What connects one of Hollywood’s classic comedy duos, the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in the South Pacific, the search for the Northwest Passage through the Arctic, and Britain’s first and only Buddhist Temple for World Peace? The answer is the unassuming West Cumbrian market town of Ulverston, a place with a rich history and an even richer present. Ulverston is a fun, bustling place, its narrow streets home to traditional pubs, independent shops, and an array of good cafes and restaurants.
Ulverston is known as the Festival Capital of Furness, which may not be quite the brag people think it is since the Furness Peninsula is hardly the home of Carnival. Regardless, there is no doubting the fact that Ulverston has an unusually high number of festivals. The top picks have to be the Lantern Festival marking the start of autumn, and Another Fine Fest, a festival of music, street theatre, visual art and circus.
If the phrase, Another Fine Fest, seems familiar, it’s because it has been adapted from the signature catchphrase of the town’s favourite and most famous son. Arthur Stanley Jefferson, or Stan Laurel as he would become known, was born in Ulverston on the 16th June 1890 into a theatrical family. He would go on to reach global stardom as one half of comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy.
Laurel, the naive innocent, and Hardy the pompous bully, were unquestionably one of the finest comedy duos to have ever graced our cinema screens. They reached the peak of their fame during Hollywood’s golden era and made over 100 films together. The museum dedicated to them in Ulverston’s Roxy cinema is the result of one man’s lifelong love of their work. That man was Ulverston’s former mayor, Bill Cubin.
Filled with personal items and a mountain of memorabilia, it’s less a museum than a passion project. The pièce de résistance is the small cinema showing films. It’s been a long time since I watched Laurel and Hardy, but I sat mesmerized by the slick slapstick comedy of the two friends. It’s worth the trip to Ulverston alone. Stan Laurel died in 1965 in Santa Monica and is buried in Los Angeles, about as far removed from this northern market town as it is possible to get.
The town’s other most famous resident is Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, geographer and traveller. Barrow was an officer on official British Government embassies to China and South Africa (or the Cape Colony as it was then known), and wrote many fascinating accounts of his voyages. He also wrote the definitive account of the mutiny against Captain Bligh on HMS Bounty.
That account became a novel written by Charles Nordhoff, later made into a Hollywood blockbuster with a star studded cast that includes Marlon Brando and Richard Harris. There is a large mural painted onto a wall in the town centre depicting Barrow’s life and achievements. Although strangely silent on his role in colonising Africa, it does cover his failed obsession with finding the Northwest Passage through the Arctic.
On a hill above the town, called The Hoad, is a lighthouse monument to Barrow and one of the favourite dog walking routes of friends I was staying with. A walk to the top of The Hoad offers exhilarating views over the estuary to the south and the Lake District fells to the north. It’s glorious and almost as much fun as The Old Friends Inn, my new favourite Ulverston pub which brews its own beers.
And the Buddhist Temple? On the outskirts of Ulverston is the old Augustinian Conishead Priory founded in 1188. Dissolved by Henry VIII in 1537, the priory was dismantled and the materials used for buildings in Ulverston and a manor house on the site of the priory. Rebuilt in 1821, it was eventually bought as a convalescent home by the Durham Miners Welfare Committee.
In 1972 the house was abandoned for 5 years until it was returned to religious use as the Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre in 1976. It now houses a Buddhist spiritual community. I visited once before, over 30 years ago, on this recent visit there was a new addition to the grounds, the blingy Temple for World Peace. A walk through the woods to the estuary provides a glimpse of the tranquility any type of monk would appreciate.
* The Sons of the Desert is the official fan club of Laurel and Hardy
That was great.