Lancaster

Extract from The New Travel Book -
North of Watford Gap - John Brown

 I hadn't intended to stop off in Lancaster, but thanks to our old friends the town planners, I was stuck in a traffic jam outside this charming town. Let me expand a little on that last statement. The main road to Morecambe used to take a direct route through Lancaster, now thanks to, I'm sure a well intentioned by-pass, you are diverted via a peculiar strip of road that is totally inadequate for the volume of traffic – the one benefit however, is, while you are stuck in this continual traffic chaos, you are afforded a view of Lancaster that few in the past, including myself, had ever seen. Across the wide River Lune, old warehouses and waterside buildings have been lovingly restored, giving a totally unexpected vista as you sit tapping your steering wheel – a more than welcome distraction and one that found me parking my car in central Lancaster.

 Lancaster is – if you don't already know, the County seat of Lancashire. The old town sits under the watchful eye of the very impressive castle, parts of which date back to 1150. Due to its strong strategic position, the castle and Lancaster area were entrusted to those closest to the throne. It became part of the Honour of Lancaster and the centrepiece of the County Palatine. When the third Duke of Lancaster, Henry Bolingbroke, came to the throne in 1399 as King Henry IV the castle became part of the Duchy of Lancaster, and so the owner, is our current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II