When I was working in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria I did a number of assignments at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Ulverston.

Basically the connection with the comedy duo was the fact that Stan Laurel was born in the south Cumbrian town and later raised North Shields over in the north east.

The museum was started by Bill Cubin by basically curating a number of exhibits in the spare room of his house. Having said that, since I left south Cumbria it has gone from strength to strength and now occupies a space in the Coronation Hall in Ulverston.

In July 1995 I visited to shoot some portraits of Bill and the shot above was used in an in-flight magazine the following year. Here are a few other shots from the session below.

As I recall he was a great self publicist as these examples also show. And, now that I am back in Cumbria, a return trip to Ulverston may be in order to see how the museum has grown.