Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness
Clockwise from the upper left: Central Barrow with the skyline of Blackpool also visible, Barrow Island, Walney Bridge and Furness College, Furness Abbey, Ramsden Square, Dock Museum and DDH, Barrow Town Hall and St. Mary's Church Coat of arms of Barrow in Furness
Barrow-in-Furness  Barrow-in-Furness shown within Cumbria
Population	56,745 (2011 Census)
Demonym	Barrovian
OS grid reference	SD198690
– London	222 mi (357 km)
District	Barrow-in-Furness
Shire county	Cumbria
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BARROW-IN-FURNESS
Postcode district	LA13, LA14
Dialling code	01229
Police	Cumbria
Fire	Cumbria
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Barrow and Furness
List of places UK England Cumbria

Coordinates: 54°06′39″N 3°13′34″W / 54.1108°N 3.2261°W / 54.1108; -3.2261

Barrow-in-Furness (/ˈbæroʊ ɪn ˈfɜːrnəs/; commonly known as Barrow; Barra in the local dialect) is a town and seaport in the county of Cumbria, England. Historically part of Lancashire it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with adjacent districts in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. Situated at the tip of the Furness peninsula close to the Lake District it is bordered by Morecambe Bay, the Duddon Estuary and the Irish Sea. In 2011 Barrow's population stood at around 57,000, while 69,000 lived in the wider borough making it the second largest urban area in Cumbria after Carlisle. Natives of Barrow as well as the local dialect are known as Barrovian.^[1]

In the Middle Ages, Barrow was a small hamlet with Furness Abbey, on the outskirts of the modern-day town, controlling the local economy before its dissolution in 1537. The iron prospector Henry Schneider arrived in Furness in 1839 and, with other investors, opened the Furness Railway in 1846 to transport iron ore and slate from local mines to the coast. Further hematite deposits were discovered, of sufficient size to develop factories for smelting and exporting steel. By the late 19th century, the Barrow Hematite Steel Company-owned steelworks was the world's largest.^[2]

Barrow's location and the availability of steel allowed the town to develop into a significant producer of naval vessels, a shift that was accelerated during World War I and the local yard's specialisation in submarines. The original iron- and steel-making enterprises closed down after World War II, leaving Vickers shipyard as Barrow's main industry and employer. Several Royal Navy flagships, the vast majority of its nuclear submarines as well as numerous ocean liners and oil tankers were manufactured at the facility.

The end of the Cold War and subsequent decrease in military spending saw high unemployment in the town through lack of contracts; despite this, the BAE Systems shipyard remains operational as the UK's largest by workforce and has major future expansion plans associated with the Trident successor programme.^[3] Today Barrow is a hub for energy generation and handling. Several wind farms located off the coast of the town form one of the highest concentrations of turbines in the world.^[4]

Toponymy

The name was originally that of an island – the name 'Barrai' can be traced back to 1190. This was later renamed 'Old Barrow', recorded as Oldebarrey in 1537, and Old Barrow Insula and Barrohead in 1577. The island was then joined to the mainland and the town took its name. The name itself seems to mean 'island with promontory', combining British barro- and Old Norse ey, but it is more likely that Scandinavian settlers simply accepted barro- as a meaningless name, and so added an explanatory Old Norse second element.^[5]

Nicknames

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Barrow was nicknamed the 'English Chicago' because of the sudden and rapid growth in its industry, economic stature and overall size.^[6] More recently the town has been dubbed the 'Capital of blue-collar Britain' by the Daily Telegraph as a result of its strong working class identity,^[7] Barrow is also often jokingly referred to as being located at the end of the longest cul-de-sac in the country (because of its relatively isolated location at the tip of the Furness peninsula).^[8] In 2014 Barrow was voted the 'least happiest' area to live in Britain, after a survey was carried out by the Office of National Statistics.

History

Early history

Barrow and the surrounding area has been settled non-continuously for several millennia. There is evidence of Neolithic inhabitants on Walney Island, and the Furness Hoard discovery of Viking silver coins and other artefacts in 2011 provided significant archaeological evidence of Norse settlement in the early 9th century. The names of numerous areas of Barrow including Yarlside, Ormsgill and 'Barrow' and 'Furness' themselves are of Old Norse origin. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the settlements of Hietun, Rosse and Hougenai which are now the districts of Hawcoat, Roose and Walney respectively. Despite a rich history of Roman settlement across Cumbria and the discovery of related artefacts in the Barrow area; no buildings or structures have been found to support the idea of a functioning Roman community on the Furness peninsula.^[9]

In the Middle Ages the Furness peninsula was controlled by the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of St Mary of Furness, known as Furness Abbey. This was located in the 'Vale of Nightshade', now on the outskirts of the town.^[10] Originally founded for the Savigniac order, it was built on the orders of King Stephen in 1123. Soon after the abbey's foundation the monks discovered iron ore deposits, later to prove the basis for the Furness economy. These thin strata, close to the surface, were extracted through open cut workings,^[11] which were then smelted by the monks.^[12] The proceeds from mining, along with agriculture and fisheries, meant that by the 15th century the abbey had become the second richest and most powerful Cistercian abbey in England, after Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire.^[13] The monks of Furness Abbey constructed a wooden tower on nearby Piel Island in 1212 which acted as their main trading point, it was twice invaded by the Scottish in 1316 and 1322. In 1327 King Edward III gave Furness Abbey a license to crenellate the tower and a motte-and-bailey castle was built. However, Barrow itself was just a hamlet in the parish of Dalton-in-Furness on the Furness peninsula, reliant on the land and sea for survival. Small quantities of iron and ore were exported from jetties on the channel separating the village from Walney Island. Amongst the oldest buildings in Barrow are several cottages and farm houses in Newbarns (now a ward of the town) which date back to the early 17th century, as well as Rampside Hall; a Grade I listed building and the best preserved in the town from the 1600s. Even as late as 1843 there were still only 32 dwellings including two pubs.^[14]

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.^[15] 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^[16] .^[17]

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 greater profits could be made by smelting the iron ore 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.^[18] Its success was a result of the availability of local iron ore, coal from the Cumberland mines and easy rail and sea transport. The Furness Railway, who 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.^[15]

Barrow's population few rapidly. Population figures for the town itself were not collected until 1871,^[19] though sources suggest that Barrow's population was still as low as 700 in 1851.^[20] During the first half of the nineteenth 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^[19]

Year	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861
Population	1,954	2,074	2,446	2,697	3,231	4,683	9,152

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.^[19] 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.^[21][22] By the turn of the 20th century, the Scottish-born population had increased to form the highest portion anywhere in England. 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.^[23]

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.^[24]

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,^[25] which was given municipal borough status in 1867, and county borough status in 1889.^[26] The imposing red sandstone town hall, designed by W.H. Lynn, was built in a neo-gothic style in 1887.^[27] 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.^[28] It also commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to design Abbey House as a guest house and residence for its managing director, Commander Craven.^[29]

