Beginnings Its construction was prompted by a lack of housing available for the workers at
Barrow's shipyard, owned at the time by
Vickers. Some workers were forced to live on board the
Atlantic liner , which was moored in the docks. Plans for its development were begun in 1898 and Vickers bought out the
Isle of Walney Estates Company to handle the construction. Homes were designed to last, with the houses in a
Tudor Revival terrace style. Larger houses overlooking Walney Channel were reserved for managers' families. The good construction of this estate meant that Walney did not have the
slums that plagued other parts of the country and even Barrow in the 1950s. Most streets in Vickerstown are named after ships built at Vickers (including
HMS Euryalus,
HMS Juno,
HMS Latona, ,
HMS Niobe and ) and other portstowns and cities in the UK (including
Bristol,
Folkestone,
Hastings,
Liverpool and
Southampton).
Development The first 1,000 houses were completed in 1901 and tenants soon moved in, with strict selection criteria. A toll bridge to the mainland was opened in 1908. The rearmament programme and the First World War led to a second phase of building during which government loans were used to build accommodation for workers but these houses were more utilitarian than those in the original plans. After the First World War, houses began to be sold on to tenants and in 1951, with only a handful of properties still under its control, the estate company was wound up. ==Modern Vickerstown==