Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Ulverston

ULVERSTON, a market-town in the north-west of Lan cashire, England, is picturesquely situated near Morecambe Bay, on the borders of the Lake district, 9 miles north east of Barrow-in-Furness, and 256 north-west of London. The town bears small evidence of its great antiquity. The principal streets branch from the market-place, and the houses built of stone are generally rough-cast and whitened. A rivulet flows through the town. The church of St Mary, founded in 1111, retains the south door of the original building in the Transition style, but the greater portion of the structure is Perpendicular, of the time of Henry VIII. It consists of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch, and embattled western tower, and contains an altar-tomb with recumbent figure of Walter Sandys of Conishead, dated 1588. After the destruction of Furness Abbey, Ulverston succeeded Dalton as the most important town in Furness, but the rapid rise of Barrow within recent years has relegated it to quite a secondary place. Formerly it had a considerable trade in linens, checks, and ginghams, but this has greatly fallen off. It possesses, however, large iron and steel works (North Lonsdale Iron and Steel Company), a large chemical work, an extensive paper manufactory, a bolt manufactory, breweries, tanyards, and wooden hoop manufactories. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 3120 acres) in 1871 was 7607, and in 1881 it was 10,008.

Early in the 12th century the lordship of Ulverston came into the possession of Stephen, earl of Boulogne, afterwards king of England, by whom it was presented to the monks of Fnrness Abbey as part of the endowment. In 1196 the mile of Ulverston was granted by the abbot of Furness to William de Lancaster, iirst baron of Kendal. In 1280 it obtained the charter of a market. The town became escheated to the abbot of Furness as chief lord in 1342, but this escheatment was suspended by Edward II. in favour of John de Coupland, who captured David II. of Scotland at the battle of Durham. After his death it reverted to the abbey. It is now in the possession of the family of Buccleuch.