Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours

04/01/2025

We have just renewed our membership of the North West Tourist Guides Association for another twelve months! 📅

We are looking forward to another year of collaborating, networking & socialising with our fellow Institute of Tourist Guiding Blue & Green Badge Tourist Guides across Lancashire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester & Merseyside! 🙂

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03/01/2025

From Little Acorns, Mighty Oak Trees Grow! This year marks 75 years of British Guild of Tourist Guides! We are very proud to be part of the association! :)

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03/01/2025

📅 Born on this day in 1855*, in Preston, Reginald Aspinwall. Aspinwall enrolled as a young man at Preston Art School, before moving to Lancaster to become a student teacher at the Lancaster School of Art. Aspinwall was a prolific artist, painting mainly landscapes, in both watercolours & oils.🎨

Considered initially as a rather promising artist, with a number of works exhibited at The Royal Academy, unfortunately Aspinwall experienced considerable financial hardship in his later life, much of this down to his increased dependency on alcohol. He was eventually admitted as an inmate of Lancaster Workhouse, before being transferred to the Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum. The artist passed away there on 26th February 1921. He was buried in Lancaster Cemetery. 🪦

The Harris in Preston & Lancaster City Museums both have a number of the artist's works in their collections. A quick search online will bring up various Aspinwall paintings currently up for sale, should you be in the market for some local art. 🖼

[Some sources suggest 3rd January 1858 as his date of birth.]

📷 The Storey, one time home to Lancaster School of Art, where Aspinwall was based after relocating to Lancaster. Photograph by Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours

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02/01/2025

If you have been on a tour with us, or attended one of our talks, there is a good chance you might have heard us mention John Speed. Born in 1552 Speed had originally been a tailor, before turning his hand to cartography. His extensive work as a map maker includes a wonderful illustration of Lancashire from 1610, with a detailed addition of a street map of Lancaster. This is the earliest map of Lancashire's County Town and was published in his book 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine' in 1611/12. 📚

Holding his work in some esteem, we were delighted to pick up a 1995 British Library edition of his work today at a bargain price. As the name might suggest, 'The Counties of Britain' contains all of Speed's maps of the counties, and many towns and cities, of the British Isles. A very pretty volume with some fascinating historical details. A nice addition to the collection indeed! :)

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02/01/2025

📅 On this day in 1793 Lancaster merchant Dodshon Foster passed away. Born into a Quaker family in Durham in 1730, Foster moved to Lancaster as a young man, entering the euphemistically named 'Triangular Trade'. He transported around 700 Africans to the West Indies to work as slaves as part of his business dealings. His success led to the construction of a house & warehousing on St. George's Quay and a stint as a Lancaster Port Commissioner, serving from 1755 until 1758. Despite a national move from Quakers to officially condemn the slave trade, Foster was still buried at Lancaster's Quaker Meeting House on his death in 1793. ⚓️🪦

📷 Lancaster's historic Meeting House. Photograph by Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours

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01/01/2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉 The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus. Janus is usually portrayed with two faces, one looking back at the past and the other to the future. Looking back, highlights of our 2024 included winning 'Visitor Attraction of the Year' and being nominated as 'Ambassador of the Year' at the Love Lancaster BID Awards, replacing our Blue Badge from the Institute of Tourist Guiding, reaquainting ourselves with colleagues at British Guild of Tourist Guides, becoming official partners of visit Lancashire and being presented our with first Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Award. We are very much looking forward to seeing what 2025 brings us! Many thanks, as always, for the continued support & interest. 🙂

📷 "Bust of the Roman god Janus" 1569.The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

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31/12/2024

📅 On this day in 1853, at Crystal Palace, the famous 'Dinner In A Dinosaur' event took place. The dinner was hosted in a (rather inaccurate) recreation of an Iguanadon by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, the artist responsible for creating a series of dinosaur models for the London attraction. The chief scientific advisor for the project was Lancaster's very own Richard Owen, inventor of the word dinosaur, who was also a guest of honour at the dinner! Despite Crystal Palace no longer standing, a number of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' dinosaurs still roam the area, cared for by Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs! 🦕

📷 The event, as reported in the Illustrated London News, 7th January 1854

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31/12/2024

📅 Born on this day in 1842, James Williamson Jnr., later to become 1st Baron Ashton of Ashton. After an education at Lancaster Royal Grammar School, James joined his father's linoleum business, dramatically expanding and developing an already successful enterprise. Although the scale of the operation was huge, most of the industrial buildings used by the company have since been demolished. 🏗

Marrying three times, James Jnr. held a number of public positions including Liberal MP for Lancaster from 1886 until 1895. In 1896, he was given a peerage, becoming Baron Ashton of Ashton, taking his title from one of his properties Ashton Hall, now Lancaster Golf Club. ⛳️

Like many industrialists of the time he donated considerable sums of money to his home town. Of these gifts prehaps the Queen Victoria Monument in Dalton Square, Lancaster Town Hall and the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park are the most obvious today. Gifts further afield included the purchase and refurbishment of Ashton Gardens St Annes & Fairhaven Lake and Gardens. 🏞

Despite his acts of generosity, when he died in 1930 he still remained one of the richest men in the world at the time - a fortune built on floor cloth! 💷💰

📷 The Ashton Coat of Arms, decorating the gates to Williamson Park, Lancaster. Photograph by Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours

