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-Tees borough of Teesside. It later became part of the non-metropolitan district of Stockton-on-Tees in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,748. It has a diverse number of property types ranging from terraced rented houses to large detached private dwellings. Preston-on-Tees has one school, Eaglescliffe Junction School was built in 1907, and later became known as Preston Primary School. The parish is in the catchment for Egglescliffe Secondary School. There is a Methodist church on Witham Avenue. The church is named Eaglescliffe Trinity Methodist Church and was opened in 1902.