It has to be said that Barrow somehow produces the best in culture. We must do because we’ve pretty well got it all. We have the young ladies who stride out into the icy darkness between nightclubs protected only by a purely nominal amount of clothing and a sensible layer of subcutaneous fat; all the way up to amateur dramatics and dance troupes.
As a friend of mine used to say, “When I were growing up in Barrow we made our own entertainment; admittedly it was mainly sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.” If my memory still serves me, in his case at least the ‘drugs’ was alcohol, served in pint glasses and drunk under-age in one of Barrow’s many pubs.
Traditionally it’s normal to take the Mickey out of small northern towns. But Barrow has contributed in many ways. If you’re a fan of Dorothy L Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey, you’ll know that in ‘Strong Poison’ we meet Charles Parker, the detective. Charles was not only from Barrow in Furness, he also went to the Boys Grammar school here.
We know this because somewhere there is a throw-away line where Dorothy L Sayers has him buying lingerie for his wife. She says something like ‘He purchased the lingerie with the total lack of embarrassment possible only to an old boy of Barrow Grammar school.’
(Yes I know it’s a paraphrase, and because this is on the internet I’m equally sure someone will send me the correct quote. Probably faster than I could find it using Google.)
Aside from that our fair town appeared on the TV series ‘The Likely Lads.’
Bob was getting married and Terry turned up to hear them read because Bob had never told anybody what his middle name is. When the vicar reads the bans everybody discovers his middle name is ‘Scarborough.’
Apparently this is where Bob was conceived. Terry’s comment is ‘It’s a good job they never went to Barrow-in-Furness then.’
So yes, we’ve got culture. We just had a concert at our church given by the Barrow Male Voice choir. A good night, at one point I realised pretty well everybody was singing along with them when they sang the Beatles song ‘When I’m Sixty Four’.
So obviously it behoves me to do something for culture as well. After all with this weight of heritage on my shoulders I must do something.
So out there, entirely for free, is a slim volume of poems called ‘Lambent Dreams’
Admittedly it’s not entirely what you might think and it amused the reviewer, so go on, treat yourself. Download it now
Tagged: Charles Parker, Dorothy L Sayers, Lambent Dreams, Lord Peter Wimsey, Sex Drugs and 'rock and roll', The Likely lads
Jim Webster 
I knew a guitarist from a rock band from Barrow. For some reason he never wanted anyone to find out the name of the band and to this day I stil ldon’t know why!
The only Band name that springs to mind from the past was ‘Amberstag’ (that’s how we said it anyway 🙂 ) But like a lot of towns we had a fair few ‘local’ bands. But back in the 60s a lot of the Liverpool bands would tour Barrow as well
WOW Jim – that reviewer, a friend of mine (Ignite) is a Manchester Lass called Kath Middleton (NO – NOT Kate of the Royalty persuasion) #414 Amazon Reviewer in UK.
She is also highly ranked and respected in Goodreads…
BTW Kath has also posted her review on her much followed Book Blog – check it out at:
http://ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/jim-webster-et-al.html
CONGRATULATIONS 👍😃
Ah, I went a little weak at the knees when I read that. She’s a great lady and a great support to Indie Writers
As well as being an author in her own right 😱
In several different genres but try this one
The trouble with the Beatles song is that most people who remember it coming out will never see 64 again…
Only disappearing into the distance behind them 🙂 I must admit as I was singing along with everybody else I did wonder at how different the world is now to the world in which Paul McCartney wrote the song (Given that he is now 73 I wonder what he thinks 🙂 )