Saturday 31st July
Saturday July 31st The first object which attracted our attention this morning was the Castle built on an eminence and commanding a fine view of the mountainous Country we are about to traverse
the Castle has been lately rebuilt by Mr Harrison. We inspected the interior which is converted into a good & kept in beautiful order. After breakfast we departed for Ulverston 22 miles the greatest part of this stage is over the Lancashire sands where we have a distant view of Piel Castle. Ulverston is a small well built town. The Sun is a good Inn.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Thomas Harrison was born in Richmond, Yorkshire, the son of a joiner. He attended Richmond Grammar School, and it is presumed that he worked with his father. In 1769 he was sponsored by a local landowner, Sir Lawrence Dundas of Aske Hall, to join George Cuitt (who later became a landscape painter) to study in Rome. His work was generally well received and was awarded gold and silver medals and made Accademico di Merito by the Pope. He returned to England in 1776 and in 1782 won the first prize in a competition to design a bridge to cross the River Lune at Lancaster and to replace a medieval bridge. The foundation stone was laid in June 1783, and Skerton Bridge was completed in September 1787. It was carried on five elliptical arches, and was the first in England to have a flat road surface. He subsequently received further commissions for bridges, including St Mary's Bridge in Derby (1788–93), Harrington Bridge near Sawley, Derbyshire (1789–90), and Stramongate Bridge in Kendal, Cumbria (1791–94), followed by smaller bridges in Lancashire and Cheshire. Having carried out the duties of country surveyor for Cheshire since 1800, he was officially appointed to the post in 1815.
1820: Thomas Harrison, by H. Wyatt from John Champness Thomas Harrison, Georgian Architect of Chester and Lancaster, 1744-1829, (2005- Frontispiece). This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Harrison001.jpg
Around the time that Harrison was involved in the construction of Skerton Bridge, he received other commissions for work in Lancaster. These included the addition of a clock tower to the Town Hall, the addition of a tower and spire to St John's Church, and the building of Bridge Houses on the east side of Skerton Bridge. In October 1786 Harrison was asked to prepare plans for substantial improvements to Lancaster Castle; in January that year he had also won the competition for major improvements to Chester Castle. He worked on both projects simultaneously for the next 30 years, and beyond that until 1815 in Chester, where he added further new buildings. In both projects he designed buildings for prisoners and prison staff, courtrooms and a Shire Hall. Both towns already had gaols, but there was a national move in the later part of the 18th century to improve them, following the campaigns by penal reformers led by John Howard. Amongst these reforms were the separation of men and women, and of criminals and debtors, which were incorporated into Harrison's designs.
Harrison spent the whole of his career in the northwest of England and, other than his houses in Scotland and his work in Oxford, his works were confined to Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, and North Wales. He was never a member of the Royal Academy or any other London-based institution, and only a rare visitor to London once his practice was established, but Charles Cockerell (later to become the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects) said of him in 1828, a year before he died at the age of 85, that he was "undoubtedly the noblest genius in architecture we have had". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harrison_(architect)
Lucy mentions him by name and it is likely her father had a high opinion of his work
See also ‘THOMAS HARRISON, 1744-1829: ARCHITECT OF LANCASTER CASTLE’ By Peter Norris BA for Lancaster Castle - http://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/people-stories/thomas-harrison-architect-of-lancaster-castle/
Piel Castle was built on Piel Island, overlooking the deep water port of Piel Harbour outside of Barrow Haven, now called Barrow-in-Furness, by John Cockerham, the Abbot of Furness Abbey around 1327, when Edward III gave the abbey a licence to crenellate on the site. Comprising a keep with an inner and outer bailey, the castle was intended to oversee the trade through the harbour, and to provide defence, as the Abbey had faced raids from Scotland in 1316 and 1322. The castle was used for smuggling by the Abbey, leading to complaints from merchants in English-controlled Calais that they were illegally trafficking wool, which in this period could only legally be sold through the French port. In 1487 the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel landed on Piel Island, sought help from potential local supporters and held court at the castle, before advancing inland and ultimately being defeated at the Battle of Stoke Field.
1814-25: Peel Castle, Lancashire, by William Daniell from his greatest artistic work as an aquatint engraver " A Voyage Round Great Britain" , which contains 308 aquatint prints. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/Dani11PeelCastle.jpg
2000: Piel Castle - gatehouse and keep by Ruth Riddle, derived from: Gatehouse at Piel Castle in May 2000 (geograph 3020045) and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piel_Castle_-_gatehouse_and_keep.jpg
In 1811, the poet William Wordsworth visited the area and wrote a poem entitled "Peele Castle" describing the site. The sea caused significant erosion during this period, and one side of the keep collapsed in the early 19th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piel_Castle
Ulverston: The town's market charter was granted in 1280 by Edward I for a market every Thursday. The charter also allowed for all public houses to open from 10:30 am until 11:00 pm irrespective of any other statute on the books. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulverston
2010: Market Street, Ulverston, by Alexander P Kapp from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Alexander P Kapp and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Market_Street,_Ulverston_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1731488.jpg
The Sun Inn, at 6 Market Street, is described in their What Pub entry as a grade II listed coaching inn situated in the heart of Ulverston Town Centre https://whatpub.com/pubs/FUR/1280/sun-inn-ulverston . See also: http://www.thelakedistrict.org/accommodation/hotels/the-sun-inn-ulverston/ Lucy was obviously impressed. The Sun is a good Inn, she writes, an accolade not readily bestowed by her.
From the Sun Inn's entry in What Pub https://whatpub.com/pubs/FUR/1280/sun-inn-ulverston
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?