Barrow in Furness: Cumbria's Submarine Town at the End of the Line
Barrow in Furness sits on the tip of the Furness peninsula in south Cumbria, almost completely surrounded by water. Morecambe Bay lies to the south, the Duddon Estuary to the west, and Walney Island, connected by a bridge, shields the town from the Irish Sea. The population is about 57,000. Barrow barely existed before the 1840s. It grew explosively with the arrival of the Furness Railway and iron ore extraction, and by the 1870s it was the fastest-growing town in England. Today, the town's economy is dominated by a single employer: BAE Systems, which builds Britain's nuclear submarines at the Devonshire Dock Hall. The Dreadnought-class programme currently under construction secures thousands of jobs for decades to come. The shipyard is quite literally the reason Barrow exists at its current scale.
The town centre along Dalton Road and Duke Street has a Victorian grid layout. The Dock Museum, built over the original graving dock, tells the industrial story well and is free to enter. Walney Island has a nature reserve at its southern tip with breeding colonies of lesser black-backed and herring gulls. The railway line runs to Lancaster and onward to Preston and Manchester, though the journey is slow. The A590 is the sole road link to the M6, and it can bottleneck. Barrow is geographically isolated for a town its size, which gives it a distinct identity. For those considering adult companionship in the Furness area, Barrow is essentially the only option locally, with Lancaster the nearest alternative about 30 miles to the east.
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Barrow in Furness sits on the tip of the Furness peninsula in south Cumbria, almost completely surrounded by water. Morecambe Bay lies to the south, the Duddon Estuary to the west, and Walney Island, connected by a bridge, shields the town from the Irish Sea. The population is about 57,000. Barrow barely existed before the 1840s. It grew explosively with the arrival of the Furness Railway and iron ore extraction, and by the 1870s it was the fastest-growing town in England. Today, the town's economy is dominated by a single employer: BAE Systems, which builds Britain's nuclear submarines at the Devonshire Dock Hall. The Dreadnought-class programme currently under construction secures thousands of jobs for decades to come. The shipyard is quite literally the reason Barrow exists at its current scale.
The town centre along Dalton Road and Duke Street has a Victorian grid layout. The Dock Museum, built over the original graving dock, tells the industrial story well and is free to enter. Walney Island has a nature reserve at its southern tip with breeding colonies of lesser black-backed and herring gulls. The railway line runs to Lancaster and onward to Preston and Manchester, though the journey is slow. The A590 is the sole road link to the M6, and it can bottleneck. Barrow is geographically isolated for a town its size, which gives it a distinct identity. For those considering adult companionship in the Furness area, Barrow is essentially the only option locally, with Lancaster the nearest alternative about 30 miles to the east.
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