20th century

By the 1890s the shipyard was heavily engaged in the construction of warships for the Royal Navy and also for export. The Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, was built in 1901,^[30] and by 1914 the UK had the most advanced submarine fleet in the world, with 94% of it constructed by Vickers. Vickers was also famous for the construction of airships and airship hangars during the early 20th century. Originally constructed in a large shed at Cavendish Dock, production later relocated to Barrow/Walney Island Airport. HMA No. 1, nicknamed the Mayfly is the most notable airship to have been built in Barrow. The first of its kind in the UK it came to an untimely end on 24 September 1911 when it was wrecked by wind during trials. Well-known ships built in Barrow include the Mikasa, Japanese flagship during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, the liner SS Oriana and the aircraft carriers HMS Invincible and HMAS Melbourne. It should also be noted that there was a significant presence of Vickers' armament division in Barrow with the huge Heavy Engineering Workshop on Michaelson Road supplying ammunition for the British Army and Royal Navy throughout both world wars. World War 1 brought significant temporary migration as workers arrived to work in the munitions factory and shipyard, with the town's population reaching to an estimated peak of around 82,000 during the War.^[19] Thousands of local men fought abroad during World War I, 616 were ultimately killed in action.^[31]

During World War II, Barrow was a target for the German air force looking to disable the town's shipbuilding capabilities (see Barrow Blitz).^[32] The town suffered the most in a short period between April and May 1941. During the war, a local housewife, Nella Last, was selected to write a diary of her experiences on the home front for the Mass-Observation project. Her memoirs were later adapted for television as Housewife, 49 starring Victoria Wood. The difficulty in targeting bombs meant that the shipyards and steelworks were often missed, at the expense of the residential areas. Ultimately, 83 people were killed and 11,000 houses in the area were left damaged. To escape the heaviest bombardments, many people in the central areas left the town to sleep in hedgerows with some being permanently evacuated. 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.^[33] Besides the dozens of civilians killed during World War II, some 268 Barrovian men were also killed whilst in combat.^[31]

Barrow's population reached a second peak in of 77,900 in 1951,^[34] however by this point the long decline of mining and steel-making as a result of overseas competition and dwindling resources had already begun. The Barrow ironworks closed in 1963,^[35] three years after the last Furness mine shut. The by then small steelworks followed suit in 1983,^[36] leaving Barrow's shipyard as the town's principal industry. From the 1960s onwards it concentrated its efforts in submarine manufacture, and the UK's first nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Dreadnought was constructed in 1960. HMS Resolution, the Swiftsure, Trafalgar and Vanguard-class submarines all followed. The last of these are armed with Trident II missiles as part of the British government's Trident programme.

The end of the Cold War in 1991 marked a reduction in the demand for military ships and submarines, and the town continued its decline. The shipyard's dependency on military contracts at the expense of civilian and commercial engineering and shipbuilding meant it was particularly hard hit as government defence spending was reduced dramatically.^[37] As a result, the workforce shrank from 14,500 in 1990 to 5,800 in February 1995,^[38] with overall unemployment in the town rising over that period from 4.6% to 10%.^[3] The rejection by the VSEL management of detailed plans for Barrow's industrial renewal in the mid-to-late 1980s remains controversial.^[39] This has led to renewed academic attention in recent years to the possibilities of converting military-industrial production in declining shipbuilding areas to the offshore renewable energy sector.^[40]

21st century

In the 2002 Barrow-in-Furness legionellosis outbreak, 172 people were reported to have caught the disease, of whom seven died. This made it the fourth worst outbreak in the world in terms of number of cases and sixth worst in terms of deaths. 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.^[41]

At the conclusion of the inquest into the seven deaths, the coroner for Furness and South Cumbria criticised the council for its health and safety failings.^[42] In 2006, council employee Gillian Beckingham and employer Barrow Borough Council were cleared of seven charges of manslaughter, but both admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. Beckingham, the council senior architect ultimately responsible for health and safety at the centre, was fined £15,000 and the authority £125,000.^[43] The borough council was the first public body in the country to face corporate manslaughter charges.^[44]

2006 saw the construction of Barrow Offshore Wind Farm which has acted as a catalyst for further investment in offshore renewable energy in the town. Ormonde Wind Farm and Walney Wind Farm followed in 2011, the latter of which became the largest offshore wind farm in the world. The three wind farms are located west of Walney Island and are operated primarily by DONG Energy, contain a total of 162 turbines and have a combined nameplate capacity of 607 MW providing energy for well over half a million homes. West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm was commissioned in 2014 and is currently the largest of the four wind farms.

Government

Barrow is the largest town in the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness^[45] and the largest settlement in the peninsula of Furness. The borough is the direct inheritor of the municipal and county borough charters given to the town in the late 19th century.^[46] Historically it is part of the Hundred of Lonsdale 'north of the sands' in the historic county boundaries of Lancashire.^[47] Since the local government reforms enacted in England in 1974 the town has been within the administrative county of Cumbria. It still forms a part of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council forms the 'lower' tier of local government under Cumbria County Council.^[48] Since the 2011 local election, the Labour Party has had overall control of the Borough council, while the Borough elected 10 Labour and 1 Conservative Party councillor at the 2013 Cumbria County election. The town, along with Walney Island, is unparished and forms the bulk of the wards which make the entire borough's area. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Barrow are elected annually, and hold the roles of chairman and Vice-Chairman of Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council.^[49] The borough and former county borough of Barrow-in-Furness have been served by 106 mayors, beginning with Sir James Ramsden in 1867 and continuing through to incumbent 2014 mayor Marie Derbyshire.^[46]

The Barrow-in-Furness UK Parliament constituency first came into existence during the 1885 United Kingdom general election, with David Duncan of the Liberal Party becoming the first MP for the town. The seat was won by the Conservative Party in 1892, before being won for the first time by Labour in 1906. In the subsequent forty years the seat swung between Conservative and Labour, but since 1945 it has been generally considered a Labour safe seat.^[50] In 1983, the constituency was expanded to include several commuter towns such as Dalton-in-Furness and Ulverston and was renamed Barrow and Furness. It was subsequently won by the Conservatives, with the victory attributed to Labour's stance against the nuclear-powered submarines that were being constructed in Barrow.^[50] Following a change in Labour policy the party won Barrow and Furness in 1992. John Woodcock has been the MP for the constituency since the 2010 general election.

Council/ Electoral wards of Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow Island | Central | Hawcoat | Hindpool | Newbarns | Ormsgill | Parkside | Risedale | Roosecote | Walney North | Walney South

Geography

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, to the west of Barrow, surrounds the peninsula's Irish Sea coast and is separated from Barrow by the narrow Walney Channel. Both Morecambe Bay and the Duddon Estuary are characterized by large areas of quicksand and fast-moving tidal bores. Areas of sand dunes exist on coasts surrounding Barrow, particularly at Roanhead and North Walney. The town centre and major industrial areas sit on a fairly flat coastal shelf, with hillier ground rising to the east of the town, peaking at 94 metres (310 ft) at Yarlside. Barrow sits on soils deposited during the end of the Ice Age, eroded from the mountains of the Lake District National Park, 10 miles (15 km) to the north-east. Barrow's soils are composed of glacial lake clay and glacial till, while Walney is almost entirely made up of reworked glacial morraine.^[51][52] Beneath these soils is a sandstone bedrock, from which many of the town's older buildings are constructed.^[52]

Barrow town centre is located to the north-east of the docks, with suburbs also extending to the north and east, as well as onto Walney. The towns of Dalton-in-Furness and Askam-in-Furness are the other sizable settlements of the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. Barrow is the only major urban area in South Cumbria, with the nearest settlements of a similar size being Lancaster and Morecambe. Other towns nearby include Ulverston, Windermere, Grange-Over-Sands and Millom.

