Father's Day in Preston: the ground, the docks and the fells

A June occasion in a city with a football ground, a Victorian dock and a hill half an hour away.

Father's Day falls in June, which is the best month of the Preston year: the parks are full, the river path is dry, and the fells north of the city are as accessible as they get. That points the day outdoors, and this city rewards that.

It sets out the four directions a Father's Day in Preston can go, and each of them is the same every year.

Football: Deepdale

Deepdale is the obvious one and it is better than obvious. Preston North End have played there since 1878, which puts it among the oldest continuously used football grounds in the world, and the four stands are named for Sir Tom Finney, Bill Shankly, Alan Kelly and the Invincibles of 1888-89.

June is out of season, so this is a visit to the ground, with no match to see. The walk out from the centre through Moor Park is twenty minutes and is part of the point.

Industrial: the docks

Preston Dock is the other strong Preston answer. The Albert Edward Dock opened in 1892 and was once among the largest single basins in the country; it closed to commercial shipping in 1981 and is now a marina, with the Ribble Steam Railway on the north quay.

The scale of it surprises people who arrive expecting a canal. Walking there from the centre down through Avenham and Miller Parks and west along the river is about forty minutes and almost entirely off road.

Outdoors: the Guild Wheel and the fells

The Guild Wheel is 21 miles round the city, traffic-free for most of its length, and June is when it is at its best. A quarter of it makes an afternoon; the whole loop is a comfortable half day by bike.

If a hill is what you want, Beacon Fell is half an hour north on the edge of the Forest of Bowland, with a twenty minute climb to a view over the Fylde, the Bowland fells and, on a clear day, the Lake District.

A long lunch

If the day is meant to end at a table, the concentration is on Winckley Street and the blocks around Winckley Square, which is the most food-and-drink-led part of the city centre. The eat and drink sheet describes the geography by area.

No venue is named here. Father's Day is a peak Sunday for the restaurant trade, provision changes annually, and a recommendation carried over from a previous year is worse than none on exactly that day. Book directly, and book early.

Combining them

The two combinations that work are football plus Moor Park, and docks plus the river parks. Both are half-day walks with a fixed point at the end, and both start in the city centre, which means no second parking decision.

The fells are a separate day, because Beacon Fell needs a drive and the road north takes longer than the map suggests on a June Sunday.

Practicalities in June

Sunday parking in the city centre is the easiest of the week, and Sunday buses are thin enough that a trip out of the centre wants a car. The parking and travel sheets cover both.

The football history, briefly

If Deepdale is the plan, the history is worth having before you go, because the buildings will not tell you any of it. Preston North End were a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and won its first season unbeaten, taking the FA Cup in the same year without conceding a goal — the side known as the Invincibles.

The National Football Museum was at Deepdale for over a decade and moved to Manchester in 2012, which is the one thing to know before travelling: the club's own heritage is at the ground, the national collection is not.

Sir Tom Finney, whose name is on the west stand, played his entire senior career for the club and worked as a plumber alongside it. That is the story the stand names are telling, and it is a better one than most grounds have.