FOR centuries the ancient village of Broughton was a local farming community.

The parish straddles the A6 from Preston to Lancaster and is graced with several fine houses and buildings.

In 1833 Preston solicitor JWR Wilson built New Bank Hall on the west side of Garstang Road, later known as Broughton House, it is now the headquarters of the Lancashire Ambulance Service.

Opposite, set back from the main road, is the former Broughton Park, now the Preston Marriott Hotel, an exquisite building constructed by Preston firm Thomas Croft and Sons.

On June 26, 1890, Preston solicitor, James Clarke, bought the 79-acre Key Fold farm on the east side of Garstang Road.

In 1891, on a ten-acre site between the farm and the parsonage, he had Broughton Park built for himself, his wife Elizabeth and ten children.

Despite later additions, it is a remarkable building with many original features, such as the coloured glass skylight on the land above the former hall.

The second owner of Broughton Park was merchant Charles Williamson Beswick, who bought the property in 1924 and sold it to Kathleen Dickson, daughter of Peter Yates of wine lodge fame, four years later.

At the start of the Second World War the house was requisitioned by the Government as quarters to 100 WAAF's plotting enemy aircraft movement at the nearby Barton Hall.

It first opened as a small hotel in 1978 under the ownership of Stratton Bennett and his brother Thomas before passing to William Coupe Ltd in the early eighties.

In 1996, Whitbread acquired the franchise for Marriott Hotels in Britain and Sir Tom Finney officially unveiled the refurbished four-star Preston Marriott Hotel.

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