In one month - 20 new flags to celebrate Flag Fortnight

And we've got another two months to go!

And another 30 flags to make if our target is to be reached !

Over the past month The Ulverston Flag Festival has sprung back into life under the guidance of the new Ulverston Flag Group who are working with people to design, make or just have a flag to fly during the festival in early May.

Flags have been made at an unprecedented rate because so many people from the community have been involved. Workshops in houses with large rooms along with individuals working in the small terraced houses of The Gill have already produced more than 20 new flags.

While the Ulverston Better Towns Team is continuing to run the festival centred on the shopkeepers under the guidance of Peter Winston, the new group are focussed on involving people of all kinds in this great celebratory activity at a time when all our lives need a little Zest to cheer us up.

The making of flags is a time consuming activity and for a beginner this can take some ten hours to make.

A trip to Bradford's Bombay Stores yielded enough beautifully coloured fabrics to make fifty flags. Bamboo poles have been purchased from Newcastle and the design of brackets has been finalised and are to be made by one of three local firms that have willingly got involved.

The Gill was chosen as a starting point for this community activity because it provides an ideal space for the display of flags and because over thirty people here are so keen to have a flag.

Furthermore the theme of The Gill's past history is an inspiration to all.

It's difficult to believe that so much has happened here in the past : Home of the Hiring Fairs where people came to find work as recently as 1940, Circuses with tales of an Elephant that died and was buried in the nearby Quaker Cemetery at Birkrigg, a Saw Mill and Corn Mill driven by the power of the beck that flowed through the middle, the corn mill owner was the national pole vaulting champion, The Magazine where gunpowder and arms were stored for the local militia, the Slaughter House and Tannery, the Police Station and Lock Up (now toilets), A Pub - The house of Letters with the beginning of Ulverstons Postal Service, all based on The Gill as a centre for travel by horse, The School run by Holy Trinity Church and more recently the home of Welfare State International, the people that started all the festivals in the town, noteworthy the Lantern Festival and this Flag Festival, and lastly the beginning of the Cumbrian Way.

All these are being reflected in the designs of the flags that are being made.

When the Gill has been covered the theme is being extended up Stanley Street to the Health Centre where it is hoped there will be three very large flag poles and on to the Mill Dam Play area, Sun and Star streets and the allotment beyond. It is hoped to also have some flags coming down Soutergate to celebrate the church, pubs and workshops it had in the past. Next we hope to spread down Church Walk to the school and chaurch at the end.

Those wanting to get involved are invited to the workshop that has been organised for next week end on Sunday 6th and then again another which is being organised in a large Hall in late March/early April. Details can be found on the new facebook page - Ulverston Flag Fortnight or to contact Geoff Dellow on 01229 480347.

The Ulverston Flag Group had their first Photoshoot with the two local newspapers vying with each other to capture this feast of moving colour from the twenty flags that have been made in the last month by this active group.

They represented just the tip of the iceberg of massive enthusiasm for this project - many of the flag makers, who spend on average eight hours of hard work in making a single flag, are camera shy!

(seen here are the result of 160 hours of enthusiastic work on a sewing machine and cutting board)

They invite others in Ulverston to join them in celebrating "nothing in particular" other than a Zest for Life and a refusal to let "problems " get the better of them. Others in the town can get involved in designing and making another 20 flags for their houses before Flag Fortnight which is in early May.

The Royal Wedding is providing another source of inspiration for the flags which will go up on William and Kate's special day - Friday April  29th.

Follow this project on Ulverston's Flag Fortnight Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flag-Fortnight-Ulverston/173725292668920