{"id":1794,"date":"2010-10-28T17:05:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-28T16:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/?p=1794"},"modified":"2010-10-28T17:05:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T16:05:31","slug":"ashton-memorial-lancaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/2010\/10\/ashton-memorial-lancaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashton Memorial, Lancaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

High on a hill, overlooking the City of Lancaster is the Ashton Memorial.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Ashton Memorial was commissioned by Lord Ashton as a tribute to his late wife<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Built in memory of Lord Ashton<\/a>‘s second wife, Jessie, \u00a0the memorial is a grand gesture to the town where Lord Ashton grew up and made a large part \u00a0of his wealth.<\/p>\n

Jessie Ashton died in 1904.<\/p>\n

Standing around 35m (150ft) tall, the white Portland Stone structure, with copper clad dome, contrasts sharply with nearby woodland.<\/p>\n

Ashton Memorial design<\/h2>\n

The Ashton Memorial was designed by Sir John Belcher<\/a> and his partner John James Joass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It officially opened on 24 October 1909 and\u00a0is the centre piece to the 54 acres that make up Williamson Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Created from a disused quarry, Williamson Park provided work for many local residents who had lost their jobs due to the cotton famine caused by the American Civil War.<\/p>\n

In 1877 the grounds of the park were laid out by Mr John Maclean of Castle Donington.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking up towards the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The area called Fenham Carr was originally part of Lancaster Moor Hospital Estate, and was added to Williamson Park during the 1990s.<\/p>\n

One of the other features of the park is the large lake, complete with fountain.<\/p>\n

Bridge, fountain and palm house<\/h2>\n

A wooden bridge originally provided a crossing point however, this was replaced later with an impressive stone structure.<\/p>\n

During 1999, a programme of works funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, refurbished the lake, fountains and nearby waterfall.<\/p>\n

Next to the Ashton Memorial is the Edwardian Palm House.<\/p>\n

This now serves as a tropical Butterfly House, where exotic species flutter amongst lush foliage in the warm, humid atmosphere of a tropical forest.<\/p>\n

Further Ashton Memorial information<\/h3>\n

The haunted Landscape of the Ashton Memorial<\/a><\/p>\n

Williamson Park is open daily April to September 10-4pm and October to March 11 to 4pm Monday-Friday and 10 to 4pm at weekends.<\/p>\n

Williamson Park gallery<\/h2>\n

[slidepress gallery=’williamson-park-lancaster’]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High on a hill, overlooking the City of Lancaster is the Ashton Memorial. Built in memory of Lord Ashton‘s second wife, Jessie, \u00a0the memorial is a grand gesture to the town where Lord Ashton grew up and made a large part \u00a0of his wealth. Jessie Ashton died in 1904. Standing around 35m (150ft) tall, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":1798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,427],"tags":[2795,2784,1031,2794,2804,2778,180,2775,2799,2786,2801,2783,2791,2777,2797,651,2790,2800,2802,2788,2798,2803,2780,2787],"class_list":["post-1794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-architecture","category-featured","tag-american-civil-war","tag-castle-donington","tag-city-of-lancaster","tag-disused-quarry","tag-fountain-bridge","tag-grand-gesture","tag-heritage-lottery-fund","tag-high-on-a-hill","tag-humid-atmosphere","tag-impressive-stone","tag-john-belcher","tag-john-maclean","tag-lake-fountains","tag-lord-ashton","tag-lush-foliage","tag-memory","tag-nearby-waterfall","tag-palm-house","tag-portland-stone","tag-stone-structure","tag-tropical-butterfly","tag-wife-jessie","tag-williamson-park","tag-wooden-bridge","entry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/IMG_7651-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/IMG_7651-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin-2\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1794"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1822,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions\/1822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heritageandhistory.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}