1896, and began to expand steadily, it had a great effect on the towns growth by becoming the towns greatest employer. By 1914 the company had built over 2,000 petrol driven engines, when the first war came about the company produced 6000 vehicles in 4 years. They expanded and exported a range of vehicles throughout the world.

After the first world war, semi-detached housing began to spring up everywhere, but the village remained relatively rural, even with the increasing motor business.

The second world caused Leyland motors to boom with 9,000 male workers, after the war, work shifted to civilian needs, eventually a merger took place and British Leyland Motor Corporation was formed in 1968, and became the fifth largest vehicle producer in the world!

In about 1250 Leyland was beginning to grow as it absorbed the small hamlets of Worden and Honkington, there were several estates and there are documents from this time showing transactions between landlords.

In these times life was hard for the peasants of the growing Leyland who were stretched to their limit by extreme taxes on almost everything you did (if your daughter wished to marry, you would be taxed) The Lord of the land had a large hold over the village, for instance, if the villagers wished to grind corn they had to use the Lords mill, for which he charged them.

In the 1350 the black death began to swarm across the country, causing society to change, revolts against poll tax were staged, life became less hierarchical, and currency was used less, more people offering services instead.

As populations rose, and industrial development began in nearby Preston during the 18th Century, the land began to change dramatically. The woodlands which previously surrounded Leyland were gone, the nearby mosses were reclaimed for fields for farming.

During the 1800's handleloom weaving was setup and houses were built to house the weavers. As the industrial revolution began, the railway came to Leyland and a large mill was constructed, and several other sprung up here and there.

Handleloom weaving and the textile industry remained for some time in Leyland, and became the towns main economic source, the population began to rise dramatically over the next few years from 2,088 in 1810 to 3,617 in 1851.

A major home building program began and from 1950's onwards the town centre was improved adding facilities such a fire station, police, libraries etc.

In 1963 the town was looking better than ever, a new town centre, new housing. Problems arose for the British Leyland, truck sales had fallen, share prices dropped...This of course affected Leyland as a whole, Leyland began to loose it's identity and the Town went into a bit of a decline. During the 90's a lot of new business moved into Leyland, an example would be Schwan's.

The Motorway link with the M6, M61 and M65 brought Leyland into the reach of commuters from further afield. As a result Leyland has taken on a whole new lease of life, rapidly expanding again, with a lot of new housing developments and commercial ventures, such as the new Tesco's on the old market place site.

and now...

Leyland is now developing and improving in leaps and bounds. Recently the famous chimney from the Rubber Factory was blown up for new housing developments. The whole of Leyland is a fascinating place to live, a town which has embraced its past whilst looking to the future.

The town is full of character and warmth, and unlike many towns in our area, has managed to retain it's past character.