[1] Preston was one of only a few industrial towns in Lancashire to have a functioning corporation in 1835, its charter dating to 1685,[2] and was reformed as a municipal borough by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

[3] The Local Government Act 1888 created elected county councils throughout England and Wales.

However, any municipal borough with a population of 50,000 or more at the census of 1881 was to be independent of the administration of the county council, with the new status of county borough.

The county borough's boundaries were widened on three occasions: in 1934, 1952 and 1956.

[6] The county borough was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and its territory transferred to Lancashire to be combined with Fulwood Urban District and part of Preston Rural District, becoming the new non-metropolitan district of the Borough of Preston.