Barrow-in-Furness and its surroundings have changed rapidly over the last century and a half. The contrast between the old and the new is stark, and nowhere is that better illustrated than in the photographs featured in this book. Focusing on themes including work, transport, entertainment, buildings and leisure, author Gill Jepson chronicles the changing face of the town across the decades. The transformation from agriculture to industry and the movement of the urban centres is fascinatin...

The Lake District is by far the UK’s most popular national park. Every year some 15 million people come here to explore the region’s fells and countryside and it’s not hard to see why. Ever since the Romantic poets arrived in the nineteenth century, its panorama of craggy hilltops, mountain tarns and glittering lakes have been stirring the imaginations of visitors. Among the many writers who found inspiration here are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arthur Ransome and, of cour...

A reappraisal of this unique northern industrial town situated at the end of a long peninsula, Barrow-in-Furness Reflections seeks to record the changing face of the town over time. Its fortunes are in flux, and it faces huge challenges to take it forward. The evidence of the town’s ambitious and aspirational past is writ large in its buildings and community, and encouragement can be taken from these. The area has an abundance of fascinating and beautiful places and a wonderful natural env...

Barrow-in-Furness was transformed by the industrial expansion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, leading to it becoming a centre for ship and submarine building. Located at the tip of a peninsula, known for its own micro-climate and a rich and varied natural environment, the townscape is surrounded by sea, and beyond that the Lakeland Hills, while the protective arms of Walney Island provide a natural channel and harbour. Nature sits alongside industry and heritage. The iron ore in...

In the Middle Ages, Barrow was a small settlement close to Furness Abbey. The Furness peninsula is still a largely rural area, and Furness Abbey is now a ruin, but the town of Barrow-in-Furness grew during the Industrial Revolution to become an important steel producer and exporter, exploiting the mineral deposits in mines nearby and its position on the coast. Later it became a major manufacturer of naval vessels, best known today for building Royal Navy submarines. The monastic movement p...

Barrow-in-Furness is a small post-industrial town at the end of a long peninsula in the north of England. Its isolated location has produced a stalwart and close population. It started life as a small hamlet and grew to become an industrial leader, first in iron and steel and later in ship-building and engineering, drawing a workforce from all over the country. The ship-building industry continues to be a major employer but today there is less diversity than in Barrow’s heyday. Although th...

Barrow-in-Furness has many secrets hidden in plain sight, from its earliest history to the present day. The land where ‘the lakes meet the sea’ provides an ancient rural backdrop revealing mysteries and tales wrapped in the mists of time, from mysterious monastic murder to raids by Robert the Bruce. It was a place popular with the Romantics; William Wordsworth visited Furness Abbey and allegedly carved his initials into the sandstone. In the municipal cemetery lies the body of an Italian c...

The magnificent ruins of Furness Abbey are now in the care of English Heritage and attract thousands of visitors every year. Dating back to the twelfth century, the abbey was one of the wealthiest Cistercian monasteries in the country. Over the centuries, writers and artists including William Wordsworth and Turner have been inspired by the splendour of the sandstone ruins and the tranquillity of their location in a peaceful valley. In Furness Abbey Through Time, local historian Gill Jepson...

Barrow-in-Furness has a proud and distinctive identity, embodied in the many fine buildings that have shaped this Cumbrian town. At first glance it appears to be seated firmly in the nineteenth century, but a closer inspection reveals an architectural heritage that reaches back much further than the Victorian era. Barrow-in-Furness in 50 Buildings explores the history of this rich and vibrant community through a selection of its greatest architectural treasures. From the Perpendicular-styl...

In the early nineteenth century Barrow-in-Furness was a small village of 200 people, but within forty years its population had risen to almost 50,000. It became a hive of Victorian enterprise and industry and gained an almost frontier reputation, coining the nickname ‘the Chicago of the North’. The discovery of iron ore and subsequent opening of the Furness Railway led to the development and growth of shipbuilding for which Barrow is famous. This growth accelerated until the First World Wa...

Did you know?In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as 'a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it.'According to one psychologist, Tube commuters can experience greater levels of stress than a police officer facing a rioting mob or even a fighter pilot going into a dogfight.Underground trains have only twice been used to transport deceased people in coffins: William Gladston...

The Sunday Times BestsellerA glorious insight into Britain over the last 150 years – its history, landscape and people – from the window of Britain’s many and magnificent railway journeys.Inspired by George Bradshaw, a 19th-century cartographer who mapped Britain’s railways as they sprung up around him, Charlie Bunce and Michael Portillo take a journey along nine classic British railway routes and surround themselves with the history, the charm and the people at the heart o...