• 

  Map of Barrow

• 

  Aerial view of Barrow and Walney Island

• 

  Barrow within North West England (top left)

Islands

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. Another significant island which lay in the Walney Channel was Barrow Island, but following the filling of the channel to create land for the shipyard it is now directly connected to the town. Other islands which lie close to Barrow are Piel Island, whose castle protected the harbour from marauding Scots, Sheep Island, Roa Island and Foulney Island.

Climate

Barrow on the west coast of Great Britain has a temperate maritime climate owing to the North Atlantic Current and tends to have milder winters than central and eastern parts of the country. The town lies in Hardiness zone 9 and has an average yearly temperature of 10.4 °C.

Climate data for Barrow-in-Furness, England, United Kingdom
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	13 (55)	14 (57)	19 (66)	22 (72)	27 (81)	31 (88)	33 (91)	33 (92)	27 (80)	23 (74)	16 (61)	14 (57)	33 (92)
Average high °C (°F)	7 (44)	8 (46)	9 (49)	12 (53)	15 (59)	17 (62)	19 (66)	19 (67)	17 (63)	14 (57)	10 (50)	7 (45)	12.8 (55.1)
Average low °C (°F)	4 (39)	4 (39)	4 (40)	6 (43)	8 (47)	11 (52)	13 (56)	13 (56)	12 (53)	9 (49)	7 (44)	4 (39)	7.9 (46.4)
Record low °C (°F)	−10 (14)	−9 (16)	−9 (15)	−4 (24)	−2 (29)	2 (36)	4 (39)	3 (37)	0 (32)	−5 (23)	−7 (20)	−11 (12)	−11 (12)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	71.1 (2.80)	67.3 (2.65)	63.5 (2.50)	54.1 (2.13)	55.1 (2.17)	61.5 (2.42)	56.4 (2.22)	68.3 (2.69)	86.1 (3.39)	110.5 (4.35)	91.9 (3.62)	85.3 (3.36)	871.1 (34.3)
Source: MSN Weather[53]

Demography

Population

The Barrow council district, which includes adjacent urban areas, had a population of around 69,100 according to the 2011 census. This is 4% less than the 2001 figure of 71,900, and the highest percentage population loss in the country between 2001 and 2011.^[54][55] The Office for National Statistics states Barrow's population as being in long term decline with a projected population of around 65,000 by 2037. This is largely a result of negative net migration.^[56]

Ethnicity and language

The 2011 census states 96.9% of Barrow's population as White British, and ethnic minority populations in Barrow stood at 3.1%.^[57] Other ethnic groups in Barrow include Other White 1.3%, Asian 1.0%, Mixed Race 0.5%, Black 0.1%, Arab 0.1% and all other ethnic groups represented 0.1% of the population. The first people to settle in what is now Barrow were the Celts and Scandinavians followed by the Cornish. Most Barrovians however are descended from immigrants from Scotland, Ireland and other parts of England who arrived from the late 19th century onwards. Barrow has significant Chinese (in particular those originating from Hong Kong), Filipino, Indian, Thai and Kosovan communities as well as a Polish population which partly dates back to World War II, however in general Barrow has a much lower proportion of ethnic minorities than national average.^[57]

Barrow's Chinese connections were the subject of a documentary on Chinese state television in 2014.^[58] The programme covered diplomat Li Hongzhang's fact finding mission to the town's steelworks and shipyard in 1896 as well as the 2012 discovery of a hoard of Chinese coins discovered in Barrow dated around a similar time that have been suggested as having been brought over by sailors or labourers.^[58] The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding is a charity with a branch based in Barrow that aims to develop relations with the British Chinese community and the general British population. It was established in 1975 and publishes the quarterly China Eye magazine.

In 2011 93.2% of the borough's population was born in England, 2.6% in Scotland, 0.6% in Northern Ireland and 0.5% in Wales. 3.1% of the town's 2011 population were born elsewhere in the world, 1.3% of which were born in the European Union. The five most common foreign countries of birth were Poland, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, the Philippines and India.^[59]

According to the 2011 census, 98.8% of Barrovians spoke English as a main language, although around 40 languages are spoken in the town with Polish, Chinese, and Tagalog prevailing as the second, third and fourth most common main languages (0.3%, 0.2% and 0.1% of the population respectively).^[60] Of the 797 Barrovians who had a main language other than English, 82.9% can speak English well to very well.^[61]

Religion

In the 2011 census 70.7% of Barrow's population stated themselves as being Christian. People stating no religion or chose not to state totalled 28.4% combined. Other religious groups represented 0.9% of the population, with Islam and Buddhism prevailing as the first and second most common groups.^[62] Conishead Priory, the first Kadampa Buddhist centre in the west, is home to around 100 Buddhists and is located off the Barrow to Ulverston Coast Road within the South Lakeland district.^[63] Historically Barrow was home to a notable Ashkenazi Jewish community that peaked in size during the 1930s with a synagogue in the town. Despite this it closed in 1974 and only a dozen Jews were recorded by the 2011 census.^[64]

Economy

Historically Barrow's economy was dominated by the manufacturing sector, with the Barrow Hematite Steel Company and Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering being amongst the most important global companies in their respective fields during the 20th century. In the present day, manufacturing remains the largest employment sector in the town with BAE Systems being the single largest employer. However, like most of the UK, employment trends have greatly diversified since the 20th century and there are no other predominant employment sectors in Barrow.

Shipyard and port

Barrow has played a vital role in global ship and submarine construction for over 125 years. Ottoman submarine Abdül Hamid was built in the town in 1886 and became the first submarine in the world to fire a live torpedo underwater, while oil tanker British Admiral became the first British vessel to exceed 100,000 tonnes when launched in 1965. The vast majority of all current and former Royal Navy submarines were constructed in Barrow as well as numerous Royal Navy Fleet Flagships.

The BAE Systems Maritime – Submarines shipyard at Barrow is the largest in the UK by workforce ahead of BAE Systems Maritime – Naval Ships in Govan, Cammell Laird in Birkenhead and Harland and Wolff in Belfast. It was expanded in 1986 by construction of a new covered assembly facility, the Devonshire Dock Hall (DDH), completed by Alfred McAlpine, on land that was created by infilling part of the Devonshire Dock with 2.4 million tonnes of sand pumped from nearby Roosecote Sands.^[65] DDH is the tallest building in Cumbria at 51 m. With a length of 268 m (879 ft), width of 51 m (167 ft) and an area of 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft) it is one of the largest shipbuilding construction complex of its kind in Europe.^[66]

The DDH provides a controlled environment for ship and submarine assembly, and avoids the difficulties caused by building on the slope of traditional slipways. Outside the hall, a 24,300 tonne capacity shiplift allows completed vessels to be lowered into the water independently of the tide. Vessels can also be lifted out of the water and transferred to the hall.^[67] The first use of the DDH was for construction of the Vanguard-class submarines, and later vessels of the Trafalgar class were also built there. The shipyard is currently constructing the Astute-class submarines, the first of which was launched on 8 June 2007.^[68] BAE Systems is currently studying the design of a new class of ballistic missile submarines. BAE Systems also has orders for submarine pressure domes for the Spanish Navy.^[69]

The shipyard has been awarded contracts for the construction of submarines which will carry nuclear missiles in a successor programme to the current Vanguard-class containing the Trident system.^[70] Although only in the planning stage, BAE Systems has committed to the programme and is set to invest £300 million in Barrow's shipyard constructing buildings capable of constructing and assembling the new class of submarines. This major proposal is the largest in 25 years at the shipyard and will see thousands of new jobs created, further cementing its place as the UK's largest shipyard and one of the few to have seen continuous contracts since founding over a century ago.^[70]

The most recent surface vessels to be constructed in Barrow were Wave class tanker Wave Knight and Albion-class amphibious assault ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark in the early 2000s when the shipyard was part of BAE Systems Marine division. It also undertook fitting out and commissioning of helicopter carrier HMS Ocean in the mid-1990s after the ship was built by Kvaerner Govan in Glasgow.

