Furness - History

History

The oldest record of its name is Fuþþernessa about 1150. It probably came from Old Norse Fuðarnes = "Fuði's headland". The meaning of Old Norse fuð, which refers to the female sex organ, makes it clear that the man's name "Fuði" is a crude shipboard nickname with sexual reference, and not a formal name given by his parents.

Evidence of Roman inhabitation has remained low until recently, but archaeological surveys in Urswick have suggested that the local church dates to this time, and may even have been a monastery. It has also been claimed that this was the site of the birthplace of St Patrick. Furness was, prior to the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the area, part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde.

By the time of the Domesday Book, Furness was at the very north-western corner of William the Conqueror's kingdom, disputed by England and the Scots. The Domesday Book recorded twenty-six vills or townships forming the Manor of Hougun as being held by Earl Tostig. In the Domesday Book, Houganai or island of Hougun was also the name given to the adjacent Walney Island. Hougun (believed to derive from the Old Norse word haugr meaning hill or mound) was the name given to Furness.

As the border moved northwards, the status of Furness became more settled and the latter Middle Ages saw dominance by the monks of Furness Abbey. They owned much of the local land and administered the area from Dalton Castle, they also constructed Piel Castle. Buildings from this age are in the traditional sandstone of the region, which was later used for the gothic style town hall of Barrow-in-Furness in the Victorian era. At one stage, the power and wealth of Furness Abbey was exceeded in the United Kingdom only by Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds. However, the monastery fell to ruins during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. The Abbey's lands in Furness were passed to the Duchy of Lancaster in 1540.

Furness remained a remote farming and fishing district, accessible only across the dangerous sands of Morecambe Bay. William Wordsworth was among those who enjoyed the remote splendour of the area, writing a number of sonnets about local features such as Piel Castle and the River Duddon. The highland areas of High Furness began to experience tourism in the late 18th century, before the tourist boom of the Victorian era.

The fortunes of Furness changed dramatically in 1840s and 1850s, when William Schneider found iron ore deposits at Dalton-in-Furness, these deposits were spread throughout the Dalton area in Askam, Lindal & Roose as well as Dalton. The Furness Railway was built to transport this ore with the first line running from Kirkby to Dalton & then extended down to Rampside. Rampside was not suitable for the shipment of the ore so a later line was built from Dalton to the hamlet of Barrow., With the later extension of the line to Ulverston and that town's rail link to Lancaster it provided the area with its first safe transport route to the rest of England.

The iron ore and steelworks were, at their time, the biggest in the world. The population of Barrow-in-Furness rose from a few families to 47,000 by 1881, bypassing Dalton-in-Furness and Ulverston as the area's biggest town, and engulfing a number of smaller villages along the way. The Furness Railway expanded to the mining sites at Coniston and Greenodd, and helped develop Barrow along a unique town plan. Mining in Furness reached its peak in 1882, when 1,408,693 tons of ore were won. At the same time, the popularity of tourism in the Coniston and Hawkshead areas increased, popularised in part by the work of John Ruskin.

Tourism in High Furness was promoted by the writings of Beatrix Potter in the early part of the 20th century. Potter was one of the largest landowners in the area, eventually donating her many properties to the National Trust. In particular, sites such as Coniston Water, Tarn Hows and Windermere became popular.

Iron and steel soon gave over to shipbuilding in Low Furness, with Barrow's docks becoming one of the largest in the United Kingdom. In particular, submarine development became a speciality of the town, with the Royal Navy's first submarines built there. During the World Wars, this allowed Furness to escape many of the economic problems that other areas suffered, due to the constant work provided by the military. Although tourism declined, the rural areas of Furness were able to rely on agriculture for survival.

After World War II demand for ships and submarines remained high, while the development of the Lake District National Park fostered tourism further. Attractions such as the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, steamers on Windermere and Coniston Water, and fell walking, caused parts of Furness to become dependent on the tourist trade.

In the early 1990s, the decline of shipbuilding due to the end of the Cold War led to mass redundancies in the area. The shipyard's employment figures fell from 20,000 to 3,000 in a twenty year period. However, the shipyard in Barrow remains England's busiest and the only nuclear submarine facility in the country. Tourism has increased even more, with the Aquarium of the Lakes and South Lakes Wild Animal Park among the newer attractions.

Transport has become an increasingly controversial issue, with conservation groups and local business clashing over the need for improvements to the A590 trunk road, the main link to the M6 Motorway. Proposals for a road bridge over Morecambe Bay have appeared, but are yet to progress beyond the planning stages.