Details of the 2012 Ulverston Walking Festival are out

Most Walks £2

Times from Ulverston

We reserve the right to be wrong

Lookout for the Print Fest Art Trail around Ulverston from 23 April.

At a time of your choice go on Sue Gill ; Dan Fox’s Sound Walk around Baycliff for smartphones. Start at The Olde Mill, Bardsea. 1.5 hours easy. Get instructions from www.danfox.net.



Friday 27 April
11am Walking for Health with Raymond Willock. Meet Rose Garden, Victoria Rd. 2 miles 1 hour easy. FREE
5pm Ford Park Nature Trail with Kim Farr. Meet at Ford Park main gate. 0.5 mile 1 hour easy.
7pm Pub Walk with Steve Povey. Meet at Ulverston Brewery, Victoria Rd. Visit several real ale pubs. 1 mile 3 hours easy.
9pm Bat Walk with Kim Farr. Meet at Ford Park house entrance. 1 mile 1.5 hours easy.

Sat 28 April
10am Birkrigg, Baycliff, Bardsea with Pete & Christine Quiggin. Meet Lancastrian pub, Mountbarrow Rd. Bring lunch. 7 miles 3.5 hours moderate.
10.45am Advanced Map Reading with Martin Cooper. Meet lay-by near Gawthwaite (GR 267847) at 11am. Bring lunch. 4 hours moderate. Book and car share on 583524. Numbers limited.
2pm Walk to Manjushri Buddhist Centre with Shirley Pickard. Tour and tea. Meet at swimming pool, Priory Rd, walk along lanes and beach. Return 11 bus at 4.55pm or walk. 2.5 miles 3 hours easy.

Sun 29 April
10.30am Ulverston Circular with Jack Rice. Meet outside Walkers Hostel. Bring lunch. 11 miles 5 hours moderate. (Can leave after 8 miles).
10.30am Kirkby Moor with Steve Povey. Meet in the Gill. Bring lunch and picnic at stone circle. 8 miles 5 hours moderate.
2pm Local History Walk with Jennifer Snell. Meet at Ford Park main gates. 1mile 1 hour easy. Wheelchair friendly.
2pm Magical Mystery with the Woodcraft Folk. For under 7s and their families. (Not pushchair friendly). Meet at top of Chittery Lane. 1 mile 2 hours easy.

Mon 30 April
8.50am Torver to Ulverston with Simon Hughes. Get X12 bus from Victoria Rd. Walk back along Cumbria Way. Bring lunch. 14 miles 7 hours hard.
2pm Built on Water part 1 with Jean Povey. Follow the Town Beck upstream. Meet at Buxton Place car park. 2 miles 1.5 hours easy. NO DOGS.
6.45pm Sunset on North Walney with Richard Scott. Meet at West Shore car park, Earnse Bay. 6 miles 3 hours moderate.

Tues 1 May
9.42am Foxfield to Broughton Mills and back with Tony Mayo. Meet at Foxfield Station 10.35am. Return 4.33pm train from Foxfield. Bring lunch. 9 miles 4 hours moderate.
11am Navigation Skills with orienteer Richard Tiley. Meet at Ford House. Bring lunch. 3 miles 3 hours easy.
2pm The Leven Estuary Eco-ramble with Richard Scott. Meet at Canal Foot. Bring wellies. 2 miles 3 hours easy.

Wed 2 May
9.30am Military History with Andrew Hudson. Meet at Red Rose club, Victoria Rd and end Barrow Dock Museum. Bring lunch. 11 miles 6 hours moderate.
10.20am Furness Fells Horse-shoe with Mary Searle- Chatterjee. Get X12 bus from Victoria Rd. Return 5.05pm bus from Coniston. Bring lunch. 8 miles 6 hours moderate.
2pm Conishead Priory Gardens & Woods with Shirley Pickard. Meet at Priory main door. 1 mile 1 hour easy. (Temple and cafe will be open).
2 pm Above Rosside with Steve Povey. Meet in the Gill. Bring binoculars. 5miles 3hours moderate.
7pm Arctic Circle Trail-Greenland Slide Show with writer Paddy Dillon. Parish Centre, Church Walk. £4 including refreshments.