Associated British Ports Holdings owns and operates the Port of Barrow which can berth vessels up to 200 m (660 ft) long and with a draught of 10 m (33 ft). The four main docks include Buccleuch Dock, Cavendish Dock, Devonshire Dock and Ramsden Dock, with the latter handling almost all of the port's cargo. Buccleuch and Devonshire Docks are utilised primarily by BAE Systems, while Cavendish Dock the largest by surface area is now a reservoir. Principal traffic includes the export of condensate by-product from the production of gas at the Rampside Gas Terminal, wood pulp and locally quarried limestone which is exported to Scandinavia for use in the paper industry. The port, which has deep water access, also handles the shipment of nuclear fuels and radioactive waste for BNFL's nearby Sellafield plant.^[71]

James Fisher & Sons, a service provider in all sectors of the marine industry and a specialist supplier of engineering services to the nuclear industry in the UK and abroad,^[72] was founded in Barrow in 1847.^[73] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is the largest company to have its headquarters situated in Cumbria.^[74] Annual revenue stood at £307 million in 2012 (up 15% from £268 million in 2011), as well as staff numbers standing at over 1,500 worldwide, with 120 of those in the Barrow headquarters.^[74][75] Numerous vessels are registered at the Port of Barrow, with the majority being owned by James Fisher & Sons and International Nuclear Services/Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited.

Energy generation

In 1985, gas was discovered in Morecambe Bay, and to this day the products have been processed onshore at Rampside Gas Terminal in south Barrow.^[76] The complex is operated jointly by Centrica and ConocoPhillips. Directly adjacent to Rampside Gas Terminal is Roosecote Power Station which was the first CCGT power station to supply electricity to the United Kingdom's National Grid. Although originally coal-fired, the statio became gas-fired until it was mothballed in 2015.

Barrow and its wider urban area form part of 'Britain's Energy Coast',^[77] and has one of the highest concentrations of wind farms in the world, the vast majority are located offshore and have been built during the early 2010s. All four of these wind farms are located off the coast of Walney Island, including the 108 turbine West Duddon wind farm, 102 turbine Walney Wind Farm, 30 turbine Barrow Offshore Wind Farm and 30 turbine Ormonde Wind Farm. Walney Wind Farm was the largest offshore wind farm in the world upon completion, in 2015 it received Government consent to be trebled in size. DONG Energy and Scottish Power maintain a wind farm operations base with 30 full-time staff members at the Port of Barrow.^[78]

Sellafield and Heysham nuclear power stations are also located within 25 miles (40 km) of Barrow.

Tourism and leisure

Being only around 20 minutes from the Lake District close to Coniston Water and Windermere,^[79] Barrow has been referred to as a 'gateway to the lakes' and 'where the lakes meets the sea',^[80] a status which could be enhanced by the new marina complex and planned cruise ship terminal.^[81]

Barrow itself has several tourist attractions that support just over 1,000 jobs, the town saw a higher growth in tourist expenditure during the 2000s than Cumbria as a whole and had approximately 2.3 million 'overnight stays' during 2008.^[82] Barrow's most popular free-entry tourist attraction is the Dock Museum. The museum tells the history of Barrow (including the steelworks industry, the shipyard and the Barrow Blitz), as well as offering gallery space to local artists and schoolchildren. It is built upon and around an old graving dock.^[83] Walney Island has two world-renowned nature reserves (the 130 hectare South Walney Nature Reserve^[84] and 650 hectare North Walney Nature Reserve).^[85] Both nature reserves have Site of Special Scientific Interest designation, as do the Duddon Estuary and Sandscale Haws to the north of the borough. Barrow's location at the tip of the Furness peninsula sees it host a number of beaches which are popular during summer months with sunbathers, kitesurfers and caravanners. They include Earnse Bay, Biggar Bank, Roanhead and Rampside, the former two of which provide views of the Isle of Man and Anglesey on exceptionally clear days.^[86] The Park Leisure Centre is a fitness suite with a pool, set in the 45-acre (18 ha) Barrow Park.^[87] The historic ruins of Furness Abbey and Piel Castle, which are both managed by English Heritage, are also popular tourist destinations. South Lakes Safari Zoo is one of Europe's leading conservation zoos and has been voted Cumbria's best tourist attraction for five non-consecutive years, it is located within the borough of Barrow-in-Furness on the outskirts of Dalton. The zoo underwent a multi-million pound expansion during the mid-2010s. It now holds thousands of animals and covers an area of 51-acre (21 ha) making it one of the north of England's largest such parks.^[88]

Barrow has been described as the Lake District's premier shopping town, with 'big name shops mingling with small local ones'.^[87] The town centre is home to a large indoor market^[89][90] and Portland Walk Shopping Centre.^[91] Barrow has a significant number of retail and leisure parks for a town of its size including Cornmill Crossing, Cornerhouse Retail Park, Hollywood Park, Hindpool Retail Park and Walney Road Retail Park.^[92][93] Between them they host a number of supermarkets, electrical, home furnishing, clothing and discount stores, gyms, restaurants and Cumbria's largest cinema. Other modern visitor attractions in Barrow include the growing leisure destination at James Freel Close (consisting of an indoor kart racing complex, bowling alley, indoor skate park, trampoline centre and gym), as well as 'Lazer Zone' in Hindpool Road's former Custom House.

Regeneration

Urban regeneration has been a major project in Barrow since the 1990s. The Portland Walk shopping street opened in 1998 as part of a major reconstruction of Barrow town centre. Around the same time the Hindpool Retail Parks and Dock Museum were constructed over various former industrial sites in the centre of Barrow, including the dry dock, the Barrow Jute Works and the Barrow Steel Works.^[94] Recent construction projects in the town also include Emlyn Hughes House in the Abbey Road Gateway regeneration and conservation area, the £43 million expansion of Furness College's Channelside campus,^[95] £22.5 million Furness Academy new build,^[96] £14.5 million central Barrow flood relief scheme,^[97] £8.5 million Barrow police station,^[98] £5 million town centre redevelopment scheme,^[99] £4 million Scottish Power Wind Farm operations centre^[78] as well as the North Central Renewal Area and shake up of the town's residential and retirement homes.^[100]

