Visit Barrow-in-Furness Places

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The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Barrow-in-Furness

  

Barrow-in-Furness Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Barrow-in-Furness

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Barrow-in-Furness history

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Early history

Barrow and the surrounding area has been settled non-continuously for several millennia with evidence of Neolithic inhabitants on Walney Island. Several areas of Barrow including Yarlside and Ormsgill, as well as “Barrow” and “Furness”, have names of Old Norse origin. In the Middle Ages the Furness peninsula was controlled by the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of St Mary of Furness.

19th century

In 1839 Henry Schneider arrived as a young speculator and dealer in iron, and he discovered large deposits of haematite in 1850. He and other investors founded the Furness Railway, the first section of which opened in 1846, to transport the ore from the slate quarries at Kirkby-in-Furness and haematite mines at Lindal-in-Furness and Askam and Ireleth to a deep-water harbour near Roa Island. The crucial and difficult link across Morecambe Bay between Ulverston and Carnforth on the main line was promoted, as the Ulverston and Lancaster Railway, by a group led by John Brogden and opened in 1857. It was promptly purchased by the Furness Railway. The docks built between 1863 and 1881 in the more sheltered channel between the mainland and Barrow Island replaced the port at Roa Island. The first dock to open was Devonshire Dock in 1867, and Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone stated his belief that “Barrow would become another Liverpool”. The increasing quantities of iron ore mined in Furness were then brought into the centre of Barrow to be transported by sea. The investors in the burgeoning mining and railway industries decided that greater profits could be made by smelting the iron ore and converting the resultant pig-iron into steel, and then exporting the finished product. Schneider and James Ramsden, the railway’s general manager, erected blast furnaces at Barrow that by 1876 formed the largest steelworks in the world. Its success was a result of the availability of local iron ore and coal from the Cumberland mines and easy rail and sea transport. The Furness Railway, which counted local aristocrats William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Buccleuch as investors, kick-started the Industrial Revolution on the peninsula. The railway brought mined ore to the town, where the steelworks produced large quantities of steel. It was used for shipbuilding, and derived products such as rails were also exported from the newly built docks. Barrow’s population grew rapidly. Population figures for the town itself were not collected until 1871, though sources suggest that Barrow’s population was still as low as 700 in 1851. During the first half of the 19th century, Barrow formed part of the parish of Dalton-in-Furness, the population of which shows some of Barrow’s early growth from the 1850s: Population of the Parish of Dalton-in-Furness In 1871 Barrow’s population was recorded at 18,584 and in 1881 at 47,259, less than forty years after the railway was built. The majority of migrants originated from elsewhere in Lancashire although significant numbers settled in Barrow from Ireland and Scotland, which represented 11% and 7% of the local population in the 1890s. By the turn of the 20th century, the Scottish-born population had increased to form the highest portion anywhere in England. Other notable immigrant groups includes the Cornish whom represented 80% of the district of Roose’s population at the time of the 1881 census. In an attempt to diversify Barrow’s economy James Ramsden founded the Barrow and Calcutta Jute Company in 1870 and the Barrow Jute Works was soon constructed alongside the Furness Railway line in Hindpool. The mill employed 2,000 women at its peak and was awarded a gold medal for its produce at the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle. The sheltered strait between Barrow and Walney Island was an ideal location for the shipyard. The first ship to be built, the Jane Roper, was launched in 1852; the first steamship, a 3,000-ton liner named Duke of Devonshire, in 1873. Shipbuilding activity increased, and on 18 February 1871 the Barrow Shipbuilding Company was incorporated. Barrow’s relative isolation from the United Kingdom’s industrial heartlands meant that the newly formed company included several capabilities that would usually be subcontracted to other establishments. In particular, a large engineering works was constructed including a foundry and pattern shop, a forge, and an engine shop. In addition, the shipyard had a joiners’ shop, a boat-building shed and a sailmaking and rigging loft. During these boom years, Ramsden proposed building a planned town to accommodate the large workforce which had arrived. There are few planned towns in the United Kingdom, and Barrow is one of the oldest. Its centre contains a grid of well-built terraced houses, with a tree-lined road leading away from a central square. Ramsden later became the first mayor of Barrow, which was given municipal borough status in 1867, and county borough status in 1889. The imposing red sandstone town hall, designed by W.H. Lynn, was built in a neo-gothic style in 1887. Prior to this, the borough council had met at the railway headquarters: the railway company’s control of industry extended to the administration of the town itself. The Barrow Shipbuilding Company was taken over by the Sheffield steel firm of Vickers in 1897, by which time the shipyard had surpassed the railway and steelworks as the largest employer and landowner in Barrow. The company constructed Vickerstown, modelled on George Cadbury’s Bournville, on the adjacent Walney Island in the early 20th century to house its employees. It also commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to design Abbey House as a guest house and residence for its managing director, Commander Craven.

