The Port of Barrow refers to the enclosed

dock A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...

system within the town of

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

is to the east of the port and the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

surrounds it to the south and west. The port is currently owned and operated by Associated British Ports Holdings, but some land is shared with

BAE Systems Submarine Solutions BAE Systems Submarines,BAE Systems Submarine Solutions was split out from BAE Systems Marine and operated as such until January 2012. It was named BAE Systems Maritime - Submarines until 2017 before it became BAE Systems Submarines. is a whol ...

. Currently consisting of four large docks, the Port of Barrow is one of

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

's most important ports. The docks are as follows: Buccleuch Dock, Cavendish Dock, Devonshire Dock and Ramsden Dock. The port of Barrow is the only

deep water port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

between the

Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

and the

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

. Barrow shipyard is one of the largest in the United Kingdom (it has built well over 800 vessels in its history), rivalled only by those in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

and

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...

. It is also home to the country's only

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

production facility. The port is heavily involved with the transportation of natural gases and other forms of energy from local sites such as

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nucle ...

Barrow Offshore Wind The Barrow Offshore Wind Farm is a 30 turbine 90MW capacity offshore wind farm in the East Irish Sea approximately south west of Walney Island, near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Construction of the wind farm took place between 2005 and ...

farm,

Ormonde Wind Farm The Ormonde Wind Farm is a wind farm west of Barrow-in-Furness in the Irish Sea. The wind farm covers an area of . It has a total capacity of 150 MW and is expected to produce around 500 GWh of electricity per year. Planning Original ...

Rampside Gas Terminal Rampside Gas Terminal is a gas terminal situated in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria on the Irish Sea coast. It connects to gas fields in Morecambe Bay. It is situated adjacent to the former Roosecote Power Station. History Production started in 19 ...

and

Roosecote Power Station Roosecote Power Station was a gas-fired, originally coal-fired power station, situated in the Roosecote district of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, North West England. The gas-fired station opened in 1991 and was the first CCGT power station to s ...

. Barrow is also becoming increasingly popular as a port of call for cruise liners visiting the town and 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 ...

James Fisher & Sons James Fisher and Sons plc () is a British provider of marine engineering services, listed on the London Stock Exchange. It also remains a major shipowner, based in Barrow-in-Furness since the 1840s. History The company was founded by James Fisher ...

are the main company to operate out of the port.

History

Barrow has a long and complex history of shipbuilding and maritime trade. In the late 19th century, the town had the largest

steelworks A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

on Earth, and the Port of Barrow was the main route used to transport the steel produced in the town. Historically, the Port of Barrow and BAE cover a large area, so that Barrow is one of the country's largest shipbuilding centres. Hundreds of

warships A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and ...

aircraft carriers An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

cruise liners Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "sho ...

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

and

submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely o ...

have been constructed in Barrow, which remains the only operational submarine production facility in the UK. A 1936 LMS advert said that their of water and of quays handled 375,000 tons of cargo per year. The port's busiest year was 1956, when 1,155,076 tonnes of

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

alone were exported. In 1839

Henry Schneider Henry William Schneider (12 May 1817 – 11 November 1887) was a British industrialist, and politician, who played a leading role in the development of the new town of Barrow-in-Furness. Biography Henry Schneider was the son of John Henry Powe ...

arrived at Barrow-in-Furness as a young speculator and dealer in iron, and in 1850 he discovered large deposits of haematite. He and other investors founded the

Furness Railway The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...

, the first section of which opened in 1846 to transport the ore from the slate quarries at

Kirkby-in-Furness Kirkby-in-Furness, generally referred to simply as Kirkby locally, is a village in the Furness area of Cumbria, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it's located close to the Lake District National Park. It is about south of Broughto ...

and haematite mines at

Lindal-in-Furness Lindal-in-Furness is a village on the Furness peninsula of Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies eight miles to the north-east of Barrow-in-Furness, on the A590 trunk road. The civil parish is Lindal and Marton which had a pop ...

to a deep water harbour near

Roa Island Roa Island lies just over half a mile (1 km) south of the village of Rampside at the southernmost point of the Furness Peninsula in Cumbria, though formerly in the county of Lancashire north of the sands. It is located at ( OS grid ref. SD ...

. The docks built between 1867 and 1881 in the more sheltered channel between the mainland and

Barrow Island Barrow Island may refer to: * Barrow Island (Western Australia), Australia * Barrow Island (Queensland), Australia * Barrow Island, Barrow-in-Furness Barrow Island is an area and electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Origina ...

replaced the port at Roa Island. The increasing quantities of iron ore mined in Furness were then brought to Barrow to be transported by sea. The sheltered strait between Barrow and Walney Island was an ideal location for the shipyard. The first ship to be built, ''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. The Barrow Shipbuilding Company was taken over by the Sheffield steel firm 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 ...

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 Vickerstown is an area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, covered by the wards of Walney North and Walney South. It is an example of a model village built for workers by a company needing to expand, having been constructed in the early 20 ...

, modelled on George Cadbury's

Bournville Bournville () is a model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alcohol was forbidd ...