The Waterfront is an ambitious ongoing £200 million Dockland regeneration project, which began in 2007. The project includes a new 'Barrow Marina Village' which will incorporate an £8 million 400-berth marina, 600 houses, restaurants, shops, hotels and a new state of the art bridge across Cavendish Dock. A large watersports centre is also proposed, with the possibility of a cruise ship terminal. Some cruise ships are already scheduled to dock in Barrow, mainly for tourists to visit the Lake District, although there is no official cruise ship terminal yet.^[101] Developments have stalled since 2010 when the Northwest Regional Development Agency was disbanded and essential government funding was lost. Despite this Barrow Borough Council has since purchased land needed to make the development a reality and currently controls 95% of the site.^[102] The executive director of the council has stated construction of the Waterfront could resume by 2017 as economic prospects improve and has pledged funds to conduct a market testing exercise. The allocation of Growth Deal investment (2014 - 2021) will make improvements to the Barrow Waterfront Enterprise Zone far more secure ^[102] In 2014 a £300 million investment into the shipyard was announced by BAE Systems, in anticipation of the new generation of UK nuclear submarines.^[70][103] Construction will take up to eight years and create thousands of new jobs at the shipyard thereafter.^[70] Amongst proposals are an extension to the DDH complex and new buildings in the central yard area off Bridge Road on Barrow Island (a site formerly mooted for a huge construction hall for the construction of Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier sections which the yard failed to win contracts for), these will house pressure hull units ready for shot blasting and painting, and be a place for joining submarine equipment modules.^[103]

Other

Other major employers include the National Health Service, through Furness General Hospital, which employs 1,800 staff,^[104] the Kimberly Clark paper mill which has 400 employees,^[105] BAE Systems' Land and Armaments division, Furness Building Society which is one of the twenty largest of its kind, Cumbria County Council and Barrow Borough Council. Amongst many retailers that have established themselves in Barrow, the furniture store Stollers is noted as being one of the largest shops 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. This figure is higher than the North West and England average.^[106] 73.8% of the population was employed, which again is higher than regional and national average, the unemployment rate stood at 5.6% which is lower than both averages.^[106] Despite this the percentage of people claiming key benefits, which is independent of the unemployment figure is much higher than both averages at 21.0%, or almost a quarter of all Barrovians of a working age.^[106] The most common form of benefit received was the Incapacity Benefit claimed by 11.0% of the adult population, while 4.0% claimed Jobseeker's Allowance which is on par with national average.^[106]

Below is a list of how many people were employed by certain sectors according to the 2011 census. Little change has occurred over the 10-year period since the previous census with Barrow still having a much higher percentage of workers in the manufacturing sector than national average, ranking third in 2011 behind Corby, Northamptonshire and Pendle, Lancashire.^[107][108] South West Cumbria has one of the UK's most self contained workforces and Barrow itself has the sixth lowest portion of people who travel outside of the country for work.^[109] In 2001, 76% of the working age population in Barrow commuted within 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) for work, when compared to the England average of 54%.^[110] A significant portion of the town's population are employed by the nearby Sellafield nuclear facility and the GlaxoSmithKline plant in Ulverston.

• Manufacturing: 6,570 employed (21.0% of the town's working population)
• Wholesale and Retail Trade: 4,728 (15.1%)
• Human Health and Social Work: 4,539 (14.5%)
• Construction: 2,387 (7.6%)
• Education: 2,381 (7.6%)
• Accommodation and Food Service Activities: 1,962 (6.3%)
• Public Administration and Defence: 1,913 (6.1%)
• Transport and Storage: 1,296 (4.1%)
• Administrative and Support Service: 1,055 (3.4%)
• Professional, Scientific and Technical: 1,000 (3.2%)
• Information and Communication: 496 (1.6%)
• Financial and Insurance: 492 (1.6%)
• Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply: 441 (1.4%)
• Water Supply: 264 (0.8%)
• Real Estate: 221 (0.7%)
• Mining and Quarrying: 165 (0.5%)
• Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing: 122 (0.4%)
• Other: 1,225 (3.9%)

Transport

Road

Barrow's principal road link is the A590. This runs to Barrow from the M6 motorway via the Southern Lake District and Ulverston.^[111] Just north of Barrow is the southern terminus of the A595, linking the town to West Cumbria.^[111] The A5087 connects Barrow's southern suburbs to Ulverston via a scenic coastal route. The possibility of a bridge link over Morecambe Bay is occasionally raised, and feasibility studies have been carried out.^[112] Abbey Road is the principal road through central Barrow, whilst Walney Bridge connects Barrow Island to Walney Island.

Bus
Bus services within the town are operated by Stagecoach North West. There is no specifically designated bus station, although many buses start and terminate their routes near the town hall. The original bus station was known for its role in a 1970s television commercial for Chewits sweets before its demolition.^[113] As well as local suburban and village services, longer distance routes to operate to Millom, Ulverston, Bowness, Windermere and Kendal.

Rail

Barrow-in-Furness railway station provides connections to Whitehaven, Workington and Carlisle to the north, via the Cumbrian Coast Line and to Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands and Lancaster to the east, via the Furness Line – both of which connect to the West Coast Mainline. Numerous daily trains run to Manchester. The station handles over 600,000 passengers annually. Barrow has a second railway station, Roose, which serves the suburb of the same name.

Furness Abbey, Barrow's third main line station, closed in 1950. There was also a station on Barrow Island, used to enable workers to commute directly between the shipyard and nearby towns served by the Furness Railway. This railway link was severed in 1966 when the famous cradle bridge across the docks was closed permanently for safety reasons. Former stations also existed at Piel, Rabbit Hill, Rampside, Ramsden Dock and Strand.

Between 1885 and 1932, the Barrow-in-Furness Tramways Company operated a double-decker tram service over several miles primarily around central Barrow, Barrow Island and Hindpool.

Air
Barrow/Walney Island Airport operates two Beechkraft Kingair B200 and one B250 aircraft which fly to various destinations across the UK every weekday, including Bristol, Glasgow, London and Manchester. It is owned and operated by BAE Systems (IATA airport code: BWF, ICAO: EGNL) and the longest runway is almost 4,000 feet (1,200 m) long. Manchester Airport is the closest major airport, with direct links to Barrow railway station and taking around 2 hours by road to access.

Sea
Despite being one of the UK's leading shipbuilding centres, the Associated British Ports' Port of Barrow is only a minor port. Historically, the Isle of Man Steam Packet and Barrow Steam Navigation Company (a subsidiary of the Furness Railway and later London, Midland and Scottish Railway) operated a number of steamers and passenger ferry services between Rampside and Ramsden Dock and Ardrossan (Scotland), Belfast (Northern Ireland), Blackpool, Douglas (Isle of Man), Fleetwood and Heysham.^[114] All services had ceased operation by the mid-20th century. Proposals exist to construct a cruise ship terminal in Barrow as part of the Waterfront redevelopment project.^[115]

Sport

Football

Barrow A.F.C. are in the Conference National division of English football.^[116] The team, founded in 1901, are nicknamed "the Bluebirds" and play their home games at the Holker Street stadium.^[117] The side were members of the Football League until they failed to be re-elected in 1972.^[117] In 1990, they won the FA Trophy beating Leek Town 3-0 in the final at Wembley Stadium, London.^[118] Twenty years later, on 8 May 2010, Barrow repeated the feat, beating Stevenage Borough 2-1 after extra time.^[119] Barrow A.F.C. was bought by Texas-based businessman Paul Casson in 2014 with a 5-year plan of returning the team to the football league and completely redeveloping Holker Street, including the addition of three new stands.

