We spent the day around this lovely town with some beautiful buildings. We walked up the Hill first to Williamson's Park.
The beautiful Victorian Williamson Park is named after the Williamson family that were oil cloth and linoleum manufacturers in the area. the son of the founder of the business carried on the growth and in 1895 was knited and became Lord Ashton. This is the Ashton Memorial that was designed by Sir John Belcher and completed in 1909. The building is dedicated to the Williamson family, but it is thought that it was dedicated to his second wife Jessy, who died in 1904. He was married three times, with two daughters from his first marriage. It must have been a little uncomfortable for them, and the 3rd wife I would have thought.
The views in all directions form below the dome a great in all directions with this view of the old port are of the town by the Lune and the castle been prominent. In 1981 the Ashton memorial had to be closed as it needed total refurbishment. After 4 years it reopened and now has an art gallery and is a wedding/conference/party venue.
The citizens of the town are very lucky to have such a fantastic facility. It is a victorian park at its best. It even looks like a canal area connecting with this lake, but isn't. The park was opened in 1877 but the fountain was added by Sir John Belcher when the memorial was erected.
Down in the middle of the town, in the square opposite the Town Hall is the statue of Victoria with these bronzes on each side. They are full of the national great and good of the day. Florence Nightingale is here and the only other women is George Elliot. How times change. They are extremely detailed, and I like the fact that they were allowed to smoke!!
In the foreground is Covell's Cross. It is a recent replacement for the original market cross and is named after the man who lived in the house behind. He was Mayor, Magistrate and Coroner but is perhaps best known as the Keeper of the Castle during the with trials there in 1612. The house is called the Judging's Lodgings as it was where the visiting judges lodge when attending the assizes held here. They brough many people and hence money to the town as until 1835 all cases from Manchester and Liverpool were also heard here. Just showing what a meteoric rise those city's have had. It now houses a museum of Gillows Furniture that was manufactured just round the corner near the castle.
On the side of the Priory church, by the castle is this plaque to the engineer who built the Lune Aqueduct that we will be crossing soon.
The Water Witch pub is, as you can see, on the tow path, and not far from our moorings. It was converted from boat horse stables in 1978. It is very popular, and doesn't have a car park! We went to a quiz night and managed to come equal bottom. That's the trouble with these University towns! It is a long narrow building due to its original use but the stone floors rafters and pine paneling make up for it. They do good food and have about 6 hand pulls on most of the town.
It tried a beer from Kirby Lonsdale Brewery that is named after the town it comes from! It started up in 2009 and has a 6bbl brewery. It is in the Old Station Yard, but in 2016 they converted a barn in the town to their tap house and also added a small brewery in there too. They make a large range of beers, with about 6 being regularly available, and sell all over Cumbria and the North.
I tried their Singletrack 4.0% beer. It had a nice golden colour with an average head on it with a bouquet of aromas wafting up from it. It was full of hops and the overall tastes was of citrus, but left a nice clean taste too. I enjoyed it, but I only had one so don't think that was the cause of our poor showing in the quiz.
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