UK Genealogy Archives logo
DISCLOSURE: This page may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we may receive a commission.

Barrow in Furness, Lancashire

Historical Description

Barrow, or Barrow-in-Furness, a seaport town and a parish, also a municipal, parliamentary, and county borough in Lancashire, returning one member to Parliament under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885. The town stands on the Furness railway, opposite Walney Island, 8 miles SW of Ulverstone. It was only a village, with a population of 325, in 1847; in 1891 it had 51,712 inhabitants, and the area of the municipal and parliamentary borough was 10,987 acres. Barrow owed its rise mainly to the rapid development of mineral wealth in its vicinity, and to the construction of a grand artificial harbour, with docks and wharves. The docks consist of a series called the "Devonshire," " Buccleuch," "Cavendish," and "Ramsden," all communicating, and comprise 274 acres of water, with a depth of water inside of 24 feet. The imports are chiefly timber, iron ore, coal, grain, petroleum, jute, and cattle. The town has a long range of blast furnaces, extensive foundries and steel works, large timber yards, shipbuilding yards, wood pulp works, and jute mills; draws from neighbouring mines large quantities of iron ore, and converts a considerable quantity of pig-iron into steel by the Bessemer and other processes. The chief exports are pig-iron, steel rails, and iron ore. The number of vessels registered as belonging to the port in 1893 was 140 (65,992 tons). The entries and clearances each average 1700 (450,000 tons) per annum. Steamers leave daily for Belfast all the year round, and for Douglas, Isle of Man, during the summer. The town is built on a regular plan, chiefly with streets crossing at right angles; and has a head post office, with telegraph, built in 1891, a fine new railway station, three banks, and publishes two newspapers. Markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There is a spacious town-hall and municipal buildings, including a free public library, reading-room, and museum, erected in 1886-88 at a cost of about £70,000 a working men's club and institute and library, two hospitals, a theatre, a police office, and a custom house. The town is well lighted, and has a plentiful supply of good water, both the gas and water works being the property of the corporation. A handsome bronze statue to Sir James Ramsden in Duke Street was raised by public subscription in 1871, and cost £3000; a similar one of the late Lord Frederick Cavendish was unveiled in 1885, the cost of which was also defrayed by public subscription; and there is another of H. W. Schneider, Esq., many times mayor of Barrow, and original discoverer of the hematite ore in the district. There are six churches, two Baptist, three Congregational, a Catholic Apostolic, ten Methodist, Presbyterian, and Welsh Presbyterian chapels, and a Roman Catholic church; also board schools, a high school for girls, and a science and art school. In addition to the old parishes of St George's and St James', four ecclesiastical parishes were formed in 1877, and named after the four evangelists. The living of St George's is a vicarage; net yearly value, £537 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Carlisle; of St James', also a vicarage; yearly value, £300 with residence, in the gift of trustees. The livings of the other four churches are likewise vicarages; value of each about £300, in the gift of the trustees. There are also the three additional parishes of St Paul's, net value, £200 with residence; St Mary's, Isle of Walney, net value, £160 with residence; and St Michael's, net value, £120 with residence. Patron, the Vicar of Dalton. The ancient Abbey of Furness is within the borough, and is a very fine and well kept ruin.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyLancashire 
Civil parishDalton 
HundredLonsdale north of the Sands 
Poor Law unionUlverston 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Barrow in Furness from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: