Hawcoat is an area and

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, it is one of Barrow's most northerly wards and is bordered by

Roose Roose or Roosecote is a suburb and ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The word 'roose' is Celtic for "moor" or "heath" and the suffix 'cote' of Roosecote means "hut" or "huts" (the word 'cottage' is derived from 'cote'). Before the buil ...

Newbarns Newbarns is an area and electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is bordered by Hawcoat, Parkside, Risedale and Roose, the local population stood at 5,515 in 2001, decreasing to 5,487 at the 2011 Census. Newbarns covers an ar ...

, Parkside,

Ormsgill Ormsgill is an area and ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is bordered by Hindpool, Parkside, Hawcoat, Roanhead and Walney Channel. The population of the ward in 2001 stood at 5,961 (2,883 male and 3,078 female),increasing to 6,033 ...

and the town of

Dalton-in-Furness Dalton-in-Furness is a town and former civil parish in the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. In 2011 it had a population of 7,827. It is located north east of Barrow-in-Furness. History Dalton is mentioned in the Domesday Book, wr ...

to the north. The ward itself will be combined with Newbarns ward in April 2023 following formation of the new

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a future unitary authority area in north-west England, which will come into being on 1 April 2023 on the abolition of Cumbria County Council, together with Cumberland. The council will cover the areas currently served ...

Local Authority.

Geography

Hawcoat lies on small hill on the southwest of the

Furness Peninsula Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

, rising up from

Walney Channel The Walney Channel separates Walney Island from the British mainland. The northern portion of the channel opens into the Duddon Estuary and is both narrower and shallower. The southern half of the channel is wider and is regularly dredged to allow ...

to its west and peaking at 84m. From its peak there are quite extensive views incorporating the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, across

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is a large estuary in northwest England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second larges ...

Ingleborough Ingleborough () is the second-highest mountain in the Yorkshire Dales, England. It is one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks (the other two being Whernside and Pen-y-ghent), and is frequently climbed as part of the Three Peaks walk. A large part o ...

, the

Howgills The Howgill Fells are uplands in Northern England between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, lying roughly within a triangle formed by the towns of Sedbergh and Kirkby Stephen and the village of Tebay.

, and the fells of the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

. The small stream of Dane Ghyll rises to the east of the high ground, and flows south and east into Mill Beck at

Furness Abbey Furness Abbey, or St. Mary of Furness, is a former Catholic monastery located to the north of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The abbey dates back to 1123 and was once the second-wealthiest and most powerful Cistercian monastery in the coun ...

in the Valley of the Deadly Nightshade, providing a clear eastern boundary to the area. Hawcoat forms the north-eastern part of

, and its boundary to the south is

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...

. To the west, it is separated by a few fields and Barrow Cemetery from the lower-lying

. Bus service route 1 serves most of Hawcoat, connecting the district to Barrow station, the town centre and

Walney Island Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. It is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned b ...

. Route 6 and X6 run through Hawcoat and provide longer-distance connections to Dalton-in-Furness, Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands, Winderemere and Kendal. Abbey Road on the southern border of Hawcoat was formerly the

A590 road The A590 is a trunk road in southern Cumbria, in the north-west of England. It runs north-east to south-west from M6 junction 36, through the towns of Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness to terminate at Biggar Bank on Walney Island. Hawcoat is one of the few places in Barrow that has been permanently inhabited since the

middle ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

; Hawcoat was named and identified as ''Hietun'' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, as a fief within the

Manor of Hougun The Manor of Hougun is the historic name for an area which now forms part of the county of Cumbria in North West England. Of the three most northern counties of England surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086 (Northumbria, Durham and Cumbria), only t ...

. Prior to the growth of Barrow, Hawcoat village was the largest on the peninsula to the west of the town of

, and gave its name to one of the four quarters or 'bierleys' of the parish of Dalton. This quarter covered the entirety of the end of the

, including the surrounding

Islands of Furness The Islands of Furness are situated to the south-west and east of the Furness Peninsula. Within England, they are the third biggest collection of islands. They are generally quite small, though at 12.99 km2 Walney Island is the eighth ...

