4th.July

Happy 4th. of July to all my American friends and especially to my dear daughter in law who comes from Ohio.

I am pleased to say that, Warton, one of the five villages in the Arnside/Silverdale area, contributed to the foundation of your great country. My photograph shows St. Oswald's Church in the village where the Stars and Stripes is flown every year on July 4th. My extra shows that we are not shy of making a little money from the link.

Warton is the birthplace of the medieval ancestors of George Washington, the first popularly elected President of the United States. Lawrence Washington, seven generations prior to George Washington and his family, arrived in Warton around 1300, and Robert Washington, Lawrence's great-grandson, is rumoured to have helped build the clock tower of St Oswald's Church. The Washington family coat of arms, three mullets and two bars, can be found in the church and is said to have inspired the design of the flag of the United States. The flag of the United States of America is displayed was donated to the village after US soldiers had visited during WWII.
A few years ago when visitors from San Diego were being shown the Church, the Vicar commented that the flag was out of date as it had no stars for Alaska and Hawaii. On their return home they obtained a new flag which had been flown on the Capitol Building in Washington in 1966 and it is this one which you now see in the photograph.