Vickerstown is an area 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 t ...

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. ...

, England, covered by the wards of Walney North and Walney South. It is an example of a

model village A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...

built for workers by a company needing to expand, having been constructed in the early 20th century by

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construct ...

. Vickerstown contains two

Conservation Areas Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

and is home to the majority of the population of

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 ...

History

Beginnings

Its construction was prompted by a lack of housing available for the workers at Barrow's shipyard, owned at the time by

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 i ...

. Some workers were forced to live on board the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

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 Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

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 A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily in ...

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 Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

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

Vickerstown remains part of the town of Barrow and much of the area was declared a conservation area in 1988, to keep the character of the estate intact. Barrow shipyard continues to be the largest employer in the town, though it is now owned by

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenue ...

. The A590 road begins just west of Vickerstown and runs through the area before crossing Walney Bridge into the Barrow Island area of Barrow. The A590 continues for 34 miles towards the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...

. There are two places of worship in Vickerstown, a medical centre, a fire station, two primary schools, several pubs and numerous businesses including

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

and

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

supermarkets.

Walney School Walney School is a secondary school on Walney Island in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. As a result of the Education Act 1944, Walney Island needed to have its own secondary school. Today (2020) it is an 11 – 16 Academy with approximately 585 stud ...

is located close to Vickerstown and offers secondary education for the island's residents. Vickerstown Football Club are based in the area and compete in the West Lancashire Football League and the cricket club is a long-standing member of the Cumbria Cricket League.

In popular culture

The

Rev. W. Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997) was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He was best known for creating Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas and several other characters he created appeared in ...

's Railway Series books and

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

are set on the

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...

Island of Sodor The Island of Sodor is a fictional island featured as the setting for ''The Railway Series'' books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry (and his son Christopher), begun in 1945, and for the popular '' Thomas & Friends'' television series since 1984, alt ...

, which takes the place of

. Sodor is linked to the mainland by two bridges, one road and one rail, across the Walney Channel. The town on the Sodor side of the bridges is named ''Vicarstown''. In Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, the name ''Vicarstown'' is still used, however, Sodor is not linked to the mainland by two bridges.

References

Vickerstown: A Marine Garden City: By Bryn Trescatheric

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Walney Island
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) {{Barrow-in-Furness Furness Model villages Thomas & Friends locations Vickers Barrow-in-Furness port and shipyard Populated coastal places in Cumbria Populated places established in 1901 Protected areas of Cumbria Districts of Barrow-in-Furness