Move to Preston
In September 2021, I moved to Preston, Lancashire. I drove a loaded van up from Wells-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk to the city, with a stopover in Doncaster. I collected my new flat keys on 9 September and moved into a block of flats beside the historic Winckley Square and close to Avenham Park and the train station. I spent a few days and evenings unpacking all my stuff, orienting myself with what was within 5-10 minutes walk away, buying stuff from Wilko (now sadly closing) and getting mentally ready to start my new job. On my second full day, local lad and Oscar winner, Nick Park of Aardman Animations, unveiled a new Wallace & Gromit ‘Wrong Trousers’ statue outside the market hall as I walked past. It felt good to have arrived for a new, ‘cracking’ adventure. It felt good to be someone different. ‘Newness is goodness’ as one of my new colleagues would say.
Not always Present
Unfortunately, the first afternoon at work on 13 September, did not go as hoped. I had a ‘panic attack’ and all the anxiety I had been feeling and had built up over the preceding month came out. I crawled back to my new home, for which I had signed a 12 month tenancy agreement, alone. I found a welcome sanctuary in the nearby park and especially the Japanese rock garden contained within it. Time ticked and it was a while before I properly recovered and started my new role as a Study Skills Tutor at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) later in the academic term. I subsequently missed out on a lot of the initial, ‘birthing’ issues and the decision making involved in a newly, recreated team. Once I started and knew where my desk was, I was fine. But it took a while to get to this point and involved being referred to occupational health – not for the last time.
Fortunately, I quickly got organised and found the job to be one of the most enjoyable positions I have held. The whole of 2022 was mostly great, helping students with their academic work and being an asset to the team. I had a couple of relapses, common for someone with my diagnosis. On my one year anniversary (September 2022) a similar thing happened. My last day for about a month was on the day The Queen died. Totally unconnected, but that’s how I vividly remember it.
When I was well and present, I loved it. I am only content if I feel organised and that remains my number one strength. The variety of essays that were presented by students on a wide range of topics made the work very interesting indeed. I particularly liked the ones from Nursing, Sports and Health Sciences and Occupational Therapy students. Essays on the topic of ‘Social Prescribing’, in particular, were great, as I took a keen interest in the newly established unit at UCLan, which I wrote extensively about when they held their inaugural summit, along with Mind Over Mountains, in June 2022. That was the most inspiring day of the past two years!
Into 2023, I continued, with the occasional relapse, but at least I was honest and fully disclosed what was going on. However, a new physical illness hit me in late May/early June, which I did not disclose until later. I only started getting treatment for it last month and have a hospital procedure coming up later this month. I somehow lost 8kg (17lbs) between March and July after being a consistent weight for years. My communication dropped off and I began to worry about my future again. Should I stay or should I go? Having had time off over the summer due to my physical and mental state, I was asked to attend an incapacity procedure meeting about a possible return to work. I was tempted to come back and carry on, but I had not sorted the physical condition that was so far undiagnosed and partially holding me back. So I took the agonising decision to leave – at the end of August. This was accepted and my employer treated me very well in this regard. I have no complaints about how I was treated, in fact, and I left on very good terms. Well, I got a lovely ‘leaving card’ anyway. I had just about reached two years in the role, having originally been hired for that length of time on a fixed-term contract.
Historical Preston
Keen to know a little bit about the history of the city, I recently purchased a book called ‘Preston Reflections‘ by local writer, Keith Johnson. It was featured earlier this year in a Blog Preston post. It is a fascinating blend of old and new, showing the readers glimpses of Preston past and present, illustrating as the back cover states the “periods of Poverty, progress, prosperity and displays of pomp, pageantry and patriotism.” (Johnson, K, 2022). The majority of the images are juxtaposed blends of older and newer photos. However, the ones that interested me the most were two blended images taken of the Flyde Street Roundabout from Friargate. The top one shows the new glass-fronted student centre, under construction at the time, where I spent most of my time whilst employed by UCLan. This £60 million building is now part of the Adelphi Quarter and overlooks, on one side, what is now called University Square. The Adelphi pub also subsequently went through a colourful upgrade, as you can see in my additional photo below, where I would head to after work, usually on Thursdays for cheap drinks. When I arrived in September 2021, the student centre was just about complete, although the roof garden took a bit longer to make safe and secure. However, I could see the back of the garden from the third floor of the library, where I conducted my first set of tutorials, alongside my colleague and good friend, Chris Bell. The second photo shows the scene back in 1969, with the old Fylde building and the construction, at that time, of a second multistorey office block that replaced shops along Flyde Street. But you can see the new UCLan Arts and Media building in the background, left of this picture. Now the very modern Engineering and Innovation would be seen. The Fylde and office blocks were all knocked down in 2015 to make way for the new all-purpose building. An official time-lapse covering six years is available on YouTube and is frequently shown on big screens inside.
