The surrounding area is unusually rich in astronomical observatories though among these only the Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory in Preston can be described as fully operational. The others for various reasons lie idle while the most famous one at Stonyhurst College was only recently saved from dereliction. To the list should be added the name of the Greg Observatory in Lancaster which, in the absence of any competent guardian did fall derelict and was demolished about 20 years ago.

The site in Williamson Park can still be seen today but its appearance is more that of an ill-kept picnic spot than a place 'built by the Corporation of Lancaster for the preservation and use of several valuable astronomical instruments'. On entering the Park at the gates on Wyresdale Road, the first path on the left leads upwards before veering to the right where it twists and turns in woodland. Continuing in this direction you should first come upon a raised oval area whose iron railings are broken and twisted, and whose floor is largely covered with ivy. The enclosure used to contain Lancaster's official weather station, though the evidence of this are two metal tubes fixed firmly in the ground near what may be a central drainage structure. The tubes held the station's earth thermometers which measured the temperature 1 and 4 feet down. A little way on are the foundations of the Observatory itself with its roughly semi-circular bay window to the West and small transit room to the East. In the centre is the round sandstone slab where the main telescope stood.

Old photographs of the Observatory show it to be a functional though stylish building set upon a bare hill top. Today the same place is almost recognisable with virtually the only part of the sky visible from the site being that directly overhead. So how was it that Lancaster came to have an observatory here, and perhaps more important, how did it come to lose it?

The story begins with the death of Mr. John Greg whose 7½" Cooke refractor was given to the Corporation by his son Albert, along with a sum of money for the purchase of other instruments. There are several possible reasons why the Corporation accepted this gift and chose to house the telescope. John Greg was a respected public figure and the Corporation may have thought it appropriate to perpetuate his name through the Observatory.

Civic pride may have also played a part since the gift was made at a time when several of the surrounding observatories were coming into being, and Lancaster may not have wished to see itself lacking such a public amenity.

The year 1939 was an important year in the Observatory's history. Firstly, it was the year when its official status as a weather station was lost. Second and more importantly, it marked the year of Dowbiggin's retirement, and with no successor being appointed meant that the whole future of the Observatory had to be reviewed. On 26th April, 1939, the Council approved an arrangement between the Corporation and the Lancaster Royal Grammar School whereby the day-to-day running of the Observatory would become the School's