Ashton Memorial

Anyone travelling up the M6 past junction 33 at Galgate will have seen the dome of the Ashton Memorial amongst the trees of Williamson Park. The motorway takes the fast traffic around Lancaster and the memorial is passed in a matter of seconds, but a visit to the park is well worth the effort and the memorial is quite special.

Building work started on the memorial in 1906, and it took 2 years to complete. It was commissioned by Lord Ashton as a memorial to his late wife and finally opened in 1909.






Although damaged by fire in the 1960s and closed on safety grounds in the early 1980s, the memorial has since been restored and is once again an impressive building.

I hadn't realised but the building is open to the public, and the ground floor space underneath the dome is regularly used for exibitions. Climbing the curved staircase, the first floor viewing gallery provides great views across the city and Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland hills beyond.