Ulverston (popularly Ooston), seaport and market town, par., and township, Furness dist., N. Lancashire, near the influx of the Leven to Morecambe Bay, 8½ miles NE. of Barrow in Furness and 257 miles from London by rail - par., 27,342 ac., pop. 13,394; town and township, 3120 ac., pop. 10,008; P.O., T.O., 3 Banks, 3 newspapers. Market-day, Thursday. Ulverston is about a mile from the estuary of the Leven, with which it is connected by a ship canal. Although ancient as regards situation, it is quite a modern town. It has blast furnaces, boiler works, a shoe factory, and a paper-mill. The shipping trade is chiefly in exporting the slate and iron ore with which the neighbourhood abounds.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))