20th century

By the 1890s the shipyard was heavily engaged in the construction of warships for the Royal Navy and also for export. Well-known ships built in Barrow include Mikasa, the Japanese flagship during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, the liner SS Oriana and aircraft carriers HMS Invincible and HMAS Melbourne. Barrow’s industry continued to supply the war effort, with Winston Churchill visiting the town on one occasion to launch the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable. During World War II the town suffered the most in a short period between April and May 1941.

21st century

In a 2002 outbreak of legionellosis in the town, 172 people were reported to have caught the disease, of whom seven died. The source of the bacteria was later found to be steam from a badly maintained air conditioning unit in the council-run arts centre Forum 28. In 2006, council employee Gillian Beckingham and employer Barrow Borough Council were cleared of seven charges of manslaughter. The borough council was the first public body in the country to face corporate manslaughter charges. Barrow Offshore Wind Farm has acted as a catalyst for further investment in offshore renewable energy.

Barrow-in-Furness culture & places

Barrow contains a wealth of natural and built heritage assets, including 274 Listed Buildings and four SSSIs. The 2016 Heritage Index placed the borough as sixth highest of 325 English districts for ‘assets’

Architecture

Barrow has 8 Grade I listed buildings, 15 Grade II* and 249 Grade II buildings. The town centre is distinguished by its Victorian and Edwardian era civic buildings. Lancaster architects Sharpe, Paley and Austin were prolific throughout the development of Barrow.

Arts

Several notables in Art and Literature have come from Barrow. Barrow and Vickerstown on Walney Island featured in children’s book series The Railway Series, which developed into the show Thomas the Tank Engine.

Media

Barrow lies in the Granada TV – North West England region with the main signal coming from the Winter Hill transmitter near Bolton. The BBC’s local radio service is BBC Radio Cumbria, who have studio facilities in the town. Barrow and Furness area is served by local community radio CANDOFM 106.3FM.

Dialect and accent

Until 1974 Furness was an exclave of Lancashire, however as with Liverpool, the Barrovian dialect has been influenced by large numbers of settlers from various regions. During the town’s rapid growth from 1860 onward, thousands came to Barrow from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and elsewhere in northern England.

Nightlife

Barrow has one of the highest number of working men’s clubs per capita of any British town. Popular venues on Duke Street include Jefferson’s, the Buddha Bar, Bar Cairo and the Drawing Room.

Food

A traditional favourite food in Barrow is the meat and potato pie. Traditional Cumberland sausages are less associated with Barrow than the rest of Cumbria. The coasts around Barrow have rich cockle beds from which cockles are traditionally gathered.

Barrow-in-Furness economy & business

Shipyard and port

The BAE Systems Maritime – Submarines shipyard at Barrow is the largest in the UK by workforce. The vast majority of all current and former Royal Navy submarines were constructed in Barrow. The Devonshire Dock Hall (DDH) is the tallest building in Cumbria at 51 m. It is one of the largest shipbuilding construction complex of its kind in Europe.

Energy generation

In 1899 Barrow Corporation built and operated the coal-fired Barrow-in-Furness power station in Buccleugh Street adjacent to the railway line. In 1985, gas was discovered in Morecambe Bay, and to this day the products have been processed onshore at Rampside Gas Terminal. Roosecote Power Station was the first CCGT power station to supply electricity to the National Grid. Sellafield and Heysham nuclear power stations are also located within 25 miles (40 km) of Barrow.

Tourism and leisure

Barrow has been referred to as a ‘gateway to the lakes’ and ‘where the lakes meets the sea’, a status which could be enhanced by the new marina complex and planned cruise ship terminal. Barrow’s most popular free-entry tourist attraction is the Dock Museum. South Lakes Safari Zoo is one of Europe’s leading conservation zoos and has been voted Cumbria’s best tourist attraction in five non-consecutive years. The historic ruins of Furness Abbey and Piel Castle are also popular tourist destinations.

Regeneration and redevelopment

Urban regeneration has been ongoing in Barrow since the 1990s. Portland Walk Shopping Centre opened in 1998 anchored by Debenhams as part of a major reconstruction of Barrow town centre. The Waterfront is an ambitious £200 million dockland regeneration project which began in 2007.

Other

Furness General Hospital employs 1,800 staff, Kimberly Clark paper mill and BAE Systems’ Land and Armaments division. Furness Building Society is one of the 20 largest of its kind in the UK.