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30/12/2024

📅 On this day in 1460 Richard, 3rd Duke of York - aka Richard Plantagenet was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. A direct decendent of Edward III, Richard's claims to the crown ultimately proved unsuccessful. Despite this, two of his sons would later become Kings of England - Edward IV & Richard III. The Battle of Wakefield formed part of the Wars of the Roses, the name given to numerous ongoing conflicts over the control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. Although nominally the House of Lancaster VS the House of York, very little action actually took place here in the North West of England, a fact that puzzles many visitors to Lancaster. Although our War of the Roses history may be scant, we still have TONS of other stuff to talk about here in Lancashire! 🌹🙂

📷 The arms of Richard, 3rd Duke of York by Sodacan CC BY-SA 3.0

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30/12/2024

Morecambe's The Midland Hotel is renowned as an art deco gem, but did you know that Lancaster once had its own Midland Hotel too? Both hotels were named after the Midland Railway Company, who took over the operating of trains from Yorkshire to Morecambe in 1874. Built c.1901 to service the, now demolished, Green Ayre Railway Station, Lancaster's Midland Hotel later became known as The Priory and is currently trading as The Bobbin! Our priciple guide Gregory will be swapping his Tour Guide hat for his Bar Supervisor one, manning their beer pumps over the New Year period. Do pop in and say hello if you are passing! :) 🍻🎉

📷 Photograph of The Bobbin by Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours

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29/12/2024

📅 Born on this day in 1929, Bernard Joseph Cribbins. A native of Derker in Oldham, Cribbins started working in the world of the theatre in his early teens. A star of the stage & screen for many years, with several novelty records to his name, Cribbins sadly passed away in 2022. A true lover of the arts, for many years he held the role of Patron at Lancaster Grand, one of the country's oldest working theatres. 🎭

📷 Photograph of Bernard Cribbins in 2015 by Brian Minkoff London Pixels, via Wikipedia.

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29/12/2024

Facebook reliably informs us that we have gained 366 followers, created 189 posts and received 8,486 reactions in the past 90 days! Thank you all for your continued support. We couldn't have done it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

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28/12/2024

A fantastic view of Lancaster's St. George's Quay, painted in 1930. We're pretty sure this is a new one to us! Here at Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours we can't wait for The Harris to reopen again! :)

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✨ What are your plans this Boxing Day?

🌳 Perhaps you are curling up on the sofa or planning a winter walk?

🏰 This beautiful painting of ‘Lancaster Quay’ dated 1930 by Robin Wallace may inspire you with a destination!

28/12/2024

We are there tomorrow as it happens! Why not pop along and say hello? :)

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4⃣ On the fourth day of Christmas Lancashire Museums brings to you gruesome tales on tours of Castle.
Check the times of the tours. http://tiny.cc/LancasterCastle

27/12/2024

📅 On this day in 1909 Lancaster Town Hall was officially opened. Paid for by local industrialist Lord Ashton, the total cost of construction was around £155,000 - which works out at a whopping £23,500,000 in today's money! It was designed by Edward Mountford & Thomas Lucas to replace the old Town Hall in Market Square, now occupied by Lancaster City Museums. With internal decor by Wearing & Gillow and stained glass by Shrigley & Hunt, it was certainly built to impress. You can occasionally join a guided tour of this fascinating building as a guest of Lancaster City Council - in fact guiding at the Town Hall was one of our priciple guide Gregory's first jobs after graduation! 🎂

📷 Photograph of Lancaster Town Hall by Lancaster Walks, Talks & Tours

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26/12/2024

We eschewed the traditional [for some] Boxing Day dip today and decided to go for a stroll instead. Took a very pleasant walk with family along Lancaster Canal towards Hest Bank. The sightings of wildlife seemed few and far between, a solitary drake and a couple of swans, but the reflections of the trees in the water was really something! Had a rest and some welcome refreshments at The Hest Bank before heading home! A lovely day out, all in all! :) 🎅

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24/12/2024

📅 Born on this day in 1166, John, King of England. He was the youngest son of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. Despite being often portrayed as a very poor king, John was one of only a small number of monarchs to show a real interest in Lancaster Castle. The monarch held court in Lancaster and spent a considerable amount of money strengthening & improving the Castle. Much of the work that King John paid for has since disappeared in subsequent rebuilds, but Hadrian's Tower still stands today. You can visit this part of the building on a tour with Lancashire Museums. There's even a chance we might be guiding you! 😉 🫅

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24/12/2024

📆On this day in 1945 Ian Fraser Kilmister was born in Stoke-On-Trent. Better known as Lemmy, the legendary musician played at Lancaster University several times, initially as a member of space rockers Hawkwind and later with his own rock 'n' rollers Motörhead! Lemmy & Co. stopped off in Lancaster on 17th November 1979 to play The Great Hall. A part of their 'Bomber' Tour, the band also brought along their good friends Saxon as support! It was all a bit before our time but were any of our Facebook friends & followers in attendance? 🤘🎅🏼🤘

You can read more about music at Lancaster University in the excellent publication When rock went to college! 🎶🎛🎸

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Official music video for ‘Bomber’ by Motörhead Listen to Bomber : https://motorhead.lnk.to/bomberIDSubscribe to the official Motörhead YouTube Channel: https...