Phone Free Family
88% of the parents who responded to our community survey used the word 'concerned' or similar when asked about their feelings towards smartphones and social media.
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Phone Free Family is our first project, and it is set up to support local families to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of children.
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Ulverston Munition Girls
Did you know about the Ulverston Munition Girls, of 1916, and their impact on women’s football?
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We are running a sports heritage project to revive and celebrate a piece of local history that is at risk of being forgotten. This project has been supported by Ulverston Town Council, and we are currently awaiting a funding decision from Sporting Heritage UK to deliver a family football celebration day to commemorate this piece of local heritage.
Munitionettes Football refers to the matches that were played by ladies working in munitions factories. These games started off as novelty, but soon grew to be an immensely popular source of entertainment during WW1, and helped to raise vital funds to support war efforts.
Football Historian, Tim Tate, writes: “The first recorded {Munitionettes} match is believed to have taken place on Christmas Day 1916 in the Cumbrian town of Ulverston when women from a local munitions factory took on (and beat) a team picked from the test of the female population” (p.122).
We have sourced the original Barrow Guardian article from December 30th, 1916, which is the first ever report of a Munitionettes Football match (see above).
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By 1920, Munitionettes Football Teams were entertaining crowds of thousands of eager spectators all around the UK. One of many such games was when The Dick Kerr Munitionettes Team from Preston played against Newcastle United ladies at St James’ Park in front of 35,000 fans (p.159).
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Can you believe that all of this started in Ulverston?
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Tate, Tim. (2016) Women's Football The Secret History. First Edition. John Blake Publishing