Thurs 3 May
9.42am Sketching and Walking with Dudley Clark. Get 9.42am train to Arnside. Return on 2.35pm train. Fare £5.50. Bring lunch, sketch pad, folding seat, etc. 2 miles 4 hours easy.
10.30am Dunnerdale Horseshoe with Martin Cooper. Meet Ford Park main gate for car share (583524) or Broughton Mills phone box, GR 223906, at 11am. Bring lunch. 6 miles 4.5 hours hard.
12.50pm Natterjack Toads at Askam with Bill Shaw. Get 12.50pm train from Ulverston to Askam, via Barrow. Meet 1.45pm at Askam station. Walk up Duddon Estuary. Return 4.40pm train from Askam. 3 miles 2.5 hours easy. NO DOGS.

Fri 4 May
9.45am Furness Abbey to Ulverston on the Cistercian Way with Linda Marshall. Get 9.45am No 6 bus from Victoria Rd, or meet at Furness Abbey main gate at 10.15am. Bring lunch, bus fare and money. Possible visit to Dalton Castle en route. NO DOGS. 8miles 6 hours moderate.
10am Herb Walk with Sarah Atkinson. Meet at Lancastrian pub, Croftlands. Visit Willington Wood, Birkrigg and Bardsea. Bring lunch. 5 miles 4 hours.
11am Walking for Health with Raymond Willock. Meet Rose Garden, Victoria Rd. 2 miles 1 hour easy. FREE

Sat 5 May.
8.50am Coniston Tops with Martin Cooper. Get X12 bus or meet at Coniston TIC at 9.30am. Bring lunch. 6 hours hard. (Distance covered is weather dependent).
10am Ulverston Fringes with Linda Marshall. Meet in the Gill. 2-3 miles 1-2 hour easy.
2pm Walk to Manjushri. Repeat of Sat 28 April.

Sun 6 May
10am Furness Iron-Old Peru with Colin Pickthall. Meet in the Gill. Walk to Dalton via the iron mines. Bring lunch. NO DOGS. Home on bus. 6 miles 5 hours moderate.
2pm Built on Water part 2 with Jean Povey. Follow the Town Beck downstream. Meet at Buxton Place car park. 3 miles 3 hours easy. NO DOGS.
9pm Up Hoad with a torch. Meet at Parish Church and end at Old Friends pub. 2 miles 1 hour moderate.

For further information contact:
Steve & Jean Povey
12 Town Street
Ulverston
Cumbria
LA12 7EY
UK

+44 (0)1229 587726
sjpovey@hotmail.co.uk

Ulverston is special - is it? Why?

In the course of correspondence with Stephen Knott of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London over The Railings pottery project ( http://www.myulverston.co.uk/railings/) he wrote:


"I am fascinated by the general creative environment in Ulverston. I hope that I will be able to visit it at some point in the future to see if for myself."

I replied:

Stephen,

I think the creative environment has a lot to do with the size of the town which has held fairly relatively constant for many hundreds of years (% of total population) - now 12,000 with the closest town Dalton some six miles away.

Being a market town with a long history it has also acted as the centre for the surrounding area . It has had little to do with the far newer Barrow which has a very different culture.

Forty years ago it had thirty active pubs of very varied character; one the Bee Hive was just someone's front room and acted as the home of the Morris Dancers of the area, others had special interest groups like pigeons, folk singing, teachers, historians. The Town has had many breweries - Hartley's was the last substantial one with a strong following and a folk group, Bag of Rags, that sung songs about the beer. They were very good and attracted crowds to their events.

The character of the town attracts creative people to come and live here - John Gill and Sue Fox (www.deadgoodguides.com) found us in the '70s and brought Welfare State International ( http://www.welfare-state.org/) to set up its home at what is now the Lantern House (http://www.lanternhouse.org/ ).

They started us off with several alternative activities on Carnival Day which they ran.  It was a great activity which ran out of steam because of lack of support possibly because of too much input came from Welfare State - it's a difficult balancing act.

