The societies were designed to encourage owner-occupation by skilled workmen, who, if their property was worth more than £10 annually, were then eligible to vote.

The societies were political movements aimed at increasing the amount of voters.

The Lancaster movement was set up to develop an area of land on the lower part of the Moor, just above Lancaster canal.

The Bath Cotton Mill had been built as had the Bath House but there were no other buildings in the vicinity of what is now Ullswater Road.

Land in the area was ripe for development by an optimistic speculator.

During the early and middle 1850s, the main roads and drains of what was then known as Freehold park, were surveyed and partially laid out in the form of the new well known rectangles based partly on hedge lines.

The first house appeared on what became Derwent Road in 1853. By 1861, this road had five occupied houses accommodating both professional people and artisans.

Meanwhile, something had happened to the original planning layout and the frontages had been reduced to half their envisaged width although the gardens stretched behind the houses for roughly 100 ft.

The gardens remained striking and attractive features of Freehold and were much sought after.

During the next two or three decades, the social map of Freehold began to develop with the most well-to-do and respected people attracted to houses in Derwent Road, the highest physical point of the neighbourhood.

Before World War One, Derwent Road was home to church ministers, Mr Albert Gorrill of the well-known Lancaster store, a headmaster, an estate agent and a wagon builder.

Among the slightly "less exalted", living in Rydal and Borrowdale Roads were a bridge inspector, a foreman, a couple of managers, some skilled artisans and a few teachers.

Workers at Storeys, Williamsons, Waring and Gillows along with those employed on the railway lived in much smaller homes in the central area of Freehold - mainly in Grasmere and Windermere Roads.

Then, as now, people growing up in Freehold saw it as a village, being handy for several big workplaces in town and boasting many 'village' services including three pubs, a church and schools.