Broughton, Lancashire
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Broughton is a village in the Preston district of Lancashire, England, about four miles north of Preston city centre. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,735. It lies within the civil parish of Broughton-in-Amounderness.
It has an up market restaurant, called "Burlingtons", and also an Indian restaurant called "The Gate of Bengal", which was formerly the "Bay Tree" restaurant, having been converted from a pub called "The Golden Ball".
Broughton is separated by the main A6 road and is close to the motorway junction of the M6. Because of this Broughton often experiences major traffic congestion and therefore, after years of debate, a bypass has been planned to ease the traffic flow, although many doubt the valiue of this.
Broughton houses one of the major tennis clubs to be found in Lancashire - Broughton LTC. David White is the head coach, having joined the Club at the beginning of 2008. There are 5 courts, 3 tarmacadam courts which replaced the legendary shale courts in 2006 and 2 carpet courts. There are 2 purpose built mini tennis courts and an indoor court in the hall which is used for mini tennis coaching. A new pavilion completed the modernisation in 2007. The Club also offers badminton, bridge, drama, snooker, pool, petanque and crown green bowls. The Club's telephone number is 01772 863006.
Broughton telephone exchange was the UK's first Crossbar exchange. The current exchange building, which was extended at the front in the 1980s, was built for a field trial of Plessey's new 5005A crossbar exchange in 1964 replacing Broughton's manual exchange. The village was chosen due to its relative proximity to the Plessey factory and research centre at Edge Lane Liverpool. The equipment at Broughton was given a designation code TXC1 (Telephone eXchange Crossbar No1) by the GPO, this was later changed to TXK1 because TXC sounded too much like TXE - the code given to electronic switches. The crossbar equipment was replaced by a digital exchange in the 1980s. As there was insufficient floor space for the crossbar and digital equipment to be installed together, an extension to the building was added completely altering the appearance from the front. The old building can be seen clearly from the housing estate at the rear. It's not known if the obsolete equipment is still in there or whether it was scrapped.
At the rear of the local Anglican Church (St Johns) can be found the Tudor Museum. Run by volunteers it is open to the public on Sunday afternoons. A delightful experience.
The Church of St Johns has a tower dated 1533 and is currently undergoing restoration. The nave is much later - 1826, and the choir 1906. Details on the web site- www.broughtonparish.org.uk. The choir comprising of at least 30 men and 30 boys sing services each sunday - except when on tour.
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