Early history Barrow and the surrounding area have been settled non-continuously for several millennia, with evidence of
Neolithic inhabitants on
Walney Island. Despite a rich history of
Roman settlement across Cumbria and the discovery of related artefacts in the Barrow area, no buildings or structures have been found to support the idea of a functioning Roman community on the
Furness peninsula. The
Furness Hoard discovery of
Viking silver coins and other artefacts in 2011 provided significant archaeological evidence of
Norse settlement in the early 9th century. Several areas of Barrow, including
Yarlside and
Ormsgill, as well as "Barrow" and "Furness", have names of
Old Norse origin. The
Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the settlements of Hietun, Rosse, and Hougenai, which are now the districts of
Hawcoat,
Roose, and
Walney respectively. , one of England's most powerful monasteries in the Middle Ages In the
Middle Ages, the Furness peninsula was controlled by the
Cistercian monks of the Abbey of St Mary of Furness, known as
Furness Abbey. This was in the "Vale of Nightshade", now on the outskirts of the town. Founded for the
Savigniac order, it was built on the orders of
King Stephen in 1123. Soon after the abbey's foundation, the monks discovered iron ore deposits, which later provided the basis for the Furness economy. These thin strata, close to the surface, were extracted through open-cut workings, which were then smelted by the monks. The proceeds from mining, along with agriculture and fisheries, meant that by the 15th century the abbey had become the second richest and most powerful Cistercian abbey in England, after
Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. The monks of Furness Abbey constructed a wooden tower on nearby
Piel Island in 1212 which acted as their main trading point; it was twice invaded by the Scots, in 1316 and 1322. In 1327, King
Edward III gave Furness Abbey a
licence to
crenellate the tower, and a
motte-and-bailey castle was built. However, Barrow itself was just a hamlet in the parish of
Dalton-in-Furness, reliant on the land and sea for survival. Small quantities of iron and ore were exported from jetties on the channel separating the village from Walney Island. Aside from Furness Abbey and Piel Castle, the oldest surviving buildings in Barrow are cottages and farmhouses in
Newbarns and
Ormsgill, which date back to the early 17th century; as well as
Rampside Hall, a
Grade I listed building and the best-preserved in the Barrow area from the 1600s. Even as late as 1843, there were still only 32 dwellings, including two pubs.
19th century circa. 1877 In 1839,
Henry Schneider arrived as a young speculator and dealer in iron, and he discovered large deposits of
haematite in 1850. He and other investors founded the
Furness Railway, the first section of which opened in 1846, to transport the ore from the slate quarries at
Kirkby-in-Furness and haematite mines at
Lindal-in-Furness and
Askam and Ireleth to a deep-water harbour near
Roa Island. The crucial and difficult link across
Morecambe Bay between
Ulverston and
Carnforth on the main line was promoted, as the
Ulverston and Lancaster Railway, by a group led by
John Brogden and opened in 1857. It was promptly purchased by the Furness Railway. The docks built between 1863 and 1881 in the more sheltered channel between the mainland and
Barrow Island replaced the port at Roa Island. The first dock to open was
Devonshire Dock in 1867, and Prime Minister
William Ewart Gladstone stated his belief that "Barrow would become another Liverpool". The increasing quantities of iron ore mined in Furness were then brought into the centre of Barrow to be transported by sea. in 1875 The investors in the burgeoning mining and railway industries decided that greater profits could be made by smelting the iron ore and converting the resultant pig iron into steel, and then exporting the finished product. Schneider and
James Ramsden, the railway's general manager, erected
