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The Ulverston Dickensian Christmas Festival
A Cumbrian Christmas Market….
I’ve just returned home from a trip to the English Lake District and a very nice morning at a Christmas market in the town of Ulverston.
Every year the town plays host to a two day event celebrating the era of Charles Dickens and the locals really do join in the spirit of the occasion by dressing up in Victorian costumes and setting up stalls from which they sell delicious local produce.
I must say it was quite bizarre at first, stepping out of my car I walked across a cobbled street shrouded in a thick, freezing fog to be confronted by children dressed as Victorian street urchins and finely dressed gentlemen with handle bar moustaches and black top hats and tails. It was remarkably authentic, there were stalls of every kind on display from local butchers to artisan cheesemakers, homemade jams, chutneys, fruit pies and hand crafted Christmas decorations.
It was great to see old fashioned chestnut roasters with mulled wine to wash them down with and behind the stalls were some really good small, independant delicatessens selling local cheese, wild boar salami and, intriguingly Cumbrian chorizo.
Now in its tenth year this years festival sees the great, great Grandson of Charles Dickens himself as guest of honour and I wish I could have seen his one man show. What I enjoyed most about the festival was the sense of tradition, it was unashamedly English in an unashamedly nice English kind of way. It celebrated our heritage in the right kind of way; charmingly inoffensive tongue in cheek. Just the way it should be.
The irony is that whilst they were taking part in celebrating one of England’s greatest authors I was promoting National Curry Week-if that’s not multi cultural Britain then I don’t know what is!
Miles
sounds great - I like these sorts of things when done properly - as opposed to tackily !
Never heard of this one though
Merry christmas
Rod
November 30, 2008 @ 10:14 am
Miles,
What a lovely post to get us into the mood of things. A nice change for you too from sprouts and turkey, I guess.
Re curry, there will be many who have that as their Christmas dinner and not much wrong with that either.
Elsie
November 30, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
Rod,
The fog helped to add to the general feeling, it really was like stepping back in time.
Miles
November 30, 2008 @ 4:27 pm
Elsie,
Turkey and sprouts started on Saturday, it’s head down now until January!
Miles
November 30, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
Miles,
Instead of the usual indulgence connected with Christmas, my sprout curry would ‘energise’ most gastric systems ….
made doubly effective in conjunction with my detox prune surprise pudding. Make certain the guests leave well before these take effect however, ensuring a good profit and possible weight loss as a bonus 
Strangely enough Miles my ideas on festive dining haven’t taken off yet, can’t imagine why…. still, I do feel for you and your staff dealing with all those turkeys and mountains of christmas puddings day in and day out… must be tiresome.
Cid
November 30, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
Cid,
Tiresome? I could think of other words!
Miles
November 30, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
Miles,
I didn’t have much fresh food in today which is unusual for me. Bowled over by my exercise earlier in the week of emptying and cleaning out the fridge, it must have slipped my mind to fill it again! In the end I decided to make fishcakes because I had about three large potatoes and some frozen cod. Along with the mashed potato and a few fennel seeds cooked with a small shallot, I added the last slice of smoked salmon, then dusted each ‘cake’ in seasoned flour before frying in olive oil. Quickly heated some frozen petit pois and served the lot with a little Linghams chilli sauce. Of course tomorrow will dawn and I will have to rummage through my cupboards to find something else other than my penchant for tins and jars of exotic produce that never seem to go with anything in particular
Worth noting for the sake of Melissa and others who are allergic to wheat that perhaps I could have used chickpea flour instead. At the moment I have various friends who are allergic to dairy, wheat, red wine, dark chocolate, nuts and kiwi fruit respectively….. and half of them are vegetarian as well. Mind you Miles none of them have admitted to a reaction against sprouts and prunes, not that they would ever in a million years think of combining the two at one sitting…
Cid
November 30, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Cid,
Sounds nice, especially with the chilli sauce. I use that when my chillies have run out-don’t think I’ll have that problem this year though!!
Miles
December 1, 2008 @ 5:51 pm