Preston, Lancashire after 1948, Preston became home to a significant number of Asian and Caribbean Commonwealth immigrants, who mostly worked in the manufacturing industry. However, an economic decline hit the town once again in the 1970s, capped by the closure of the Courtaulds factory in 1979 (nearly 3,000 job losses) and the decline of the docks on the River Ribble, which finally closed in 1981. Mass unemployment was firmly back in Preston by the early 1980s, although it was now very much a national crisis due to the recession of that time. The rehousing of families from town centre slums to new
Preston on the Hill bungalows. The original workhouse was built between 1855 and 1857 for 280 inmates. The workhouse infirmary was enlarged in 1881–82, with further extensions in 1895 and a nurses' home in 1906. Sumner's Farm and its outbuildings on Windmill Lane were converted to residential in 2005. Preston on the Hill is administered as part of the civil parish of Preston Book within the unitary authority of Halton. The Civil Parish incorporates the villages of Preston Brook, Preston on the Hill and part of the village of Dutton. A short section of the A56 Chester Road runs through the northwest of the