Lancaster memories
Here are memories of Lancaster and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Lancaster or a Lancaster photo.
Wrong Bridge!
This is Crook of Lune railway viaduct, between Halton & Caton.
Penny Bridge is a road bridge, from Halton village to former Halton railway station.
LRGS
This is the Old Building, showing the Headmaster's house, and boarding house. The teaching part, "Big School" is hidden by the tree. The New Building was built across the road. The School has now expanded enormously, and is co-educational! Not when I was there!
River Lune
Green Ayre railway station on the left, with the Greyhound Bridge curving across the river. The bridge is now a road bridge. Most of the station is Sainsbury's supermarket, car park, and a riverside park "heritage centre".
Asylum
Proper name is the Royal Albert Hospital, not as we used to call the "looney bin".
It is the second Asylum in Lancaster, the other being the Moor Hospital, or County Mental Institution. I worked in the kitchens here. A very spooky place full of gloomy atmosphere.
Market Place
Market Square and its subterranean (underground) toilets on the left. They always used to smell ghastly! A couple of years after this, Market Square became almost a Bus Station, with stops for all city destinations. The big "CAFE" sign was the Cinema (Empire?) now WH Smith.
Priory Church
The railed monument left of the tower contains a statue of a recumbent lady. Us kids said it was the tomb of a woman who fell or jumped from the tower. Never did find out who it really was. Anyone else know?
'orrible Murder
1911. The celebrated Bingham murder by poisoning mystery. They were keepers of the castle. LOOK IT UP. A fascinating case.
Horseshoe Corner
For many years a horseshoe lay in the centre here. It was rumoured to be where John O'Gaunt's horse cast a shoe!
Dalton Square
The building behind and to the left is the home of Dr Ruxton, who killed his wife and maid in 1935, chopped them up, and distributed them around Moffat in Dumfries. They hanged him, of course, and the bath where he chopped them up was taken to be a horse trough at Preston Police HQ.
Castle
M for "Malefactor" (evil doer). In Court an accused would have to swear on the Bible in right hand and hold up his/her left hand. If the Judge saw the brand, the punishment would usually be more severe.
Cable Street
Cable Street of course from "Ship's Cable" street, there were shipyards here a long while ago, and ropeworks too.
Caton Road
Was there an internment camp for Enemy Aliens here in 1914?
De Vitre
De Vitre was a public benefactor I think. A ward at the mental hospital was named for him.
Tragedy
Scene of the tragic suicide of one of the first trans-sexuals.
Church?
The rightmost building was a Cinema, don't ever remember it being a church. There was a Methodist church just off camera to the left on Sulyard Street. Dr Ruxton's of course was empty from 1935 till the City Council made it into offices, not sure when - 1980's?
Bowerham Barracks
I remember living there in the married quarters when the war was over and my dad was posted there, must have been 1946. My dad was in the Kings Own Royal Regiment and we lived there for quite a short time and I went to school in Bowerham. I ived in Lancaster with my Auntie and Uncle who lived in Sulby Drive in Lancaster as well. My cousins were Brian, Leonard and Pat Redburn and I have lost touch with them competely I am afraid
The Buses
I remember the bus station at Lancaster during and after the war. I found it, even as a child, somewhat evocative and I used to love the way the engines would throb while waiting to go and the places they were going, with magical names,such as Silverdale, Carnforth, Yealand Conyers, Nether Kellet. They fascinated me.
The Flicks
The magnificent Odeon Cinema, an Art Deco masterpiece, became a multi-screen horror, then a Bingo Hall. Sadly now torn down (2010) to make way for shopping. The doors bottom right corner were where we would sneak in free after a friend opened the exit. At age 10 we climbed the fire ladders to the roof high above the city!
Old Bernard's Memories of The Park
Ah! I remember when I was a little lad! I used to walk around the park after days at school, spitting chewing gum into the water with my friend Godric Weatherballs. Lord! The fountain was like a spitting mermaid! Jovey olives, this picture does jog memories... for example, Godric, Clifford and I used to skydive here, and swim in the lake in summer. Ach! The lake! So full of fascinating creatures: dragons, Nessie, Marilyn Monroe... and, as demonstrated by this photograph, they were all black and white. I do hope you're enjoying accompanying me on my stroll down Memory Lane! I simply cannot fathom the differences between 1920s Billy's Park and the park today, in 2010! Such colour! And, tearfully, I seem to see no skydiving children in the park today. However, I have heard that weddings occur here today, which delights me slightly. Well... Lord... As you can see I'm still at a loss of wording! I wish I could list my memories all day long... This one park made such... Read more
Henrys. Market Street.
