Market Cross, Ulverston

 

A Dennis postcard from the 1970s but apart from the make of cars the scene looks similar today. The post box has stood there since Victorian times.  The shop on the left is still a chemist although the shop to the right of it has changed many times since the dress shop it was in this picture.  No cars will be here on Thursdays or Saturdays because lots of market stalls will be set up on both sides of the street.

Walk down this cobbled street and postcards can be bought to pop into the red postbox, perhaps stopping off at the Sun Inn on the right on the way.

On Remembrance Sunday tomorrow the market cross that contains the name of the fallen of this small market town will have its poppy wreaths.

Gemma of Greyscale Territory is the hostess of the Weekend Mailbox, post anything to do with mail.

Ulverston Post Office

The main post office on County Square. This card is probably from the late 1970s.  Ulverston is a small market town with narrow streets.  This one would be considered quite wide in comparison and leads out onto the main road.  The square has recently had a 'make over' but would still be recognisable from this photo.  The postal vans are kept round the back.

From an older time, possibly the 1920s, when it looks as though there was just one long street.  I think the post office was possibly built in 1875.  The inside has been modernised but is still quite a spacial place.

Weekend Mailbox is hosted by Gemma at Greyscale Territory. Join us by posting anything to do with mail.

 

Ulverston

I thought I would start my first postcard post with my childhood home, Ulverston.  A small market town in North West England on the edge of the Lake District.  This is a Frith postcard number 82763 which dates it as 1929.  The war memorial in the foreground would only contain the names of the fallen of the First World War at this time.  I do like old cars in photos and these two are about to tootle down Market Street.  You could not do this today because it has become a one way street, in the other direction.

Moving on in time here is an M&L (Miller & Laing) National Series postcard which my father has estimated a date and has written on the back 'about 1957'. This is looking from Market Street towards the Market Cross. On Thursdays and Saturdays there are market stalls down both sides of this street.  Ulverston was granted a market charter way back in 1280 and indeed is an very old settlement as the town was mentioned in the Domesday Book, as Ulvrestun.

Note the cobble setts which surface the whole of Market Street.

And now we come up to date.  As you see nothing has changed much to the buildings because the centre of the town is a conservation area, but judge how times have changed, in the previous postcard you can see the Farmers Arms pub, plain and simple. It still retains the name but it now has in larger letters above it Wine Bar & Restaurant.  It is a very popular eating place but don't let the words wine bar put fool you because it also serves many types of draught beer so is also popular for drinking.

The monument on the right is Hoad is a replica of the Eddystone Lighthouse and was erected in 1850 to commemorate Sir John Barrow who was born here and whose favourite walk was up Hoad Hill.  It is undergoing renovation at the moment so all that can be seen is the scaffolding around it. I'm wondering what colour they have painted it.

I do like the fact that the post box still stands in the same place in the modern card (outside the chemist, bottom right picture) as the 1929 one.