Football players born in Barrow include England internationals Emlyn Hughes^[120] and Gary Stevens,^[121] as well as Harry Hadley,^[122] and Vic Metcalfe.^[123] Of current professional footballers, Wayne Curtis,^[124] Morecambe striker, and Iran Under-20 and Hibernian winger Shana Haji^[125] both hail from the town.

Holker Old Boys F.C., based at Rakesmoor Lane, are the town's second most successful football team, and they play in the North West Counties Football League Division One.

Rugby

Rugby league is a well-established sport and the town is considered as one of the game's traditional heartlands at professional and amateur levels.^[126] The professional team, Barrow Raiders, whose home games are at Craven Park, played in the Championship until 2011 but as of 2012, they now operate in the league below, known as Championship One. In the 1950s the side played in three Challenge Cup finals, winning the last of these against Workington Town. In the 1997 reorganisation of the sport the original Barrow RLFC team merged with Carlisle Border Raiders to form Barrow Border Raiders,^[127] with the word "border" later dropped. Players who were born in the town and played at a professional level include brothers Ade^[128] and Mat Gardner^[129] and Willie Horne.^[130] The latter captained Barrow to their Challenge Cup victory and represented Great Britain at an international level. He was inducted into the "Barrow Hall of Fame" along with former Barrow players Phil Jackson and Jimmy Lewthwaite.^[131]

At a local level, eight amateur rugby league teams participate in the Barrow & District League. They include Askam, Barrow Island, Dalton, Hindpool, Milliom, Roose Pioneers, Ulverston and Walney

Golf

Barrow is home to two large golf clubs. Barrow Golf Club, founded in 1922, is situated in Hawcoat and covers some 6,209 yards (5,678 m) with 18 holes.^[132] Furness Golf Club, founded in 1872, is the sixth oldest golf club in England and is possibly the more famous of the two. It is located on Walney Island, just 50 yards (46 m) from the Irish Sea. It also offers an 18-hole course, a shop and other facilities.^[133] The Furness Golf Centre is located on the outskirts of Barrow close to Roanhead and is home to a 14-bay driving range, golf shop, swing studio and the Fairway Hotel.^[134] The hoaxer Maurice Flitcroft, known as the "world's worst golfer" lived and worked in the town.^[135]

Other sports

Barrow has staged speedway racing at three venues since the pioneer days in the late 1920s. The first track was at Holker Street. This venue had a revival for a short spell in the early to mid-1970s being utilised by the short-lived Barrow Bombers. In 1930 the sport moved to Little Park but this a somewhat hazy venue. The sport had a revival in 1978 at Park Avenue Industrial Estate but this was relatively short lived. Barrow is home to the Walney Terriers American Football club, formed in 2011 the club originally trained at Memorial Fields on Walney Island before establishing a homeground at Hawcoat Park (formerly and still often called Vickers Sport Club). The Terriers play in the North West conference of the BAFA's National League alongside the likes of the Manchester Titans and Merseyside Nighthawks.

One of the town's most notable annual sporting events is the Keswick to Barrow (K2B), a 40-mile (60 km) walking and running event that has taken place every year since 1967 between Keswick and Barrow. The event has raised millions for charity and regularly sees in excess of 3,000 participants.^[136]

Culture

Barrow, although one of the country's smallest local authorities contains a wealth of natural and built heritage assets, which includes 274 Listed Buildings and four SSSIs. The 2015 Heritage Index formed by the Royal Society of Arts and the Heritage Lottery Fund placed the borough as seventh highest of 325 English districts with especially high scores relating to nationally important landscape and natural heritage assets and industrial heritage assets.^[137]

Architecture

Barrow is one of Britain's few planned towns.^[138] The town centre is distinguished by its Victorian era civic buildings, such as the Town Hall, Main Public Library, former Technical School, former Central Fire Station, Salvation Army Building, Custom House, National Westminster Bank, The Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, St. George's Church, St. Mary's RC Church and St. James' Church. Oppositely, several fine buildings have been demolished in Barrow since the mid-20th Century as a result of neglect or war damage, amongst the most iconic are Abbey Road Public Baths, Abbots Wood, Barrow Central Railway Station, Infield House, North Lonsdale Hospital, Scotch Buildings and the Waverley Hotel. Lancaster architects Sharpe, Paley and Austin were prolific during the development of Barrow. A number of Barrow's landmark buildings were constructed from locally sourced sandstone, evident from the high number of brown and red coloured stone buildings in the town. Similar materials were used in a number of local buildings in the early 20th Century, and often accompanied by terracotta. There is also an increasing number of modern office buildings as well as the shipyard's construction halls which dominate much of Barrow's skyline. Despite much of Barrow having been constructed from the late 19th to mid 20th centuries, architectural styles vary greatly across the town from the Art Deco John Whinnerah Institute to the Byzantine style St. John's Church, Neo-Elizabethan Abbey House and Tudor Revival Vickerstown estate.

Barrow has 8 Grade I listed buildings, 15 Grade II* and 249 Grade II buildings. The majority of Grade I listed buildings and structures are in and around the Furness Abbey complex while many Grade II* listed buildings in the town are 19th century tenements on Barrow Island including the Devonshire Buildings.^[139] There are a number of Conservation Areas across Barrow named as such for their architectural or historical significance, they include Barrow Island, Biggar, Central Barrow, Furness Abbey, North Scale, St. George's Square and Vickerstown.^[140] Historically Barrow's skyline was dominated by shipyard cranes and industrial chimneys, although little evidence of this remains in the present day with the last hammerhead crane – the iconic yellow crane of Buccleuch Dock – being dismantled in 2011, despite calls for listing status like the smaller Titan Clydebank in Glasgow. The tallest building in Barrow is Devonshire Dock Hall at 51 metres (167 ft). Also worth of note are the turbines of Ormonde Wind Farm located just off the coast of Barrow which stand at 152 metres (499 ft).

In terms of housing, the majority of dwellings in Barrow are Victorian terraces. At 47.0% of local housing stock in 2011, the figure is much higher than England's average of 24.5%. 29.7% of dwellings are semi-detached, 12.09% detached and 10.2% flats, maisonettes or apartments.^[141] Great variety in housing styles is a feature across central Barrow, Barrow Island, Hindpool, and Vickerstown. Most were built around a grid design in accordance with plans drawn up by James Ramsden.

Arts

Music

Barrow has produced several musical performers of note. They include Thomas Round, a singer and actor in D'Oyly Carte productions of Savoy Opera^[142] as well as Glenn Cornick, the original bass guitarist in the rock band Jethro Tull.^[143] Paul MacKenzie, bass player with 1980s Preston-based thrash metal band Xentrix, is from Barrow.^[144] More recently, hip-hop DJ and record producer Aim has had considerable commercial success.^[145]

Expressive arts
Several notables in Art and Literature have come from Barrow. Artist Keith Tyson, the 2002 Turner Prize winner, was born in nearby Ulverston, attended the Barrow-in-Furness College of Engineering and worked at the then VSEL shipyard.^[146] Constance Spry, the author and florist who revolutionised interior design in the 1930s and '40s, moved to the town with her son Anthony during World War I to work as a welfare supervisor.^[147] Peter Purves, later a Blue Peter presenter, began his acting career with 2 years as a member of the Renaissance Theatre Company at the town's Her Majesty's Theatre.^[148]

During the mid-20th century, Barrow contained a wealth of theatres/cinemas including the Coliseum, Electric Theatre, Essoldo, Her Majesty's Theatre, Hippodrome, Pavilion, Ritz, Roxy, Royalty Theatre and Tivoli. All but the Pavilion and Roxy have since been demolished, most recently in 2004 with the demolition of the Apollo (formerly the Ritz). The Canteen Media & Arts Centre – known simply as "The Canteen" – and The Forum are now the main venues for theatre, while the Vue Cinema in Hollywood Park is the only cinema in the town.

