Lancaster Slave Trade Town Trail
Each point of interest for the town trail listed below is accompanied by audio directions and commentary, recorded by year 5 children from Dallas Road Community Primary School in Lancaster. Although the audio directions and commentary are intended to aid visually impaired users who wish to complete the town trail, it is still an enjoyable listen for all!
Map
A map of the city centre to help guide you from each site is also available for download by clicking here - each site marked with a number on the map corresponds to the numbers for each description that follows below. You will need to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer to open the map.
Download the Audio
You can listen to the audio directions and descriptions for each section by clicking the link next to each speaker icon in each section. To save the audio files off on you computer right-click on the link and then choose the appropriate "save" option according to your web browser.
Town Trail
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Welcome to Lancaster slave trade town trail. This tour will guide you around some of the houses and building connected to the slave trade. Click the link below to listen to the introduction.
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Start at the Tourist Information Centre on Castle Hill. Cross Castle Hill and follow the pavement up the hill and round to the left, into Castle Park. The castle is across the road on your right. Just around the corner look for...
No. 20 Castle Park. This house belonged to John Satterthwaite who invested in the slave trade as well as the West India trade and sold slaves in the West Indies with his partner John Robinson. You can see he made lots of money. Living at this house was a black woman who worked as a servant and was a slave.
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Stay on this pavement and carry on past the castle, until you start to go down the hill past Castle Park and Castle Park Mews. Turn left through the gate onto the footpath through the train station. Walk down past the station entrance and up the other side, going through the big gates onto Meeting House Lane. Turn left, and find...
The Friends Meeting House. This has been a place of worship for Quakers since 1677. Although we know of some Quakers, such as Dodgson Foster, were involved in the Slave Trade, later Quakers became very active in the fight against slavery.
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Retrace your steps back to Castle Park. Turn left and go round the castle towards the Priory Church, you will see a sign saying "Public Footpath - St. Georges Quay 300yards."
The Priory Church. Look for memorial plaques to Hinde (inside the church) and Lindow (outside the church) - both these families made money from slavery.
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Follow the footpath and signs down to St George's Quay. There are 7 steps at one end, and 4 flights of steps at the end (2 flights can be avoided by a ramp). Once you reach St Georges Quay, turn left.
St George's Quay. Built between 1750 and 1755 to cope with Lancaster's growing number of ships including those trading with the American colonies and Africa.
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Turn left along the Quay and walk about 200 metres until you reach the Maritime Museum. You may want to cross the road so you can see it better.
The Maritime Museum. was once the Custom House, the centre of Lancaster's sea trade and where traders would have had to pay taxes on the goods they imported.
To the left when you are facing the Maritime Museum is Dodshon Foster's house and warehouse.
Dodshon Foster was a very wealthy man who invested money in the slave trade and the West India trade. You can see his portrait in the museum. He owned two small ships, which during five voyages carried 650 African people. Many of them died on the ships. Maybe he built his house next to his warehouse so he could see what was going on on the Quay. Dodshon Foster was a Quaker. Some Quakers would later argue and say that slavery was not allowed, but he thought differently.
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Return back along the Quay along the riverside. Go past the footpath you came down and continue until you go under the bridge. Just under the bridge there is a slipway going down to the river and near the top of the slip way is Captured Africans, commissioned by the Slave Trade Arts Memorial Project to commemorate Lancaster's involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Captured Africans is a sculpture by Kevin Dalton Johnson. It is a memorial to the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The words "sugar", "cotton", "mahogany" and "wealth" represent the things that people brought from the Americas with the money they had made selling people as slaves. It also names the ships and captains and how many African people they carried.
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Continue along St George's Quay, going past modern flats on both sides and the Three Mariners pub on the right. At the end of the road turn left (watch out for the busy road!). Cross the road at the pelican crossing in front of the Bus Station. Turn left, cross over to the car park and walk around the edge onto Chapel Street. Cross Chapel Street with care and turn right. Walk to the end, where you will see...
St John's Church. This church is usually shut, but if you go through the big gate you will see a memorial tablet to John Lowther. He and two other men named John jointly owned the last slave ship to leave Lancaster - it was called "The Johns".
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Return to Chapel Street and cross over near the church. Follow the pavement round towards the bus station, but cross at the zebra crossing, turn left at the art shop and walk up Cheapside. Turn right by Next, then walk up Market Street. Here you will find The City Museum.
The City Museum. This used to be the Town Hall. Here, many of the wealthy slave traders were made freemen of the city, or received other honours. Thomas Hinde, who was captain of a slave ship, became Major here. This is a fine building and shows us that Lancaster was prosperous in the 1700s.
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Walk around the back of the Museum, and turn down New Street. At the end of New Street turn left, cross Sun Street and you will see...
The Sun Inn, which was a popular meeting place for merchants and captains, they would sell ships here. One slave ship we know of that was sold here was called "The Africa".
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Continue to the end of Church Street and cross China Street at the pedestrian crossing near the corner. Walk up Castle Hill, a steep cobbled street to the left of the Judges' Lodgings, and here you will see Gillow's Warehouse - there is a sign over the door and a plaque.
Gillow's Warehouse. This was the first warehouse of the Gillow's, who were very successful furniture manufacturers. They made their elegant furniture from mahogany, which was imported from the West Indies as one part of the "triangle" - manufactured goods to Africa, slaves to the Americas, raw materials back to Britain. It was Richard Gillow who designed the Customs House.
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Continue up the hill, to the Tourist Information Centre where you began. Here you can end the walk if you want, or carry onto one more site...
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Walk past the Tourist Information Centre, then down Castle Hill towards the main road. Cross at the pedestrian crossing and walk down Fenton Street at the side of the Post Office. Walk right to the end of Fenton Street, turn left at the end then right onto High Street (Watch out for the narrow pavements on High Street!). Go past Trinity Church and follow the road as it curves round to the right. Cross the road at the Girls' Grammar school. Walk down Regent Street. Take the first left onto Lindow Square, then Keep straight on until you reach the T junction with Queen Street. Turn left here. At the end of Queen Street look for...
No. 1 Queen Street. This big house belonged to William Lindow, who traded in slaves between different islands in the West Indies, and also in tropical goods produced by slaves, such as sugar, rum and cotton. We know that William Lindow had a black servant called John Chance who lived here and was probably a slave.
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Modern slavery. Although it is not allowed by international law, millions of men, women and children are leading the lives of slaves. Although they may not be called slaves they are sold like objects and forced to work in terrible conditions. For example, in West Africa children are sold to cocoa plantation owners and are beaten up if they try to escape. In Asia families are forced to send their children to work in carpet workshops where they work 14 hours a day everyday of the week. Even in this country people are trafficked and brought here illegally against their will and forced to work for little or no pay.
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To return to your starting point continue along the pavement to the main road, then turn left. Pass one set of traffic lights, cross the middle street and go past then second and third set of traffic lights. Just after the third set of lights, by Waterstones bookshop, turn left and cross the road at the next pelican crossing. Follow the pavement uphill to the right and you will reach the Tourist Information Centre.
Further Information
Anti Slavery International campaign for the freedom of millions of people worldwide who are trapped in situations of slavery or slavery-like practices. Visit their website at www.antislavery.org to read more and access teaching materials.