The map on the right gives an idea how the Island changed from being a lumpy kidney bean into something much larger by reclaiming dockland from the sea.

Men with money to speculate - The 7th Duke of Devonshire & The Duke of Buccleuch among others, prompted Men of Vision, most notably James Ramsden to put their grandiose plans in to practise.

The unsuspecting Islanders - all 39 of them, [20 men & 19 women] were about to be overtaken by the Industrial Revolution.

Their lush arable land, which was a gift from a melting glacier en route from Norway to the  Irish Sea would within 30 years become a hive of industry.

This hive would attract workers from all parts of the UK and beyond. This is as true today despite the ups and downs of the local economy.

As I write this Irish, Scots, Geordies & others from further afield arrive in Barrow daily to either work in the shipyard or on the new construction taking place on Barrow Island.

Er... Or at least they were until they ran out of money

Barrow itself was once described as the “Chicago of the North” to reflect its “Wild West” atmosphere during its “Boom Years.” If they’d have called it the “New York of the North” - then in the 1870’s Barrow Island would have been the “Bronx.”

This site is about an island that is no longer truly an island having been

concreted physically to the mainland, but mentally its inhabitants still live

in an isolated village. Happily that community spirit lives on in a wider

society that finds itself increasingly fragmented in the 21st century.

This [left] is Barrow Island, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria in the United

Kingdom. - not the Barrow Island in Australia or the Barrow Island in Florida,

USA nor even the one in Canada.

It is a speck on the map only shielded from the Irish sea by Walney Island

across a narrow channel.

Barrow Island’s growth was slow to non existent in the mid 19th century.

But as Barrow boomed the Island was to become the mainstay of

Barrow’s industrial heritage.