Things over water - 24th June

OK, so the parking spot wasn't such a good idea.
After a few hours of the local youth visiting our parking area, we decided to leave at around 11.00pm. They gave us the thumbs up as we drove out.
We ended up parked behind a truck in a lay-by on the main road into Lancaster.

 
An early start and into Lancaster, we had a look around The Ashton Memorial, it was commissioned by industrialist Lord Ashton as a tribute to his late wife Jessie in 1909. An interesting building in lovely parklands.It has a butterfly house attached to it, but as we got up so ridiculously early it wasn't open yet. Yes, we walked up all of steps.






We moved on to a Scottish restaurant for breakfast, a coffee and most importantly, the toilet.
Right next to the Scottish restaurant is the Lune Aqueduct, so called because it crosses the Lune river and carries water. It is part of the canal system. It was completed in 1797 and took 5 years to build.  
The most impressive thing about the aqueduct, apart from going over budget by three times the estimate, are the foundations. The aqueduct is supported on stone columns that are sitting on 60 imported Russian tree trunks that are driven deep into the river bed, this took 1.5 years on it's own. Because the aqueduct went so far over budget it meant that the final aqueduct couldn't be afforded, so the Lancaster canal was never joined to the main system. It was designed by John Rennie and construction was overseen by Architect (just saying) Alexander Stevens. Hmmm. No comment.

 


Off we went to Blackpool to have a look at the famous piers, filled with entertainment and tourists. We found a parking spot, easily and wandered along the near deserted waterfront. We were expecting large crowds. The first one we came to was the North pier which was built in the 1860's.

The first thing we noticed was how tired the place looks. Still it is the English seaside and we wandered about, ate some ice cream.
Here we are, summer time at Blackpool.




 
We moved a little further along to Southport.
The Sat Nav took us to a congested roundabout and instructed us to take exit number 3, this turned out to be the emergency boat ramp for the life saving vessel, Sat Nav instructed us to 'leave the vehicle and continue to our destination on foot'. The keeper of the ramp thought otherwise.
Southport Pier is not looking as tired but still not many people, the car park was all but empty.
Southport Pier is the oldest Steel framed pier in England, it is over one kilometre long. It fell into disrepair and the council tried to have it demolished in the 1990's, that decision was defeated by a single vote.



We found a very nice caravan park on a farm in Southport.
Went to a local pub for tea and Ale.

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