Literature
In fictional works, Barrow and Vickerstown on Walney Island featured in children's show The Railway Series, which developed into Thomas the Tank Engine, as the point where the fictional Island of Sodor connected to mainland Britain and the national rail network.^[149]

A number of the Lake Poets have referred to locations in present day Barrow, with one notable example being William Wordsworth's 1805 autobiographical poem The Prelude which describes his visits to Furness Abbey. The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote a series of sonnets called "Barrow-on-Furness" (sic). His "heteronym" Álvaro de Campos lived in Barrow when he was studying ship engineering, but Pessoa himself had never visited, and mistakenly assumed that "Furness" was the name of a river.^[150] According to narrative exposition in Chapter five of Dorothy L. Sayers' 1926 novel Clouds of Witness, Inspector Charles Parker, Lord Peter Wimsey's friend and eventual brother-in-law, attended Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School. Renowned novelist D. H. Lawrence was in Barrow during the outbreak of World War I and wrote about his experiences in the town. The 2015 novel Career of Evil by J. K. Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith was largely set in Barrow.^[151]

Media

Newspapers
There is one paid-for evening daily paper, the North West Evening Mail. There is also a weekly freesheet called the Advertiser, which is delivered to most households in the Furness area. Both are owned by independent publisher the CN Group, formerly Cumbrian Newspapers.^[152]

Radio
Barrow is served by one commercial radio station, The Bay, which is broadcast from Lancaster and serves the area around Morecambe Bay. Another commercial station, Abbey FM, ceased broadcasting in February 2009 when it went into administration.^[153] The BBC's local radio service is BBC Radio Cumbria, who have studio facilities in the town.^[154]

Television
Barrow lies in the Granada TV – North West England region with the main signal coming from the Winter Hill transmitter near Bolton. There is also a relay transmitter at Millom whose signal can be received in the northern end of the town.

Various television personalities were born in the district. Dave Myers was a biker born in Barrow, before he found fame as one half of television cookery duo the Hairy Bikers.^[155] Karen Taylor is a TV comedian best known for her BBC Three sketch show Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor.^[156] Steve Dixon is a newsreader for Sky News,^[157] while Nigel Kneale was a well-known film and television scriptwriter.^[158] The UK's top Thai demo chef and celebrity 'Chef Ooy' has also lived and worked in Barrow for the last 25 years.

Wartime diarist and local housewife Nella Last's memoirs were adapted for television, with parts of the town used in filming. The resulting programme, Housewife, 49, written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood, was broadcast by ITV in 2006. It won two BAFTA awards – one for Best Single Drama, the other for Best Actress (Victoria Wood).^[159][160] CITV children's show The Treacle People had two villains named Barrow and Furness.^[161] Myles Wright also was born in Barrow and lived in the nearby village of Marton.

Barrow-in-Furness is also the connection between the fictional Island of Sodor in the Thomas the Tank Engine TV series as well as the Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry of which the TV series is based.

Dialect and accent

Furness is unique within Cumbria and the local dialect and accent is fairly Lancashire-orientated. Until 1974 Furness was an exclave of Lancashire. As with Liverpool for example however, the Barrovian dialect has been influenced by large numbers of settlers from various regions. During the town's rapid growth from 1860 onwards, thousands came to Barrow from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and elsewhere in northern England. As Glaswegian and Geordie dialects mingled in Barrow numerous more migrated from Lancashire and other parts of England which in effect created the noticeably Northern Barrovian dialect. In general the Barrovian accent tends to drop certain letters (including H and T).

Nightlife

There are countless pubs and working men's clubs located across Barrow. Barrow has fourteen of the latter, one of the highest number per capita of any British town.^[162] There are also many bars and clubs found primarily in Barrow town centre on Duke Street and Cornwallis Street. Popular venues on Duke Street include the following bars: Jefferson's, the Buddha Bar, Bar Cairo and the Drawing Room. They did have a Yates's but the building was deemed unsafe and has since been demolished. Cornwallis Street – often dubbed the "Gaza Strip" by locals – is currently undergoing a multi-million pound renovation with the former Martini's being the flagship renovation into Club M. Other clubs on Cornwallis Street include: Kavanna's, O'Sullivan's and Skint. Between 2004 and 2010 Barrow was home to one of North West England's largest nightclubs, the 2,500 capacity Blue Lagoon occupied the entire hull of the former Danish ferry Princess Selandia which has now left the town.^[163] Barrow's largest nightclub is now Manhattans which opened on Cavendish Street in late 2011.^[164]

Food

A traditional favourite food in Barrow is the pie and particularly the meat and potato pie.^[165] Pie shops are common, and Green's of Jarrow Street is noted as a favourite of Barrow-born celebrity chef Dave Myers ^[166] and journalist Martin Tarbuck who declared them to be Britain's best pies in a book dedicated to the subject.^[167] A Barrovian meat and potato pie typically contains a higher proportion of potatoes than those from elsewhere, with lamb mince the usual meat. Barrovian pies tend to be relatively dry, with limited gravy, and are seasoned with salt and pepper.

Barrow was also the home of soft-drink company Marsh's, which produced a distinctive sarsaparilla flavoured fizzy drink known as Sass.^[168] Marsh's was purchased by Purity Soft Drinks of Birmingham in 1993, and the company stopped producing Sass in 1999. Remaining bottles have subsequently sold for high prices as a collector's item.^[169] A new product, labelled "Barrow Sass", was launched in 2014 in a bid to replicate traditional Sass.^[170] The coasts around Barrow have rich cockle beds from which cockles have traditionally been gathered, although numbers have been low following intensive gathering during the early 2000s, in the run up to the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster.^[171][172] One of England's few remaining Oyster farms can also be found located in the Biggar area of Walney. Traditional Cumberland sausages are less associated with Barrow itself than the rest of Cumbria, but are readily available from the surrounding rural area.^[173] Cumbria has produced a number of famed dishes and is home to countless Michelin Guide restaurants, one of which is located in Dalton.

