About Prescot
Prescot
is a small town situated east of
Liverpool
in the UK. It is surrounded by the small towns of Whiston and Rainhill. A town with a long history, it is known worldwide for its famous
clocks and watches, a unique heritage Prescotians proudly celebrate at the
award-winning
Prescot Museum.
Another major
industry in the twentieth century was cable-manufacturing. Cables
from the town's BICC are still found on the London Underground and
the Indian Railway even today.
Dominating the skyline, and visible from miles around, is the beautiful
17th-century
Prescot Parish Church,
(left)
whose impressive steeple is the highest point in Merseyside. On the edge of
the town is the popular
Knowsley Safari Park,
situated on the picturesque Derby Estate where the most famous writer of
limericks and nonsense-verse,
Edward Lear,
once wrote poetry -
including The Owl and the Pussycat - and
sketched animals for the 13th Earl of Derby. Lord Nelson used to visit his
mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton, in her house on Prescot's High Street, which
still stands across from the Town Hall.
In the 16th-century,
Prescot had its own playhouse. The most famous Shakespearean actor
of the 18th century, John Kemble, was a Prescotian. In a later era, actor
Sue Johnston - most famous as the put-upon mum of The Royle Family
- was a pupil at the town's famous Grammar School. Professor Ian
Tracey of Liverpool Cathedral was once organist of the Parish
Church, and classical musicians Tim Williams and Paul Lewis, as well
as soprano Laura Hudson, all hail from the area. Even the latest
suave gentleman to fill James Bond 007's shoes, Daniel Craig, grew
up in the town.
In recent years the
town has been re-established as a prime arts venue in the region, a
development with the inauguration of the Prescot Festival
as an annual event in June 2005. In 2007,
Knowsley Council joined
Shakespeare North to enter a bid to commemorate the rich
Shakespearean history of the area by building a multimillion-pound
arts centre, to include a 600-seater cockpit theatre and a plethora
of other performance spaces.
Photo: Brian Jagger
