Walney Island - History

History

Excavations of sand dunes on Walney have revealed evidence of Late Neolithic/early Bronze Age settlements on the island, including a small amount of pottery. Low Furness was most extensively inhabited by Norse settlers, likely travelling from Ireland or the Isle of Man, which is reflected in many local place names, including Walney. Through the Middle Ages, Walney and Furness were dominated by the monks of Furness Abbey, who constructed Biggar Bank as flood defences on the west coast of Walney. During this time, Walney was largely pastoral, and remained so into the early Industrial Revolution: in his 1810-book Guide to the Lakes, William Wordsworth describes seeing "Walney's early fields of corn" from the summit of Black Combe.

However, Walney was soon caught up in the rapid expansion of industry at Barrow-in-Furness. Barrow docks were built on Barrow Island, in Walney Channel. The island acted as a natural shelter, which allowed the development of Barrow's large shipbuilding yards. In the 1870s, Biggar Bank became a popular seaside recreation site on Walney, and this was reinforced when a regular ferry, operated by the Furness Railway Company, was launched. In 1897, in response to the high levels of immigration to Barrow from across the UK, Vickers proposed to build a new planned town on Walney Island. At the same time, other developers imagined developing Biggar into a larger seaside resort. The first tenants moved into Vickerstown in 1900, and this saw the beginning of the integration of Walney as part of the town of Barrow. Walney Bridge, a Bascule bridge was built in this decade, opening in 1908 and connecting the island to the mainland.

Walney continued to grow through the twentieth century, with a number of suburban housing developments on the island. The majority of growth occurred between the building of the 'Links' estate in 1936, and the completion of suburban housing at North Scale in 1976. The recreational facilities at Biggar Bank were scaled back, but the island's beaches remain locally popular. Walney's population in the 2001 census was 11,388, representing 15% of the overall population of the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness and around 19% of the population of the town of Barrow-in-Furness.

Read more about this topic:  Walney Island

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.
    Milan Kundera (b. 1929)

    It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
    Henry James (1843–1916)

    Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)