Barrow-in-Furness

History part 1

The Town of Barrow in Furness - 1780 to 1930

It was said of the town in the early 1900's, that Barrow was the English Chicago as it had grown in population from 50 to over 80,000 in a matter of 60 years.

In about 1780 there were five farmsteads in Barrow and in 1801 this had increased to 11 dwellings along with grocers and a general store, tailors  & schoolmaster; by 1822 it had increased to 20 dwellings. By 1841 Barrow was a hamlet of about 30 cottages whose residents lived on agriculture, personal fishing in Morecambe bay, and in an embryo port supplying the needs of the Furness peninsula. There were two Inns, a brewery, lime kilns and four staves used to load iron ore onto boats moored in Barrow Channel situated between Barrow Island and the mainland.

This mini landing place must have been considered important even in the Monastic period as the Monks of nearby Furness Abbey built a small castle or more likely a fortified Warehouse in 1327 on Piel Island, situated at the entrance to Barrow channel. This was done to protect their sea trade with the rest of England from the marauding Scots & Irish.

It should be noted that the names Old Barrow and Barrow Island are synonymous.

In about 1745 the Backbarrow Iron Company was bringing some of its iron ore to Barrow for shipment. Quantities did not really increase until 1782 when the Newland Iron Co. made Barrow their principal port, and in 1827 there were 20 to 30 carts of ore were being taken each day to the loading stathes, sometimes twice each day. This early trade in iron ore would eventually lead to the steady expansion of the town.

The carting of iron ore gave an opportunity to many local people to earn some extra money. As the quantity of ore being mined increased so more & more of the population became involved. It was not a full time occupation as the ore could only be moved when the local cart tracks were dry enough to permit the passage of a heavily laden cart. The arrival of the railway greatly increased the efficiency of ore transportation but it put an end to this income for many Furness families.

Barrow started life as a hamlet within the Parish of Dalton along with Hawcoat, Newbarns, Cocken, Hindpool, Ormsgill, Salthouse & Rampside all of which would eventually be merged into the expanding town along with the small number of tenements on Barrow Island. The elected representatives of the various functions organised within the Church social structure, carried out the administration of the parish. The large & ancient parish of Dalton was divided into four Quarters and these divisions were named Dalton Proper, Above Town, Yarlside and Hawcoat, Barrow grew out of the Hawcoat and Yarlside divisions. Each division or quarter was represented by six sidesmen, the whole known as "the four and twenty of the Parish of Dalton."

This form of local government lasted until 1872 but by then Barrow had separated from Dalton as a new Borough by the order of a Privy Council charter in 1867.

The availability of charcoal made from the woods of high Furness was a factor in early iron making. This component was soon exhausted as mining methods improved thus enabling larger quantities of ore to be taken.

The Furness peninsula contained all the necessities for making iron from the quantities of high-grade ore found in the area and this was the basis of the expansion facilitated by the arrival of the railway starting in 1846. So instead of exporting the local hematite ore elsewhere it was more economical to make the good quality iron here and then export this to the consumers

The Schneider brothers found the fabulously rich hematite deposits at Parkside near Askam in 1851 and by 1870 the mines were producing 350,000 tons of ore each year

H.W.Schneider & Robt.Hannay built the first of three Bessemer blast furnaces at Hindpool in 1857 and this started the change of Barrow from a village to a rapidly expanding industrialised town.

In 1864 James Ramsden registered the use of the first Bessemer process at Barrow and this was amalgamated with the Schneider & Hannay operation in 1866. By 1876 there were 16 furnaces producing 500 tons of steel each week, and at this time it was the largest Iron & Steel works in the world.

The hamlet of Cocken eventually disappeared under the slagheap of this company.