, such that the latter-town of Barrow was in 1769 "only a hamlet in the township of Hawcoat." While the town of Barrow grew in the nineteenth century, Hawcoat remained a village outside the built-up area of the new town. Some suburban development stretched into the southern and western parts of what is now Hawcoat ward in the 1920s and 1930s, and some of this on Hawcoat Lane was the site of destruction as part of the

Barrow Blitz The Barrow Blitz is the name given to the ''Luftwaffe'' bombings of Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom during World War II. They took place primarily during April and May 1941, although the earliest ''Luftwaffe'' bombing occurred in September 19 ...

bombings that targetted the town's shipyard and steelworks during World War 2. These suburban developments had grown to reach the site of the old village by the early 1950s. A major expansion of suburban housing in Hawcoat subsequently occurred in the 1960s as a direct response to the expansion of

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

shipyard, when it was briefly referred to as 'Polaris Village' after the Polaris programme which involved Barrow-built ''Resolution''-class submarines. Dane Ghyll Primary School, in the middle of the new development, opened in 1971, reflecting the expansion of the population.

Furness General Hospital Furness General Hospital (FGH) is a hospital located in the Hawcoat area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is managed by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital, which replaced four local hosp ...

, replacing four smaller hospitals in Barrow, was opened in Hawcoat in 1984.

Demographics

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, Hawcoat had a population of 4,922, representing a 7% decrease over a 10-year period. The ward has more female residents than male and is the most ethnically diverse ward of Barrow, with 4.3% of the local population belonging to an ethnic group other than

White British White British is an ethnicity classification used for the native white population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population wa ...

. Hawcoat covers an area of 4.58 square kilometres and has a population density of 1,074/km² (compared to 886/km² in Barrow as a whole). Hawcoat is Barrow's least deprived ward, with higher than average house prices and two areas where properties regularly sell for close to half a million

GBP Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

- The Crescent and The Gardens.

Facilities

Hawcoat is the location of

, though the nearest GP Practices are in Barrow town centre. Dane Ghyll Primary School is the area's

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, for children aged 4-11, in the heart of the 1970s-built estate, and St Paul's CofE

Junior School A Junior school is a type of school which provides primary education to children, often in the age range from 8 and 13, following attendance at Infant school which covers the age range 5–7. (As both Infant and Junior schools are giving Primary E ...

, affiliated with Saint Paul's, the parish church of Hawcoat, teaches children aged 7-11. Thorncliffe School, on the western border of the ward, was the

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

for children aged 12-16 from its construction in 1970 until 2009, when it was merged with other local secondaries to form

Furness Academy Furness Academy is a secondary school in Barrow-in-Furness, England. It is the fourth academy to have been formed in the county of Cumbria after the closure of Alfred Barrow School, Parkview Community College of Technology and Thorncliffe School ...

. The old Thorncliffe site has since been redeveloped into homes.

Chetwynde School Chetwynde School is a Free school in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It includes a kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. It is a member of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust. Founded as a private primary school, it was known ...

, formerly a

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

, sits just outside the ward and is now a state-funded free school for children aged 4-16. Holker Old Boys F.C., which competes in the

North West Counties Football League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern S ...

, is based in Hawcoat at Rakesmoor Lane. Hawcoat Park Sports and Social Club, formerly known as Vickers Sports Club (having been established by Vickers) is a popular recreational facility consisting of pitches, lawns and tennis courts. It is located in the southern periphery of Hawcoat and is also home to the

Walney Terriers The Morecambe Bay Storm were the final operating name of an American Football club that were based in Morecambe, Lancashire who played in the BAFA National Leagues. The club traces its roots back to 2011 when the Walney Terriers joined the BAFAN ...

American Football Club.

References

{{Barrow-in-Furness Wards of Barrow-in-Furness

Geography

Demographics

Facilities

See also

References