This is Lancaster Castle’s Shire Hall, built circa 1798, depicted on a teapot stand from – probably – around 1830. Earlier in the 1790s, ‘my’ lady music cataloguer, Elizabeth Lambert, was christened in St Mary’s Church, to the left of the picture. The Shire Hall hadn’t yet been built, and Elizabeth’s widowed mother had moved her young family to St Andrews to join her brother, a professor at the University there. Nonetheless, the church was there.
Fast forward to the mid 20th century. I was born in Lancaster and brought home to a flat at St Mary’s Gate, which was adjacent to the church.
Was there something in the water, that made both Elizabeth and me music cataloguers?! Anyway, this was just a wee bargain on eBay, and plainly I had to have it. Luckily for me, it was of huge significance to me, but not of high value to the vendor!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 