Off Lucas Lane and above Town Lane Whittle-le-Woods is this old anti-aircraft building and base. It is currently being excavated and recorded before being demolished for a new housing estate.

Cars parked on Dolphin Brow, Whittle-le-Woods

After overnight snow the Whittle Millstones Monument looked attractive under the streetlights.
The monument is made up of millstones recovered from the bed of the Lancaster canal. They were originally cut from the adjacent Whittle quarries.

An early evening dump of snow caused traffic problems in the north west of England. In Whittle-le-Woods there are a few hills for drivers to negotiate and it was almost comical watching how some drives have little idea about driving in snow. I was walking home when I took this photo and the smell of burning rubber was still in the air as some motorists think that spinning their wheels at high speed will aid grip!

Cycling through Higher Walton when returning from Preston I stopped to photograph the house where the famous contralto singer Kathleen  Ferrier (1912 - 1953) was born.

Taken on my Saturday evening walk along the Lancaster Canal towpath. The canal was filled in around 1967 and it now terminates to the right of the building in the picture. The building is Navigation House which used to be the Navigation Inn.

During the day attended a series of lectures on:
Moving mountains, crossing plains: transport and landscape history in North West England 1720-2012 at Lancaster University. The 4 lectures were presented by Dr Alan Crosby
 

Approaching the lecture theatre was this collection of dreary buildings.

Venue for the lectures was Biology Lecture Theatre.
As I took this photos I was descended on by a member of staff to check what I was doing.

Locks, tunnels and aqueducts: the architecture and engineering of the waterway network 1720-1895

'Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain': the building activities of turnpike trusts 1750-1850

and in the afternoon:

'What a tangled web we weave': the geography of the railway network 1830-1914
 

For the modern age: planning and building the motorway network since 1930
 

Hanging from the roof of the lecture theatre was this skeleton. It looked like a whale but there was no information about it.
An internet search revealed the following information (below) on the University website. I've not put a link in as they often disappear after a while.

From the Lancaster University website:
One of his more memorable exploits was to recover the corpse of a 7-metre-long Sei whale which was beached at Sunderland Point in September 1980. With the aim of keeping the skeleton of this creature for the Biology Department, Bill arranged for the body to be moved to the campus (this involved the use of a chainsaw and a JCB - don't ask - operated by staff of the City Council) and buried somewhere above the cricket pitch. After some years of decomposition, it was exhumed. The skeleton was cleaned up and expertly reassembled by technicians of the Department, and it was put on display in the Biology Lecture Theatre, where it still is, hanging from the ceiling.

I visited Appleby on Wed 26 Dec 2012 while walking in the area. I wanted to return to have a look at the monument in St Lawrence’s Church to Lady Anne Clifford and her mother Margaret. Both are buried in the family vault in the Church.

Parish Church of St Lawrence
Appleby in Westmorland

Lady Anne Clifford in 1620

Lady Anne Clifford in later life

In St Lawrence’s Church is this
monument to Lady Anne Clifford
(1590 – 1676)

Opposite is the monument to her mother Margaret Countess of Cumberland
(1560 - 1616)

Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland

Detail on Margaret's monument

Detail on Margaret's monument

Leaving Hesket Newmarket I saw this morning view of l to r, Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell
and the radar station on Great Dun Fell 39km (24miles) away.

'The Old Crown' in Hesket Newmarket.
Britain's first co-operatively owned pub

Dark cold morning at Chorley Railway Station

For a few hours the sky cleared and while cycling along the east side of Coniston Water
was able to see this wonderful view.

In Leyland is the old town cross. Next to it is a memorial to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887. It is interesting to note that it doesn’t say Golden Jubilee or 50 years. One side has the Queen in 1837 and the other in 1887.

The young Queen Victoria in 1837

Queen Victoria in 1887

New Rohloff speedhub

I revisited the Church of St Anthony
which I'd seen on Wednesday

the same view around 1840 from
an illustration in the church

Near the church entrance is the old school which is now a Community Hall. On the wall is a fascinating tile illustration which is shown in detail below.

Made by the children of Cartmel Fell with the Artist Hans Ullrich
 

Ford at Birks Bridge near Winster. Way too deep even for a car!
Thankfully there was a footbridge.

The route in blue

A very hilly route with over 1,400m of climbs in 52km (32miles)

As the morning started to dawn the Winter Hill transmitter mast was partly obscured by low cloud. The lights gave an interesting display as they were were dispersed into the cloud