Social issues

Lifestyle

Having emerged as mixture of working class cultures from across Britain and Ireland in the 19th Century, subsequent low levels of migration and a continued tradition of industrial employment mean that Barrow's culture still reflects many of the traditions of the British Working Class.^[174] In September 2008, Barrow was named as the most working class location in the United Kingdom, based on a series of measures devised to judge the lifestyle of the people.^[175] The research was carried out by Locallife.co.uk which determined that there is a fish and chip shop, working men's club, bookmakers or trade union office for every 2,917 people (Crewe, Doncaster, Wolverhampton and Preston completed the top five of 'the most working class places in Britain').^[176] This is in direct contrast to the 1870s when a developing Barrow had more aristocrats per head of the population than anywhere else in the country.^[175]

In the 2015 Indices of Deprivation, Barrow was ranked as the 44th most deprived district in England (out of a total of 326).^[177] The equivalent figures for 2007 and 2010 stood at 29th most deprived and 32nd most deprived respectively.^[178] The Indices of Deprivation is based on income, employment, education, health, crime and barriers to housing and services and living environment. Within these subcategories, most notably Barrow ranked as the 5th most deprived in terms of health deprivation and disability, and in huge contrast, 324th most deprived in terms of access to housing and services (i.e. 3rd least deprived).^[177] In the 2010 Indices of Deprivation, the majority of areas in Barrow Island, Central, Hindpool, Ormsgill were amongst the 3% most deprived areas in the country, while large parts of suburban Barrow including Newbarns and Roose were amongst the 25% of least deprived areas in England.^[178]

Health

The principal hospital in Barrow is Furness General Hospital which is operated by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust and located on the outskirts of the town. As of July 2010 there are 12 NHS GP practices/doctors surgeries and 5 NHS dental surgeries in Barrow.^[179] The average life expectancy for males in Barrow is 76.0 years (compared to England average of 77.7) and 80.9 years for females (again compared to national average of 81.8).^[180] The 2001 UK Census showed that 63.12% of Barrovians were in good health, 23.63% in fairly good health and 13.25% in bad health. This compared to England's averages of 68.76%, 22.21% and 9.03% respectively show that in general people in Barrow are in a slightly worse state of health than England as a nation.^[181] A 2009 NHS in depth publication of health in Barrow indicated that, eight years later the population of Barrow despite becoming healthier is still worse off than national average.^[180] The opening statement of the publication read 'The health of people in Barrow-in-Furness is varied. Many indicators are significantly worse than the England average, including violent crime and binge drinking adults (an estimate). However, a number of indicators are similar to the average, such as GCSE achievement and healthy eating adults (an estimate), and a fifth of indicators are significantly better than average, including physically active children and adults.'^[180] Barrow has the tenth worst rate of Incapacity Benefit claimants for mental illness in the country. The NHS also identified Barrow as having significantly worse figures than England average in the fields of deprivation, child poverty, violent crime, breast feeding initiation, children's tooth decay, binge drinking adults, over 65s 'not in good health', hospital stays for alcohol-related harm, male and female life expectancy, deaths from smoking and early deaths from cancer.^[180] Despite this, as stated earlier the number of physically active children and adults in Barrow is significantly better than England average, whilst the town also has much lower numbers of drug misusers, diabetes sufferers and road accident injuries and deaths.^[180] All other aspects of the health of Barrow's population have been stated as more or less level with nationwide average.^[180]

Crime

Law enforcement in Barrow is upheld by Cumbria Constabulary which alongside the county of Cumbria were formed in 1974. Prior to this the town was policed by Barrow-in-Furness Borough Police. Barrow currently has one full-time police station located on Market Street in the Central ward. A new multi-million pound building is however being constructed on James Freel Close on Channelside in Hindpool and will become the town's only police station upon completion, with extra jail cells and improved facilities. Several consecutive annual publications by Cumbria Constabulary titled the 'Cumbria Community Safety Strategic Assessment' have stated overall crime in Barrow to be on the decline with some indicators faring far better than national average.^[182] Despite this crime levels as a whole are higher than nationwide average with 2013 statistics stating crime levels in the borough as 16th worst in the UK with most notably Barrow having amongst the worst rates of alcohol misuse in the country.^[183] Between July and December 2013 Barrow saw an average of 7.39 crimes per 100 of the population, the UK average was 6.57.^[183] Incidents of anti-social behaviour stood at 7.83 per 100 in Barrow and 5.02 in the UK respectively also.^[183] Burglary averaged 0.53 per 100 in 2013 while nation average stood at 1.00 in 100. Robbery averaged 0.02 in Barrow and 0.07 nationwide, shoplifting 0.72 and 0.53 and vehicle crime at 0.31 and 0.58 respectively.^[183] Violent crimes and sexual offences occurred at a rate of 1.70 per 100, significantly higher than UK average of 1.06 and ranking the local authority 29th worst out of 348 in the country.^[183] Crime rates remain the highest in deprived areas of inner wards such as Central and Hindpool.^[182]

Education

Nursery schools	13
Infant schools	5
Junior schools	5
Primary schools	15
Secondary schools	3
All-through schools	1
Colleges	2

Education in the state-funded sector includes fifteen primary schools, five infant schools, five junior schools and many nurseries. The three secondary schools in the town are: Furness Academy, St. Bernard's Catholic High School and Walney School. Chetwynde School is an all-through school for children aged 4 to 18. Formerly an independent school, Chetwynde became a state-funded free school in 2014.

In the further education sector there are two colleges.^[184] Barrow-in-Furness Sixth Form College concentrates on teaching A-level subjects,^[185] while Furness College specialises in vocational courses.^[186] Although there is no higher education institution based in Barrow, Furness College teaches several foundation degrees and a small number of Bachelor's and Master's programmes accredited by the University of Cumbria, University of Lancaster and the University of Central Lancashire.^[187]

The town's main library is the Central Library in Ramsden Square, situated near the town centre.^[188] The library was established in 1882 in a room near the town hall, and moved to its current premises in 1922. A branch of the County Archive Service, opened in 1979 and containing many of the town's archives, is located within adjoining premises,^[189] whilst until 1991 the library also housed the Furness Museum, a forerunner of the Dock Museum.^[190] Smaller branch libraries are currently provided at Walney, Roose and Barrow Island.^[188]

See also

• Barrovian
• Borough of Barrow-in-Furness
• Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency)
• List of people from Barrow-in-Furness
• List of ships and submarines built in Barrow-in-Furness
• Listed buildings in Barrow-in-Furness
• List of places of worship in Barrow-in-Furness

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barrow-in-Furness.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Barrow-in-Furness.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Barrow-in-Furness.

Ceremonial county of Cumbria Cumbria Portal Boroughs or districts City of Carlisle Borough of Allerdale Borough of Barrow-in-Furness Borough of Copeland District of Eden District of South Lakeland Major settlements Alston Ambleside Appleby-in-Westmorland Aspatria Barrow-in-Furness Bowness-on-Windermere Brampton Broughton-in-Furness Carlisle Cleator Moor Cockermouth Dalton-in-Furness Egremont Grange-over-Sands Harrington Kendal Keswick Kirkby Lonsdale Kirkby Stephen Longtown Maryport Millom Penrith Sedbergh Silloth Ulverston Whitehaven Wigton Windermere Workington See also: List of civil parishes in Cumbria Topics Parliamentary constituencies Places SSSIs Country Houses Grade I listed buildings Grade II* listed buildings History Lord Lieutenants High Sheriffs Museums Schools

Districts and Wards of the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness Main settlements Barrow-in-Furness Dalton-in-Furness Districts Askam Biggar Foulney Island Holbeck Ireleth Lindal Marton Newton North Scale Piel Island Port Rampside Roa Island Roanhead Salthouse Sheep Island Vickerstown Yarlside Wards Barrow Island Central Barrow Dalton North Dalton South Hawcoat Hindpool Newbarns Ormsgill Parkside Risedale Roose Walney North Walney South Borough of Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria North West England United Kingdom

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