 In 1801 the population of Long Preston was 573; this rose to 808 in 1831 but dropped to 610 in 1961.Between 1923 and 1935, Long Preston was the railhead for the construction of Stocks Reservoir built by the Fylde Water Board (FWB).Steam traction engines hauled material between the FWB depot, to the west of the current station, by road to Tosside where connection was made with a 3-foot gauge industrial railway system that served the dam construction project (Bowtell, 1988).