Copyright lies with Amberley Publishing.
On a separate pictorial note, last month, a new display of mounted photographs – part of the Lancashire Photography Festival – were on public display around the city, including at Avenham Park and Winckley Square.
On Reflection
In my two years living and working in Preston, I found an independence that I had briefly held whilst living in Unthank Road, Norwich between 2018-2020. Still close enough to family, but with my own, rented place – care of an old friend and former colleague. However, I was only ever on a casual contract with my previous employer in Norfolk, with very few contact hours. The pandemic was a sort of bonus, as I was able to draw on my online teaching experience to train other teachers (and librarians) how to work remotely and effectively. Having full-time work at UCLan gave me job security for the first time in years. It meant that not only could I afford to pay my bills every month, but it gave me a bit of spare cash for beer, trips out and buying records – I got a new turntable and amplifier last year and got sucked into this ‘trap’ once more. See this post from last year about this.
I will miss a lot about living in the city. The close proximity to Avenham and Miller Park, the train station and the main thoroughfares of Fishergate, Friargate and the market for one. The ale houses, though, are as good as any city I have ever been to or lived in for any extended period of time. Places like Vinyl Tap (as mentioned in the above blog post), The Orchard, The Guild Ale House and Winckley Street Ale House were all great places for a drink. The relative closeness of Lytham, Blackpool, Garstang, Lancaster, Morecambe and above all else, the Lake District, meant that trips out could be easily and regularly taken, especially once the £2 capped bus fare was introduced. I did a lot of walking or ‘rambles’ in 2022 and continued doing so in the first half of this year.
As well as Nick Park, there are a few other famous Prestonians. Another is the cricket all-rounder, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff. A BBC documentary called ‘Field of Dreams’ aired last year to rave reviews. Not only did he assemble a cricket team like no other, he also helped to transform the lives of his recruits and brought together a community. It was mostly filmed in his hometown and in the last episode he managed to persuade Lancashire County Council to help with the funds to renovate Vernon Carus Sports club, 15 minutes walk south of where I lived, on the other side of the river from Avenham park, and which can be seen clearly from the train as you approach the station. A second series has been filmed, before Flintoff’s nasty Top Gear related car accident late last year, and is due to be aired later this year. Which brings me back to my own physical health.
Physical Exercise
Since turning 50 years of age, I have been very conscious about my level of fitness. This is common, I know. I have always felt that I drink a bit too much alcohol, eat too many crisps and have not done enough physical exercise up until now. I’ve always walked, but not huge distances. So last year I started doing some lengthy rambles – most often in the Lake District, but also jaunts from Lytham to Blackpool and Morecambe to Broughton. I also joined a local gym in Preston for one year. Then in July last year, inspired by Kate Bush returning to the UK number spot with a re-release of ‘Running Up That Hill’, I did my first 5km ParkRun. I wrote about this in a post earlier this year. Having moved out of Preston this month, I knew that the run on 2 September was probably going to be my 16th and last one around Avenham and Miller Park. The short video below is about that. In future, I will continue to run in Holkham when I can or wherever else I might be in the UK. If it’s 9am on a Saturday, it’s ParkRun time!
The Future
So who knows what the future holds? For now, it feels fantastic to be back in North Norfolk with family and all my stuff around in one place. However, I know this won’t be for long and I have already begun looking for the next ‘cracking’ adventure!
Reference:
Johnson, K (2022). Preston Reflections. Stroud: Amberley. Available at: https://www.amberley-books.com/preston-reflections.html The publisher holds the copyright to the two photos used and permission was obtained on 12 September from the author via them.
Teacher Phili 
[…] I put together some brief reflections on Preston recently, having moved out of the city last month, I half expected my next post to be about a new […]
LikeLike