History of Barrow-in-Furness

History Of Barrow-in-Furness

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

Barrow-in-Furness, (/ˈbæroʊ ɪn ˈfɜrnəs/; commonly known as Barrow) is a large industrial town and seaport in the county of Cumbria, England, historically part of Lancashire. Incorporated as a Municipal borough in 1867 it merged with adjacent districts in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. The town is situated at the tip of the Furness peninsula close to the Lake District bordered by Morecambe Bay, the Duddon Estuary and the Irish Sea. In 2011 Barrow's population stood at around 70,000, making it the second largest settlement in Cumbria after Carlisle.

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.

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 the only one to manufacture submarines.

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. The UK's second-largest natural gas field is located off the coast of Barrow and gas has been landed and processed in the town since the 1980's.