Milestones, Boundary Markers, Historical Artifacts, Street Furniture, lost roads and buildings.

There are many traces of our ancestors scattered around our landscape. Mile Markers and Boundary stones are there too. The Milestone Society believes that there are approximately 9000 left in the United Kingdom. Some are cherished but others are hidden in hedgerows, some have been unwittingly destroyed by crashes, road equipment or even stolen. Roads have been straightened to make them safer. There are old gateposts still left in place, old buildings, and place names that declare an evocative past. The aim is to capture some of this information at least photographically before it disappears.

Although the Fylde Coast does not have ancient history, the Romans apparently struggled to Kirkham. There have been huge changes in the last two centuries from literally a a few fishermans' and agricultural dwellings, to a full blown tourist and light engineering industry.

More historical information can be found here about the Fylde coast.

It also seems that time has marched on and left what appears to be some very respectable buildings... which just should be used, but seem to have no worth.

Links from this Blog

Nearly-Midnight The genealogy website relating to the family. A tangled web of people all related to one another, explore!
Memorials Website dedicated to War Memorials - The majority in the North of England. Visits to churches, but also memorials in out of the way places.
Robert Clark The Father of Henry Martyn-Clark - A missionary out in the North-West Frontier of India. One of the first Europeans to set foot in Afganistan
Affetside Census
A small village north of Bury, Lancashire, I can trace many of my immediate ancesters from there. On the Roman Road, Watling Street
Andrew Martyn-Clark My Father and his part in my World. Also my mother and his parents too.
Henry Martyn-Clark My Great Grandfather, his roots and his achievements. Discusses malaria but also his confrontations with Islam.

Monday 6 May 2013

Samuel Ladyman drinking Fountain

Samuel Ladyman - Author: His observations of his Keswick life were entitled "
Thoughts and Recollections of Keswick and Its Inhabitants During Sixty Years (1885)" A facsimile is available from Amazon. This fountain is just below the Toll Cottage on the previous post.
Samuel Ladyman Drinking Fountain, Chestnut Hill

The Plaque reads:
"Drinking Water Fountain
One of Four Erected Circa 1875
Cleaned and Marked by
Keswick Civic Society 2003"
Born on 26 Dec 1812 to Thomas Ladyman and Mary Wharton. Samuel married Isabella Dixon and had 2 children. Samuel married Jane Routledge. Samuel married Mary Wharton. He passed away on 31 Jul 1885 in Crosthwaite, Cumbria, England. Here is a link to another. I wonder where the other 2 are. 




Toll Bar Cottage, Chestnut Hill, Keswick

Having got lost! again. Heading down the Castlerigg road seemed to be a good idea. I had to get to Keswick. Spotted this building. This is a really steep bit of hill. A good place to have a toll. I would suggest it is on what would have been the "main" road between Keswick/Penrith and the south. The next village of any significance will be Grasmere, then Ambleside. There is a little more info here. The toll roads are under researched and little known part of our heritage. The cottage is situated on a fork of the road. This site gives a little more information about  the cottage.

To the right of the cottage is the Penrith Road
The slope is fairly obvious

Looking from Keswick, up the Ambleside Road
The Samuel Ladyman Water Fountain is seen just to the left.
The road forks. The right fork heads off to Grasmere and the left to Penrith
 There was no competition for this Toll Road. There was no canal travel and the railways did not go this way.


Sunday 5 May 2013

Pickering - Smiddy Hill

I walked into Pickering - this is the first part of Pickering that I really took an interest. There are some grand houses on the approach road too. I was to visit the wonderful church, the castle, and the railway too; but these will be another page.

John Wilson - Water Fountain

John Wilson Water Fountain
Cross behind and the church behind that

The inscription on the cross

The Cross with the Liberal Cub behind

The sensory garden, the cross - the John Wilson Fountain is just behind the cross.

Make no apologies for the panorama. IOt shows the Church, the cross and the water fountain.

I am pasting the 2009 Pickering Town council Newsletter below; Apologies about any copyright breeches - please copy and use the images if you wish. The panorama has already been published once.

Smiddy Hill
The Town Council is responsible for the two open spaces in the town centre,
Riverside Walk and Smiddy Hill. Some years ago, at Riverside Walk, the Town
Council created an amenity area from what had become an eroded bankside. The amenity with retaining wall, trees, small scale planting, seats and picnic tables is enjoyed by local people and visitors alike.

Smiddy Hill is also an area in the town centre where people can rest awhile. In the
centre of the open space is a cross which commemorates the reign of Edward VII
and the accession of George V. There is another memorial at the southern end to the late John Wilson. The deceased was a local councillor – he served on both Pickering Urban District Council and the County Council - and a member of the Labour Party. This memorial was erected in 1950. The only other structure is a raised sensory garden in front of the Liberal Club.

A small group of local people chaired by Councillor Margaret Lowe has been look-
ing at the open space at Smiddy Hill will known as the Lumley Rest Gardens. The group has come up with a series of recommendations which the Town Council is considering. The main recommendation is that the lower shrub bed and attendant railings are removed. This would open up Smiddy Hill from the south and show the
commemorative cross, backed by the buildings on the north side of Smiddy Hill, to better effect. The flower boxes at the base of the cross would be removed so that
the structure could be seen as a whole. The shrubbed area would be turfed and the seats which run along its top side moved to the eastern side of the open space. In addition the Wilson Memorial would be re-erected in the cemetery where the remains of John Wilson are buried. It has proved very difficult to make the memorial vandal proof: the tap has had to be replaced regularly and no longer can water run freely into the lower basin where it used to be available for dogs and birds. The lead inscription has suffered much wear and tear and hardly any of the lettering remains.

Grounds maintenance is undertaken by the Town Council with Pickering in Bloom and the Council is particularly grateful for the work that the In Bloom group has done with Pickering’s young people in creating floral displays in the open space. The Town Council hopes that this will continue and is also grateful to the In Bloom group for being willing to recreate the sensory garden.

The Town Council would not only appreciate any information you might have about the history of Smiddy Hill once it ceased to be a cattle market in the late nineteenth
century but also on the ideas for change.