Ulverston also claims to be the birthplace of competitive pole vaulting, said to be adapted from the practice by local farmers of leaping across gates and other obstacles using their shepherd’s crooks. Known as Canal Foot it is a delightful spot with an inn and a large area of lawn festooned with picnic tables, commanding fine views across the River Leven to the Cartmel Peninsula. A pleasant walk along the tow path brings you to a dilapidated set of lock gates where the canal used to decant into the sea. One mile long, dead straight, 65 feet (20m) wide and 15 feet (4.6m) deep, it is the shortest, widest and deepest canal in Britain. On the eastern edge of town is the abandoned Ulverston Canal, built by John Rennie in 1796 to link Ulverston to the sea. A short walk away, the Laurel and Hardy Museum displays the largest collection of Laurel and Hardy memorabilia in the world. He was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in his grandparent’s tiny terraced house in Argyll Street on June 16 1890.
This was the birthplace of one of the world’s best loved comic actors, Stan Laurel, the smaller half of Laurel and Hardy. Ulverston, the only town in Furness that doesn’t actually specify as “in Furness”, is an ancient market town of sloping cobbled streets that sits at the top of the peninsula and is set between green hills and the sea. West of Coniston and standing somewhat aloof from the other lakeland fells, the Old Man of Coniston, at 2,634 ft (803m) the highest point in Furness, commands some of the best views of the Lake District from its summit and offers a number of less demanding routes to the top making it popular with walkers.Įast of Coniston are the picturesque villages of Hawkshead, where Wordsworth went to school, Rusland, where Arthur Ransome is buried, and Near Sawrey where Beatrix Potter lived in Hill Top Farm, now run by the National Trust. The house and gardens have been restored to how they were in Ruskin’s time and are open to the public.ĭuring the summer months the National Trust runs cruises on Coniston Water aboard Britain’s oldest working steam yacht, Gondola, built in 1859 and restored in the 1960s. The Ruskin Museum itself was opened in 1901 in memory of the Victorian social reformer and critic John Ruskin who lived nearby in Brantwood House, overlooking Coniston Water, until his death in 1900. Their story is told in the Bluebird Wing of the Ruskin Museum in Coniston village. Sir Malcolm Campbell set a world water speed record on Coniston Water in his Bluebird K4 in August 1939 his son Donald later set four world water speed records on the lake in his Bluebird K7 before being tragically killed during a 5th attempt in 1967. The drive south from the Lake District through High Furness passes by Coniston Water, inspiration for Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons and possessed of the longest clear straight stretch of deep water of any English lake, hence the ideal place to stage world water speed record attempts. It is a region which has much to offer the discerning traveller, including ancient stone towns, picturesque villages, fine Victorian country houses, miles of stunning coastline, stupendous views, and one of the world’s best gardens.
Along with the Cartmel Peninsula to the east, Furness was, before 1974, a part of Lancashire known as Lancashire-beyond-the-Sands, separated from the rest of the county by the sands of Morecambe Bay. It consists of Low Furness, the peninsula on which Barrow lies, and High Furness, an area of lakes and high fells to the north. Inspired by an intriguing article that appeared in this newspaper about “humble Barrow-in-Furness” I decided it was time to go and explore the rest of Furness, an outstandingly beautiful but mysteriously little-known part of northwest England.
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