Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is a town in Cumbria, England. It is the main town in the borough of Barrow-in-Furness, which has an overall population of 71,980 (2001 censushttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pyramids/pages/16uc.asp). It is considered the "capital" of Furness, though this remains a cultural/geographical district, with no administrative whole.

History

The name 'Barrow' is supposedly a corruption of the Norse meaning 'Barren Island', which would have originally referred to Barrow Island, now part of the town's dock system. During the Middle Ages, the area was dominated by the powerful monks of Furness Abbey, just outside the modern Barrow. Until 1845, Barrow was still one of several small villages on the Furness peninsula, relying on agriculture and fishing. Access was difficult, as the peninsula is surrounded on three sides by the trecherous sands of Morecambe Bay and the Duddon Estuary, and on the other side by the mountains of the Lake District.

Related Topics:
Barrow Island - Furness Abbey - 1845 - Furness - Morecambe Bay - Duddon - Lake District

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This changed in 1846 when the Furness Railway was constructed and a rail ferry connected this to the national network at Fleetwood. Rapid expansion occurred thanks to iron ore mining. The iron ore, found in Roose, Dalton-in-Furness and Lindal-in-Furness, was brought to Barrow to be transported by sea. Steelworks soon followed, making use of coal from the Cumberland mines. The iron and steel works were the largest in the world and from being a sleepy hamlet, Barrow's population grew to 47,000 by 1881, just forty years after the railway was built.

Related Topics:
1846 - Furness Railway - Fleetwood - Iron ore - Mining - Roose - Dalton-in-Furness - Lindal-in-Furness - Steelworks - Coal - Cumberland - 1881

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Barrow remains one of the few planned towns in the United Kingdom, and is certainly one of the oldest. Its town centre contains a grid of well-built terraced houses, with long tree-lined roads leading away from central squares. The planning was largely devised by James Ramsden of the Furness Railway company. At the time, the railway owned the gothic style Town Hall, areas of the newly developed shipyard and many of the local houses.

Related Topics:
Planned towns - United Kingdom - James Ramsden - Furness Railway - Shipyard

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The docks were built, overseen by Ramsden, on Barrow Island, with the first steamship produced in 1870. Ramsden also founded the Barrow Shipbuilding Company, which became Vickers in 1897. The shipyard took over from the railway and steelworks as the largest employer and land owner in Barrow, constructing Vickerstown on the adjacent Walney Island in the early twentieth century.

Related Topics:
1870 - Vickers - 1897 - Vickerstown - Walney Island - Twentieth century

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During the two world wars, Barrow shipyard continued to grow, with the town's population peaking at 74,000 in 1931. Following World War II, the town's fortunes remained linked to those of the shipyard. Famous ships built in Barrow include the Mikaska, Japanese flagship during the Russo-Japanese War and the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible, though the yard gradually specialised in submarines. The Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, was built in Barrow in 1901, and nuclear submarines such as HMS Resolution were developed from the 1960s.

Related Topics:
1931 - World War II - Japan - Russo-Japanese War - HMS Invincible - Submarine - Royal Navy - 1901 - 1960

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Gas found in Morecambe Bay and the Irish Sea has been piped to Barrow since 1974, entering the National Grid at the power plant in the 'Roosecote' area of Barrow.. Wind turbines currently being built in the Irish Sea off the coast of Walney Island will send their electricty to Heysham, rather than Barrow, due to a lack of capacity at the Barrow terminus. The iron and steelworks, suffering from overseas competition and dwindling resources, continued to decline. The ironworks closed in 1963, three years after the last Furness mine shut. The then small steelworks followed suit in 1984.

Related Topics:
Morecambe Bay - Irish Sea - 1974 - National Grid - Heysham - 1963 - 1984

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The end of the Cold War marked a reduction in the demand for military submarines and ships, and the town entered a period of decline. Emplyoment figures for the shipyard fell from over 20,000 at the start of the 1980s to just 3,000 in 2000. Nevertheless, the shipyard is now one of the few remaining facilities in the UK having the capacity to build nuclear submarines. It is England's busiest shipyard and contains Europe's biggest ship building hall.

Related Topics:
Cold War - 1980 - 2000 - UK - Nuclear submarine - England - Europe

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In 2002 Barrow suffered the UK's worst outbreak of legionnaires' disease. Six women and one man died as a result of the illness, another 172 people also contracted the disease. The cause was found to be faulty air conditioning at the town's Forum 28 arts centre.

Related Topics:
2002 - Legionnaires' disease - Air conditioning

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Though Barrow remains a poor town - it has some of the lowest house prices in England - some regeneration has occurred on the old dock land, with developments for a marina and dockside housing and entertainment complexes beginning to enter the construction phase.

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