The Harris Museum and Art Gallery in preston houses a major collection of historical and contemporary fine and decorative art in the beautiful surroundings of a Grade I listed building, as well as the Story of Preston gallery of social history. The museum's displays of British oil paintings and sculpture, textiles, costume, glass and ceramics are complemented by a programme of temporary exhibitions, events and activities for all the family, including an international contemporary art programme. Use the search facility for specific Harris events. Admission is free.

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The National Football Museum is home to the WORLD'S most important footballing collections including the official FIFA Collection. This contemporary styled museum also features a number of exciting interactive displays including an invitation from Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen to become a guest panellist in a special edition of Match of the Day, allowing visitors to show the pundits how it should be done. Then sit and watch your efforts played back on screen.

The Museum of Lancashire offers a real family day out. Housed in Preston's Old Court House the museum allows you to experience days gone by. Take a stroll along a 1940's street, take cover in the Anderson shelter when you hear the air raid siren and watch out for the unexploded bomb! This helps you to learn about the role of women during the war, ration books and evacuation. Sit in a Victorian classroom or experience life under gunfire as a world war to solider in the frontline trenches.

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The Museum of Lancashire,

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum has a compelling story to tell. It represents one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United Kingdom. Over one million people in the UK are employed in some way with the road transport industry and its infrastructure. Trucks carry more than 98% of the goods purchased in Britain, keeping the wheels of industry and commerce turning. The British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland Lancashire has for the past twenty years been dedicated to preserving the history of the road transport industry in the United Kingdom. Its exhibits and archives contain not just examples of the vehicles themselves, but evidence of their interaction with a century of daily life.

The Museum of the Queens Lancashire Regiment tells the story of the Lancashire Lads who came to and from Preston and the towns of Lancashire to serve in the regiment (now pa) and its county regiment predecessors. The extensive regimental collections, archive and library combine to produce the largest military heritage centre in the North West. The compelling story of the Lancashire soldier and what he achieved is lavishly illustrated and warmly told. Admission is free.

Many thousands of soldiers have passed through the portals of Fulwood Barracks in the 158 years since it first opened, most especially during the years of National Service which followed World War II. Every few weeks throughout the 1940's and 1950's drafts of raw young recruits reported for training at the Barracks, then the Regimental Depot for both the East Lancashire and Loyal North Lancashire Regiments. During the 1960's Fulwood Barracks was the Headquarters and Training Depot of the Lancastrian Brigade and only finally stopped training recruits for the North West's infantry regiments in the 1970's, when Army recruit training was centralised.