blast furnaces at Barrow that by 1876 formed the largest steelworks in the world. Its success was a result of the availability of local iron ore and coal from the
Cumberland mines and easy rail and sea transport. The Furness Railway, which counted local aristocrats
the 7th Duke of Devonshire and the
Duke of Buccleuch as investors, kick-started the
Industrial Revolution on the peninsula. The railway brought mined ore to the town, where the steelworks produced large quantities of steel. It was used for shipbuilding, and derived products such as rails were also exported from the newly built docks. though sources suggest that Barrow's population was still as low as 700 in 1851. During the first half of the 19th century, Barrow formed part of the parish of
Dalton-in-Furness, the population of which shows some of Barrow's early growth from the 1850s:
Population of the Parish of Dalton-in-Furness By the turn of the 20th century, the Scottish-born population had increased to form the highest portion anywhere in England. Other notable immigrant groups included Cornish people who represented 80% of the district of Roose's population at the time of the 1881 census. In an attempt to diversify Barrow's economy James Ramsden founded the Barrow and Calcutta Jute Company in 1870 and the
Barrow Jute Works was soon constructed alongside the Furness Railway line in
Hindpool. The mill employed 2,000 women at its peak and was awarded a gold medal for its produce at the 1878 Paris
Exposition Universelle. The sheltered strait between Barrow and Walney Island was an ideal location for the shipyard. The first ship to be built, the
Jane Roper, was launched in 1852; the first steamship, a 3,000-ton liner named
Duke of Devonshire, in 1873. Shipbuilding activity increased, and on 18 February 1871, the Barrow Shipbuilding Company was incorporated. Barrow's relative isolation from the United Kingdom's industrial heartlands meant that the newly formed company included several capabilities that would usually be subcontracted to other establishments. In particular, a large engineering works was constructed, including a foundry and pattern shop, a forge, and an engine shop. In addition, the shipyard had a joiners' shop, a boat-building shed and a sailmaking and rigging loft. During these boom years, Ramsden proposed building a
planned town to accommodate the large workforce that had arrived. There are few planned towns in the United Kingdom, and Barrow is one of the oldest. Its centre contains a grid of well-built terraced houses, with a tree-lined road leading away from a central square. Ramsden later became the first mayor of Barrow, which was given
municipal borough status in 1867, and county borough status in 1889. The imposing red sandstone
town hall, designed by W.H. Lynn, was built in a neo-gothic style in 1887. Before this, the borough council had met at the railway headquarters: the railway company's control of industry extended to the administration of the town itself. The Barrow Shipbuilding Company was taken over by the
Sheffield steel firm of
Vickers in 1897, by which time the shipyard had surpassed the railway and steelworks as the largest employer and landowner in Barrow. The company constructed
Vickerstown, modelled on
George Cadbury's
Bournville, on the adjacent Walney Island in the early 20th century to house its employees. It also commissioned
Sir Edwin Lutyens to design
Abbey House as a guest house and residence for its managing director, Commander Craven.
20th century was commissioned by Vickers and designed by Sir
Edwin Lutyens ), a
retail park now exists on the site By the 1890s, the shipyard was heavily engaged in the construction of warships for the Royal Navy and also for export. The Royal Navy's first submarine,
Holland 1, was built in 1901, and by 1914 the UK had the most advanced submarine fleet in the world, with 94% of it constructed by Vickers. Vickers was also famous for the construction of
airships and
airship hangars during the early 20th century. Originally constructed in a large shed at Cavendish Dock, production was later relocated to
Barrow/Walney Island Airport.