Some activities like the Flag Fortnight ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMqGGQutP10 ) and the Lantern Procession have survived but are in danger of being over managed by people seeking the limelight. Our  Flag Group came into being because there was the very real worry that the tradition would cease because of lack of support for the then organisers.

For creativity to thrive it needs to be independent of authority. In some senses it needs a cause which can be just bucking against authority and refusing to conform.

In my view those depending on grants have a hard time because the self esteem of the facilitators is put into question.

We also have a school which has attracted some very impressive teachers both now and in the past. Now we have Richard Butler who stimulates small musical groups of all kinds who perform both officially going abroad to events in Europe ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BraWY-oCVXE ) and others that perform both at their own events and perhaps busk in the town to raise money for a pet charity.

In the past we had an outstanding teacher of dance at the same school who also led her pupils on European tours.

We also have several bands that play on a regular basis in the Market Square. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0XwnsPLYt4

I guess the answer may be that we have lots of little groups operating independently so there is always one that is in the ascendent when one starts to bite the dust.

Thanks for your interest.

I think Ulverston is well worth a detour and now with high speed trains is getting closer all the time - I think 3.5 hours from Euston is possible.

We here don't think of London as far away, we come down regularly for the day - in fact my partner and I will be visiting the Miro exhibition at  Tate Modern with a quick visit to  Tate Britain and the British Library - within the month.

Best wishes

Remember there's a belief in London that there's nothing much worthwhile north of Watford Gap.

We just feel sad that you're missing out.

Why else would I return time and again having first come here in 1960, lived in San Francisco and London in the mean time and back here to stay?

Geoff Dellow

If you were to write along similar lines what would your explanation be for "Ulverston's creative environment"

Updated page for the 2011 Ulverston Festivals

I've updated my page on this.

I feel that this is important as this page comes top of Google for "Ulverston Festivals" at the moment.

Please let me know if you have some more upto date information or if something isn't working.

(the South Cumbria Music Festival details appears to be out of action at present)

The sinking feeling in my stomach

Has now disappeared.

I've taken the plunge and offered to organise and run the next Flag Fortnight should this help be needed.

I've already been offered:

Storage for the Flags

Help on the day to put flags up and take them down from several fit young men. Looks like we've a potential team of over ten of them.

Having been deeply involved with this project with Elizabeth Green who led the team that made most of them, a few years back, I go into this project with my eyes open.

Here's an interview I filmed with her a few years back followed by my attempt to make a dramatic March of the Flags - pretty good stuff even though I say it myself. I like the Prokofiev music - from the Romeo and Juliet gang confrontation.

This is followed by the video on Flag Fortnight itself  - now getting good ratings on Youtube - 1,800 viewings.

Done to promote the happy side of Ulverson - bit of a fudge really  - but it has high 'feel good ' factor which is what we need these days.

"Festivals under threat"

No one commented earlier when I asked what people's reaction was to the Dickensian Festival.

The press reports:  the Gazette concentrates on the need for marshals whereas the News emphasises the costs of future policing.

As ever we need to make our views heard to our councillors who will be guiding future events.

There will be people from both sides of the argument.

For me the main issue is  - Do the majority of Ulverstonians enjoy this particular festival?

Forget the other benefits - Do we enjoy ourselves?

Some argue that if there are too many people it gets to the point that the financial benefits are not outweighed by the inconvenience to 'normal' living. But then it's not meant to be a normal week end.

Many of the stalls have nothing to do with Dickens and only result in those providing the stalls taking money away with them. Some like this one got few customers and blocked access to the donkeys behind.

In The Gill the local donkeys had a hard time because they could get round The Gill for the massive out of town machinery and stalls that were brought in.

But then there will be a spin off for others that benefit from the increased numbers in the town.

If there is a need for expensive policing in the future then the whole concept  of bringing large numbers of people in from outside should be questioned.

There are plenty of our festivals that don't involve large numbers of people such as the Flag Festival which in my view is one of the best. I doubt that the Lantern Parade needs many police either.

For our part in the Gill we are very happy with our Halloween activity which is aimed at bringing local people together just to have a bit of fun. We want to steer away from anything commercial and 'official' and are pleased that our event required no stewarding or input from the police though they were well informed.

It cost the town - or the participants if they chose - nothing. Next year we believe we can  put the whole event on less than ten pounds.

It's good to have different kinds of activity going on in the town, then if one concept starts to run into problems, then another can fill the gap.

Lantern Procession Finale in Ford Park

Ness Wilson has confirmed 30 mins ago that help is still needed before, during and after the event that ends the Lantern Procession .

The most pressing need is for people to act as stewards at the event from 8:15 till 10:15 pm this Saturday evening 18th September. If you could do this contact Ness Wilson now on 07766 863618. You will be asked to attend a meeting at the Lantern House at 7:00 pm Friday for a briefing.

Before the event, help is needed in setting up the equipment in Ford Park from 9:00 am onwards throughout Saturday.

After the event on Sunday from 9:00 till 12:00 am there will be work to be done cleaning the litter left the night before.

If you can help in any of these phone Ness as above.

The Monday Interview - Anita - Ale Wife of Ulverston's Micro Brewery

So where are you?



The site of Ulverston's old cattle market.

And what makes a good beer?



Anita Garnett and Paul Swan (son of the strict and imposing Glaxo 'boss' for Pen Extraction ) have set up their brewery - The Ulverston Brewing Company - on the site of the Old Cattle Market across from the bus station and Peter's Kiosk.

The Monday Interview - Thursday Market Bookseller

We have strong connections with Literature in the town:

Good bookshop down Market Street,the cafe´below, the stalls, and the Word Festival

Browse through the new and second hand books with a cup of coffee at the Novel Cafe´in in the Market Square if the market is not on. Comfortable chairs access to the Internet upstairs. Arts and crafts on display. Special area upstairs for the kids. An amazing place.

Another festival comes to Ulverston next week

Monday 16th-Sunday 22nd August 2010

The Breast Feeding Festival has it's own site and starts in Ford Park
at 10 am with a "Workshop on the Breastfeeding Manifesto, in the Coach House "

Followed by " a huge people-picture of a mother feeding her baby. Inspired by Art for the Sky" in the afternoon.

On Saturday 21st August, 1:30pm-4:30pm, there's a Breastfeeding Fair in the Supper Room in the Coronation Hall.

And many many more activities at different times and places throughout the week.

Dickensian Festival - Great

This Sunday morning was a tough start.

It was cold and raining steadily.

However there was a great spirit about, with determined smiles and friendly banter everywhere.

Like yesterday, hundreds of people came from every direction to get 'the show on the road'.

Intense but quiet concentration ensured that everything was ready on time.

Today we ducked into Poppies for a warm and friendly breakfast after a quick tour of the stalls as they set up for a second day. People were looking forward to better weather later on and they were right.

The town remained in full swing right up to 6.00pm as stalls were packing up. Everyone was having a good time and I was glad to have left my camera at home to just join in as a participant rather than as an observer.

The mulled wine went down with a friend at their home even though they couldn't be out to enjoy the goings on.

Ulverston Lantern Procession

I find it sad that the opportunity to advertise this event on the internet is being missed.

Top hit is the defunct Ulverston Online site with last years info.

Other sites just mention the final show which is on September 19th but I can't find info about the workshops and the theme for this year.

Does anyone have details?

Isn't there a web site for this? UCAN has very little, neither does goulverston.

It would be good to co-ordinate the pottery activities with those making lanterns!

Some pottery items with candles?

Life continues after the election !

Some thing to celebrate!

Starts this Friday.

.

Children will have a fantastic time tomorrow, Sunday

If they attend the drop in Printfest workshop in the Coro from 10.00 to 12.00 .

They can print their own pictures and with expert help, easily come up with some lovely designs to take home. All for free, I believe!

Some parents have travelled all the way from Stockport to attend!

Two excellent festivals start tomorrow

Both of which were pointed out a month ago!

Spoilt for choice - something if it rains and something if its fine!

.

Two excellent festivals coming up.

Printfest and The Walking Festival

Both start on May 1st.

Printfest spans the weekend and The Walking Festival goes on for a further week.

Both have excellent web sites or brochures

Printfest website.

Walking Festival Brochure