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Ulverston, Lancashire

Historical Description

Ulverston (popularly Ooston), a town, a township, and a parish in Lancashire. The town stands on the Furness railway, near the influx of the river Leven to Morecambe Bay, 5 miles NE of Dalton-in-Furness; belonged to the Saxon magnate Ulph or Ulpha, was given by King Stephen to Furness Abbey, superseded Dalton after the dissolution of monasteries as practically the capital of Furness, is now a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and publishes three weekly newspapers. There are large iron-works, Iron-foundries, breweries, corn-mills, tanyards, and chemical works, and wooden hoops are made. The manufacture of linens, checks, and ginghams, formerly extensive, has greatly declined, but a considerable coasting trade is carried on. The town is governed by an urban district council, presents a modern, well-built, cleanly appearance, and possesses a good sewage system. It has a head post office, a railway station, three banks, a court-house, a police station, a concert-hall, a temperance hall, a market hall, a cottage hospital, a cemetery, a drill hall, a cattle market, Liberal and Conservative clubs, a parochial church restored in 1866, another church built in 1832, two mission churches, Baptist, Congregational, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic chapels, a Friends' meeting-house, an endowed school with £70 a year, a workhouse, charities about £150 per annum, a weekly market on Thursday, and three annual fairs. The market hall was erected in 1877-78 at a cost of £10,000; the cemetery was formed in 1878, and contains three mortuary chapels.

The township comprises 3120 acres of land and 902 of water and foreshore; population, 10,015. The Duke of Buccleuch is lord of the manor. The parish is very extensive, and contains eight other townships. Conishead Priory is a building in the Elizabethan style, built on the site of an ancient priory, formerly belonged to the Braddyll family, but has been converted into a hydropathic establishment; the grounds are very extensive and picturesque. The surface is much diversified, and ranges from luxuriant level through gentle swells and broken eminences to high bleak moors and .soaring mountains. Hoad Hill, on the NE side of the town, rises to an altitude of 450 feet; commands an extensive and charming view, and is crowned by a column 40 feet in diameter and 100 high, erected in 1850 to the memory of Sir John Barrow. Swarth Moor, about a mile S of the town, was the camping-ground of the German supporters of the impostor Lambert Simnel. Limestone, blue and green slate, iron ore, and copper ore abound. A canal with capacity forvessels of 200 tons connects the town eastward with the Leven estuary, and was cut in 1795 by Rennie. The monk Richard de Ulverston and Sir John Barrow were natives, and the antiquarian West and the Quaker John Fox were residents. Both the head living of St Mary and that of Trinity are vicarages in the diocese of Carlisle; net value, £320 and £168 respectively, both with residence. Population of Holy Trinity ecclesiastical parish, 2199; of St Mary's, with Osmotherley, 8336. St Mary's Church is a fine building in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and embattled western tower, and contains several memorial windows. Holy Trinity Church is in the Early English style, consists of chancel, nave, aisles, and tower with spire, and was restored in 1880. There are several memorial windows and a handsome alabaster reredos erected in 1883.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyLancashire 
Ecclesiastical parishUlverston St. Mary 
HundredLonsdale north of the Sands 
Poor Law unionUlverston 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ulverston from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.


Maps

Online maps of Ulverston are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online:

DistrictSouth Lakeland
CountyCumbria
RegionNorth West
CountryEngland
Postal districtLA12
Post TownUlverston

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