HMA No. 1, nicknamed the Mayfly, is the most notable airship to have been built in Barrow. The first of its kind in the UK it came to an untimely end on 24 September 1911 when it was wrecked by wind during trials. Well-known ships built in Barrow include , the Japanese flagship during the 1905
Russo-Japanese War, the liner and the aircraft carriers and . It should also be noted that there was a significant presence of Vickers' armament division in Barrow with the huge
Heavy Engineering Workshop on Michaelson Road supplying ammunition for the
British Army and
Royal Navy throughout both world wars. World War 1 brought significant temporary migration as workers arrived to work in the munitions factory and shipyard, with the town's population reaching an estimated peak of around 82,000 during the War. During World War II, Barrow was a target for the
German air force looking to disable the town's shipbuilding capabilities (see
Barrow Blitz). The town suffered the most in a short period between April and May 1941. During the war, a local housewife,
Nella Last, was selected to write a diary of her experiences on the home front for the
Mass-Observation project. Her memoirs were later adapted for television as
Housewife, 49 starring
Victoria Wood. The difficulty in targeting bombs meant that the shipyards and steelworks were often missed, at the expense of the residential areas. Ultimately, 83 people were killed and 11,000 houses in the area were left damaged. To escape the heaviest bombardments, many people in the central areas left the town to sleep in hedgerows, with some being permanently evacuated. Barrow's industry continued to supply the war effort, with
Winston Churchill visiting the town on one occasion to launch the
aircraft carrier . Besides the dozens of civilians killed during World War II, some 268 Barrovian men were also killed whilst in combat. however, by this point the long decline of mining and steel-making as a result of overseas competition and dwindling resources had already begun. The Barrow ironworks closed in 1963, three years after the last Furness mine shut. The by then small steelworks followed suit in 1983, leaving Barrow's shipyard as the town's principal industry. From the 1960s onwards, it concentrated its efforts on submarine manufacture, and the UK's first nuclear-powered submarine, , was constructed in 1960. , the , and s all followed. The last of these are armed with
Trident II missiles as part of the British government's
Trident nuclear programme. The end of the Cold War in 1991 marked a reduction in the demand for military ships and submarines, and the town continued its decline. The shipyard's dependency on military contracts at the expense of civilian and commercial engineering and shipbuilding meant it was particularly hard hit as government defence spending was reduced dramatically. As a result, the workforce shrank from 14,500 in 1990 to 5,800 in February 1995, with overall unemployment in the town rising over that period from 4.6% to 10%. The rejection by the
VSEL management of detailed plans for Barrow's industrial renewal in the mid-to-late 1980s remains controversial. This has led to renewed academic attention in recent years to the possibilities of converting military-industrial production in declining shipbuilding areas to the offshore renewable energy sector.
21st century In a 2002
outbreak of legionellosis in the town, 172 people were reported to have caught the disease, of whom seven died. This made it the fourth-worst outbreak in the world in terms of number of cases and sixth worst in terms of deaths. The source of the bacteria was later found to be steam from a badly maintained air conditioning unit in the council-run arts centre
Forum 28. At the conclusion of the inquest into the seven deaths, the coroner for Furness and South Cumbria criticised the council for its health and safety failings. In 2006, council employee Gillian Beckingham and employer
Barrow Borough Council were cleared of seven charges of
manslaughter. Beckingham, the council's senior architect, was fined £15,000 and the authority £125,000. Following the trials, the contractor responsible for maintaining the plant settled a £1.5 million claim by the council for damages. The borough council was the first public body in the country to face corporate manslaughter charges. 2006 saw the construction of
Barrow Offshore Wind Farm, which has acted as a catalyst for further investment in offshore
renewable energy.
Ormonde Wind Farm and
Walney Wind Farm followed in 2011, the latter of which became the largest offshore wind farm in the world. The three wind farms are located west of Walney Island and are operated primarily by
Ørsted (company), contain a total of 162
turbines and have a combined
nameplate capacity of 607 MW, providing energy for well over half a million homes.
West of Duddon Sands Wind Farm was commissioned in 2014, while Walney was extended in 2018 to again become the world's largest such offshore facility. In 2016, the majority of the town voted to leave the EU in the
Brexit referendum. From the mid 2010's to present, investment has taken place at BAE Systems' shipyard in Barrow with an expansion to accommodate the new submarine programme. During the initial wave of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Barrow had the highest rate of infection of any local authority in the United Kingdom. This was attributed to various socio-economic factors and a high level of testing also seen in the neighbouring authorities of South Lakeland and Lancaster. In 2020, Barrow's
Marks & Spencer department store closed after over 100 years in business, this was followed by the closure of
Debenhams and a range of national retailers. From 2023 revitalisation of the town centre began with substantial investment from BAE Systems itself. In 2023 media reported that Barrow was "torn apart" by
false grooming gang allegations, with public demonstrations targeting the
local newspaper, the Asian community and police. The scandal was the subject of the 2024 BBC documentary
Liar: The Fake Grooming Scandal and the perpetrator
Eleanor Williams was duly convicted and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. On 22 September 2025, the Port of Barrow was formally granted
Royal status. In recognition of the town's strategic contribution to national defence and the maritime industry. ==Governance==