I used to work at Henrys store, in the stock room. It was my first real job. It was a great old place. In the cellar was a secret passage way to the castle, bricked up from when there was a farmhouse there, I was told.
Christmas time was fantastic with Father Christmas and the grotto, and Father Christmas was my grandfather before I worked there - I sat on his knee when I was small and didn't know it was my grandad, how's that! I loved that place. British Home Stores rebuilt on the site and I worked for them for a while too. Allan Holmes.
Chapel
Each week, as a 15 - 16 year-old, I used to cycle from Morecambe on a Sunday morning for an organ lesson at the chapel of the Moor Hospital. It was uphill there and downhill home. My teacher was the organist there, also Director of Music at LRGS, and my lesson started after the Sunday morning service. As I progressed I was allowed to play the recesssional after the service. Every few years I come back to look at that magnificant building (the Annex) and think of all those thousands of people, staff and patients, who kept that sanctuary alive - a city within a city - which care within the community cannot now hope to replicate. I regret its demise and the safe haven it provided for so many people.
Williamson Park Gate House
The 1881 census shows my grandfather (John Smart) and his family living in this house. He was the Landscape Gardener of the park.
Video About Beauty Salon David Frank of Lancaster
How Lancaster beauty salon, David Frank, survived the recession of the early 1990s by putting their prices UP.
My short video can now be seen on my YouTube channel at www.JonDanzig.com:
http://youtu.be/k4n5CRolY0w
Memories of Lancashire
Torrisholme in The 1960s And 1970s
My name is Susan Railton (nee Price) and I grew up in Torrisholme in the 1960s and 1970s. It was always a place where everyone knew and cared about each other. I lived on Hyde Road and could see The Square from my bedroom. I remember going to the corner shops where Booths is now. I especially loved Mr Lupton's (I think that was what he was called). In his shop he had a shelf full of lovely sweets in glass jars and he always did a magic trick with the money you gave him. Next to him was the corner grocery shop where you got served with everything you wanted.
I remember the other shop further into the village where the bookmakers is now, it was owned by a woman I only knew as Barbara. Mum would take me in there after we had been to Mass.
My friends and I would often play in the park near the spar shop (or Shaw's as it was known then), I... Read more
HYDE ROAD/ESSEX ROAD
HELLO SUSAN RAILTON/ PRICE. DO YOU REMEMBER ME.
Morecambe Musical Festival
From 1952 to 1959, aged 9 to 16 and at Morecambe Grammar School, I played the piano in the solo classes at the Morecambe Musical Festival - a premier event in the calendar of the Winter Gardens. It brought in thousands of people during the week; choirs, brass bands and soloists from Scotland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Wales etc. with all their supporters, as well as local talent.
If I won my classes during the week I would appear in the grand finals on the Saturday evening and I still have all the certificates to prove it! Very daunting for a young person in that magnificent theatre and on that enormous stage. Every few years I come back and remember the Winter Gardens as it used to be in those halcyon days of the 50's. How it has all changed, especially as I had a tour round the old theatre a couple of years ago and saw how much decay had set in.
I went on to Manchester University to gain... Read more
End of Pier Show, The Follies
I appeared in the show along with other artistes, some of the names elude me. The show was produced by Herman and Constance Wells. I was the song and dance man! Mario Lanza was in the great Caruso at the cinema. Can anybody help identify some of the cast? There were four girl dancers. One speciality act. Elvet Hughes (tenor) and an old comedian who I believe at one time understudied Old Mother Riley. Hope you can help, Brian Martin PS - I wonder how many people remember this show ?
Draining The Lands
I took my father back here in the 1980s as he said he use to work on the fields around this area draining the lands. He is in his eighties now and recently we went through some of his old photos and came across Quernmore. I have old sepia photo' he had taken of this area and of the small church to the left of this picture halfway down the road on the right hand side. This was his job in 1948 to dig and drain the land around this particular location. They lived in temporary huts just a little further up from the cross roads on this picture.
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Places this week
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- Newhaven, East Sussex
- Bacton, Norfolk
- Aberbargoed, Mid Glamorgan
- Stroud, Gloucestershire
- Twechar, Lanarkshire
- Redhill, Surrey
- Sale, Cheshire
- Streatham, Greater London
- Leytonstone, Greater London
- Crowborough, East Sussex
- Berwick, East Sussex
- Bushey, Hertfordshire
- Bonnyrigg, Midlothian
- Kitts Green, West Midlands
- Raf Honington, Suffolk
- South Woodford, Greater London
- Monk Bretton, South Yorkshire
- Alton, Hampshire
- Barking, Essex
- Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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