Employment

According to the 2011 census, 78.2% of males aged 16-64 and females aged 16–59 in Barrow were economically active. 73.8% of the population was employed, which again is higher than regional and national averages. The unemployment rate stood at 5.6% which is lower than both averages. Despite this, the percentage of people claiming key benefits is much higher than the national average at 21.0%.

Barrow-in-Furness toponymy

The name was originally that of an island, Barrai, which can be traced back to 1190. This was later renamed Old Barrow, recorded as Oldebarrey in 1537. The island was then joined to the mainland and the town took its name.

Nicknames

Barrow was nicknamed “the English Chicago” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The town has been dubbed the “capital of blue-collar Britain” by The Daily Telegraph. Barrow is often jokingly referred to as being at the end of the longest cul-de-sac in the country.

Barrow-in-Furness geography / climate

Barrow is situated at the tip of the Furness peninsula on the north-western edge of Morecambe Bay, south of the Duddon Estuary and east of the Irish Sea. Walney Island, surrounds the peninsula’s Irish Sea coast and is separated from Barrow by the narrow Walney Channel. Barrow sits on soils deposited during the end of the Ice Age, eroded from the mountains of the Lake District National Park.

Islands

Most of the town is sheltered from the Irish Sea by Walney Island, a 14 mile (22.5 km) long island connected to the mainland by the bascule type Jubilee bridge. About 13,000 live on the isle’s various settlements, mostly in Vickerstown, which was built to house workers in the rapidly expanding shipyard.

Parks and open spaces

The 45-Acre Barrow Park is the largest and most centrally located man-made park in the town. Walney North and South Nature Reserves are protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, as is Sandscale Haws.

Climate

Barrow on the west coast of Great Britain has a temperate maritime climate owing to the North Atlantic current. The town lies in Hardiness zone 9 and has an average yearly temperature of 10.4 °C.

You can visit Barrow-in-Furness places with Walkfo Barrow-in-Furness to hear history at Barrow-in-Furness’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Barrow-in-Furness has 92 places to visit in our interactive Barrow-in-Furness map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Barrow-in-Furness, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Barrow-in-Furness places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Barrow-in-Furness & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 92 audio facts unique to Barrow-in-Furness places in an interactive Barrow-in-Furness map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Barrow-in-Furness Places Map
92 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Barrow-in-Furness historic spots	Barrow-in-Furness tourist destinations	Barrow-in-Furness plaques	Barrow-in-Furness geographic features
Walkfo Barrow-in-Furness tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Barrow-in-Furness

  

Best Barrow-in-Furness places to visit

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Barrow-in-Furness has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Barrow-in-Furness’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Barrow-in-Furness’s information audio spots:

Thorncliffe Cemetery and Crematorium Thorncliffe Cemetery and Crematorium is a 66-acre graveyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The cemetery opened in 1872 and a crematorium was added to the site in 1962. 189 identified war casualties are buried there.

Holker Old Boys A.F.C. Holker Old Boys Association Football Club is based in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. They are currently members of the North West Counties League Division One North and play at Rakesmoor.

Furness General Hospital Furness General Hospital is located in the Hawcoat area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. It is managed by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

Barrow-in-Furness power station Barrow-in-Furness power station supplied electricity to the town and wider area of Lancashire from 1899 to about 1960. It was owned and operated by Barrow in-furness Corporation until the nationalisation of the electricity supply industry in 1948.

Nan Tait Centre Nan Tait Centre is a Grade II listed building located in Hindpool area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. It was built for the Barrow Corporation as the town’s new Technical School. The centre was named in honour of Agnes “Nan” Tait, the Mayor of the Borough of Barrows from 1959 to 1960. It is now multifunctional serving as a cultural, exhibition and arts centre.

St Mary of Furness Roman Catholic Church St Mary of Furness is a Roman Catholic church located in Barrow-in-Furness, England. The congregation was founded in 1858, however the current building was constructed between 1866 and 1867. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Trinity Church, Barrow-in-Furness Trinity Church was a Presbyterian church located on School Street in Barrow-in-Furness, England. It is not the same building as the joint Methodist and URC church in Parkside, Barrow, known as the Trinity Church Centre.

Furness Building Society Established in 1865, Furness Building Society is the 17th largest in the United Kingdom based on total assets of £813 million as at 31 December 2010. The Society expanded its call centre in 2009 to deal with investments and insurance queries.

Craven House Craven House (also known as Fisher House) is a large office building in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Constructed in the 1960s the building is noted for its length of roughly 90 m (300 ft) and consists of seven floors. The gross floor area stands at around 8,100 square metres (87,000 sq ft)

Salthouse, Barrow-in-Furness Salthouse is an area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It was historically a ward in its own right but has since been subsumed into the wards of Risedale and Central Barrow. It has been undergoing the transformation into a modern, outperforming 17-acre industrial site.

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