Standing on moor land that overlooks Lancaster, the Ashton memorial folly sits in Williamson park, formally a quarry that was re landscaped in the 1860's during the cotton famine. As the American civil war reached it's height so cotton exports diminished causing great distress to the Lancastrians who made their living in the cotton mills. To combat famine, government projects such as this park were created to give the men jobs to feed their families. The project was unfinished until Lord Ashton (formally Mr Williamson) took it on and built the Folly in 1901 as a memorial to his family. It is now a popular park.