Can you tell the difference between Bolton and Preston?

Their football clubs both wear navy blue and white strips, but how well can you identify landmarks in Bolton and Preston?

If you live in Lancashire, there’s a good chance that you will have visited both Bolton and Preston over the years; they are often the first place people associate with Lancashire mill towns which brought so much wealth and industry to the country in the 19th century.

However, both of these towns have evolved extensively from their industrial past, Preston was granted city status in 2002, becoming England’s 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

Bolton was within Lancashire County Council jurisdiction until 1889, when it was granted County Borough status which self-governing and independent, this lasted until 1974 when it became a constituent part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester.

Bolton will look very different in the next few years, it has been announced that there will be around £1 billion worth of investment to transform the town centre and create new housing for the increasing population. One notable project the £10 million redevelop of the Octagon Theatre, which is due to completed in 2019,

Preston has already had a number of changes over the last few years, that has included the rejuvenation of the Guild Hall and the market but there are also major multi-million pound projects involving the building of a £6.9 million Youth Zone on the western side of the iconic bus station and the proposed Adelphi Square at the University of Central Lancashire site.

With all these changes afoot, it may mean that we will have a few more famous landmarks that we can associate with both Bolton and Preston in the future.