Overview of Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness, historically a part of Lancashire, is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies 49 mi (79 km) north of Liverpool, 59 mi (95 km) northwest of Manchester and 54 mi (87 km) southwest from the county town of Carlisle. The town is situated at the tip of the Furness peninsula bordered by Morecambe Bay, the Duddon Estuary and the Irish Sea. It has a population of 59,182 (making it the largest town in Cumbria) whilst the wider borough is home to 71,981 people. In the Middle Ages, Barrow was a small hamlet within the parish of Dalton-in-Furness. Furness Abbey, on the outskirts of the modern day town, controlled the local economy before its dissolution in 1537. Even as late as 1843 there were still only 32 dwellings including two pubs. 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 in 1850, of sufficient size to develop factories for smelting and exporting steel. By the late 19th century, Barrow was home to the largest steelworks in the world. 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. The Royal Navy flagships HMS Hermes, HMS Invincible and HMS Albion as well as all four Vanguard-class submarines, which carry Trident nuclear weapons, were manufactured at the facility. From the 1960s the shipyard increasingly specialised in the construction of nuclear-powered submarines. However with the end of the Cold War and subsequent decrease in military spending the town suffered high unemployment through lack of contracts, despite this the shipyard remains operational and the only submarine production facility in the UK.