Editing Prescot (section)

==History==
Prescot's name is believed to be derived from the [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] ''prēost'' "priest" + ''cot'' "cot", meaning a cottage or small house owned or inhabited by a priest, a "priest-cottage". ([[Middle English|ME]] prest, preste, priest, [[Old English|OE]] prēost, [[Late Latin|LL]] presbyter, [[Greek language|Gk]] πρεσβύτερος presbýteros "elder, priest").<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.prescotmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Origins-of-Prescot.pdf|title=Prescot Origins and History|publisher=Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council|access-date=5 November 2023}}</ref>

In the 14th century, [[William Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre]], obtained a [[charter]] for the holding of a three-day [[market (place)|market]] and moveable [[fair]] at Prescot, to begin on the Wednesday following [[Corpus Christi (feast)|Corpus Christi]].<ref>Edward Baines, William Robert Whatton, Brooke Herford, James Croston, ''The history of the county palatine and duchy of Lancaster'', vol. 5 (J. Heywood, 1893), p. 2</ref>

In 1593, the English political philosopher [[Gerrard Winstanley]]'s parents, Edward and Isabell Winstanley, originally from Wigan, were married in Prescot.

From the mid-1590s to 1609, Prescot was home to the [[Prescot Playhouse]], a purpose-built [[Shakespearean]] theatre, probably located on Eccleston Street.<ref name=Graham>{{cite book |title=Merseyside: Culture and Place |editor1-last=Benbough-Jackson |editor1-first=Mike |editor2-last=Davies |editor2-first=Sam |chapter="So Unbridled & Badde an Handfull of England": The Social and Cultural Ecology of the Elizabethan Playhouse in Prescot |last1=Graham |first1=Elspeth  |last2=Tyler |first2=Rosemary |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |location=Newcastle |date=2011 |isbn=1-4438-2964-1 |pages=109–139 }}</ref> In the sixteenth century it was a small town of about 400 inhabitants, and not much bigger by the late seventeenth century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Prescot Churchwardens' Accounts|last=Steel|first=Thomas|publisher=Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire|year=2002|isbn=0 902593 48 X|pages=xii}}</ref>

During the 18th and 19th centuries it was at the centre of the [[watch]] and [[clock]]-making industry. This ended with the failure of the [[Lancashire Watch Company]] in 1910. In later years the [[British Insulated Callender's Cables|BICC company]] was the primary industrial employer in the town. BICC ceased operations in Prescot in the early 1990s before the site was demolished and later cleared. The land remained desolate until 2000 when it was then regenerated into what is now known as [http://www.prescotcablesshoppingpark.co.uk/ Cables Retail Park], the name of which is a reference to the BICC and the history of the site on which it was built.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.lmu.livjm.ac.uk/BICC|title=BICC was Prescot, Prescot was BICC|access-date=9 June 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721170031/http://www.lmu.livjm.ac.uk/BICC/|archive-date=21 July 2006}}</ref>