, on the adjacent Walney Island in the early 20th century to house its employees. It also commissioned

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

to design Abbey House as a guest house and residence for its managing director, Commander Craven. 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, , 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. Well-known ships built in Barrow include , the Japanese

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

during the 1905

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, the liner and the aircraft carriers and . During World War II, Barrow was a target for the

German Air Force The German Air Force (german: Luftwaffe, lit=air weapon or air arm, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ''Bundeswehr'') was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War a ...

looking to disable the town's shipbuilding capabilities (see

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 ...

). Barrow's industry continued to supply the war effort. Winston Churchill once visited the town to launch the aircraft carrier . After a rapid decline in the town's steel industry, shipbuilding quickly became Barrow's largest and most important industry. From the 1960s onwards it concentrated its efforts in submarine manufacture, and the UK's first

nuclear-powered Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

submarine, was constructed in 1960. , the , and submarines all followed. The end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

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. The workforce shrank from 14,500 in 1990 to 5,800 in February 1995. 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 interest in the possibilities of converting military-industrial production in declining shipbuilding areas to the offshore renewable energy sector.

The port today

Exports and imports

The port of Barrow has seen a big decrease in trade since steel production in the town halted; but many local businesses rely heavily on the port to import and export goods. Some 41,000 tonnes of

wood pulp Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...

per year are now imported here from

Flushing, Netherlands Vlissingen (; zea, label=Zeelandic, Vlissienge), historically known in English as Flushing, is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic l ...

, and transported to the larger

Kimberly-Clark Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark brand n ...

plant in

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 6,03 ...

. The port of Barrow also exports locally quarried limestone to parts of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

to be used in the paper industry and in the production of industrial gases. There is also a well-established rail link which was originally built as part of the

Furness Line The Furness line is a British railway between and , joining the West Coast Main Line at . A predominantly passenger line, it serves various towns along the Furness coast, including Barrow-in-Furness, Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands. It runs th ...

. The port plays a major role in the region's energy production. British Gas Hydrocarbon Resources Limited operates a condensate-storage site in Ramsden Dock, through which the liquid by-product of gas production at the nearby

is exported. The PNTL vessel ''Pacific Heron'' is based at the port of Barrow, and is used to transport nuclear material between nearby

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The port also played an important role in the construction of the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm, which was completed in 2006. Resources and materials were stored at the dock before being shipped to the wind farm site on

. The turbines and energy produced are still strongly associated with the port. There are of storage space within the port, owned by Associated British Ports. They also own a multi-purpose vessel, ''Furness Abbey'', which is available for hire. There are many cranes in Barrow's dockland. The majority are owned by BAE, and ABP only operates one 120-tonne quayside crane. The maximum dimensions of vessels that can dock in Barrow are length by

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

and draught.

Cruise ships

Barrow itself has relatively few nearby tourist spots (

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 cou ...

South Lakes Safari Zoo South Lakes Safari Zoo (formerly South Lakes Wild Animal Park) is a zoo established in 1994 by David Gill, and located in Cumbria, England. Its name refers to its proximity to the Lake District, though it lies entirely within the Borough of Ba ...

and the

Dock Museum The Dock Museum is situated in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Most of its exhibits concern the history of the town, focusing on the shipbuilding industry at VSEL (now BAE Systems), the steelworks industry — of which Barrow once had th ...

), but it is quite close to the

, and has been nicknamed "The Gateway to the Lakes". Barrow is the principal port serving Cumbria and the Lake District, and has been a port of call for several cruise ships in recent years. A new purpose-built cruise ship terminal alongside

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 ...

was proposed as part of the multi-million pound waterfront development (see the 'Future' heading). This was subsequently removed from the plans.

Future

Gallery

File:BAE Systems from Walney.jpg,

Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall (often abbreviated to ''DDH'') is a large indoor shipbuilding and assembly complex that forms part of the BAE Systems shipyard in the Barrow Island area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. History Constructed between ...

is one of the world's largest shipbuilding halls. File:DockMuseum.jpg, The

is built on top of a former dock. File:Warships barrow dock.jpg, Three s built for the Brunei Navy, but never delivered, berthed at the port of Barrow File:Buccleuch Dock, Barrow-in-Furness - geograph.org.uk - 158316.jpg, Buccleuch Dock File:Cavendish Dock, Barrow from railway sidings - geograph.org.uk - 34423.jpg, Cavendish Dock File:Ramden Dock, Barrow.jpg, Ramsden Dock File:Hertfordshire tanker, Barrow Docks.jpg, Tanker, ''Hertfordshire'' in Anchor Line Basin File:Oriana Tonga 1985.jpg, , a Barrow-built ocean liner File:HMSBulwarkL15.jpg, , one of the more recent Royal Navy vessels constructed in Barrow File:HMS Invincible (R05).jpg, One of the town's most famous ships, File:Astute2cropped.jpg, during launch into Devonshire Dock

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrow

Port of Barrow The Port of Barrow refers to the enclosed dock system within the town of Barrow-in-Furness, England. Morecambe Bay is to the east of the port and the Irish Sea surrounds it to the south and west. The port is currently owned and operated by ...