Vickerstown | |
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Location within Cumbria | |
OS grid reference | SD179685 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BARROW-IN-FURNESS |
Postcode district | LA14 |
Dialling code | 01229 |
Police | Cumbria |
Fire | Cumbria |
Ambulance | North West |
UK Parliament | |
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 20th century by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering. Vickerstown contains two Conservation Areas and is home to the majority of the population of Walney Island.
Its construction was prompted by a lack of housing available for the workers at Barrow's shipyard, owned at the time by Vickers. Some workers were forced to live on board the Atlantic liner SS Alaska, 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 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 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, Japanese battleship Mikasa, HMS Niobe and HMS Vengeance) and other portstowns and cities in the UK (including Bristol, Folkestone, Hastings, Liverpool and Southampton).
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.
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. 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. There are two places of worship in Vickerstown, a medical centre, a fire station, three primary schools, several pubs and numerous businesses including Tesco and Co-op supermarkets. Walney School is located close to Vickerstown and offers secondary education for the island's residents. Vickerstown Football Club and Walney Island FC are based in the area and both compete in the West Lancashire Football League and the cricket club is a long-standing member of the Cumbria Cricket League.
The Rev. W. Awdry's Railway Series books, Thomas & Friends and Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go are set on the fictional Island of Sodor, which takes the place of Walney Island. 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, positioned in the same place as the real-life Vickerstown.
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of 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. The borough was merged into the new Westmorland and Furness district in 2023. At the tip of the Furness peninsula, close to the Lake District, it is bordered by Morecambe Bay, the Duddon Estuary and the Irish Sea. In 2021, Barrow's population was 55,489, making it the second largest urban area in Cumbria after Carlisle, and the largest in the Westmorland and Furness unitary authority.
Furness is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness.
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. The road is a mixture of dual carriageway and single carriageway, with the section east of Low Newton, Cumbria to the M6 being mainly dual. Further dual sections are south of Newby Bridge, south of Greenodd and south of Ulverston. The road is the main route for tourists entering the southern Lake District. It has often humorously been described as "the longest cul-de-sac in the world".
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. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned by the Jubilee Bridge. Walney is the largest island of the Furness Islands group, both in population and size, as well as the largest English island in the Irish Sea. Its population at the 2011 UK Census was 10,651, distributed evenly across the island's two Wards of Walney North and Walney South.
Barrow Island is an area and former electoral ward of Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Originally separate from the British mainland, land reclamation in the 1860s saw the northern fringes of the island connected to Central Barrow. Barrow Island is also bound to the south and east by the town's dock system and to the west by Walney Channel. The Ward population taken at the 2011 census was 2,616.
North Scale is a village and one of only four settlements on the Isle of Walney, Cumbria, England. It is the northernmost settlement, lying a mile north of Vickerstown.
Walney Aerodrome is located on Walney Island, 1.5 NM northwest of the centre of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The airport is owned by BAE Systems, who operate private communication flights to locations across the United Kingdom and expanded the airport with new infrastructure and terminal buildings in 2019.
HMS Walney (M104) was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. She was the fourth of the Sandown-class minehunters, and the second ship to carry the name, which comes from the island off Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria on the north-west coast of England.
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, the steelworks industry — of which Barrow once had the world's largest, the Furness Railway and the World War II bombings of the town. There has been a museum in Barrow since 1907 and in its current location since 1994, when 50,000 people visited it in its first year, visitor numbers peaked at 120,000 in 2001. The museum has free entry and remains under public ownership.
Hawcoat is an area and former electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it is one of Barrow's most northerly wards and is bordered by Roose, Newbarns, Parkside, Ormsgill and the town of Dalton-in-Furness to the north.
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 students currently on roll.
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 1940. VSEL shipyard was the main target for bombing alongside Barrow's steelworks, which were formerly the largest in the world.
Walney Bridge, officially Jubilee Bridge, is a bascule bridge in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Completed in 1908, it spans Walney Channel, linking Barrow Island to Walney Island. The bridge carries the A590 trunk road, which has its western terminus on Walney.
Hindpool is an area and electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is bordered by Barrow Island, Central Barrow, Ormsgill, Parkside and the Walney Channel, the local population stood at 5,851 in 2011. The ward covers the entire western half of the town centre and includes Barrow's main shopping district. Other local landmarks include the Furness College Channelside campus, the Dock Museum and the Main Public Library. Hindpool is also home to two stadia - Barrow Raiders' Craven Park and Barrow A.F.C.'s Holker Street.
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 Associated British Ports Holdings, but some land is shared with BAE Systems Submarine Solutions. Currently consisting of four large docks, the Port of Barrow is one of North West England'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 between the Mersey and the Clyde.
Walney South was one of two wards on Walney Island in the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, North West England. The 2001 UK census showed 5,784 people were living in the area, reducing to 5,307 at the 2011 Census. There are two main settlements within the ward: Biggar and Vickerstown. Walney Bridge connects Walney South and, in fact, the whole island to mainland Barrow.
Michaelson Road Bridge is a road bridge connecting Central Barrow to Barrow Island in south Cumbria, England. The original high-level bridge was a swing bridge and then replaced by a pair of lift and roll bridges constructed between 1800 and 1884 then superseded by a more modern pair of bascule bridges in the mid 1960s. It was built at a time when Barrow Island was actually an island and there was strong call for road access between mainland Barrow at the shipyard on Barrow Island. Traffic on the bridge was soon relieved when an old Victorian dock was filled in and space was created for the huge Devonshire Dock Hall complex, traffic now runs along the north side of the building on the A590.
The Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness is a £200 million development under construction in and around the Port of Barrow, England. The site covers an area of some 400 acres (160 ha) and was due for completion in 2020. The internal road network is already complete, with construction of a large business park complex ongoing and work on a 400-berth marina and 650 home Marina Village due to start thereafter. In 2010, The Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness ranked as the ninetieth most costly regeneration project in the United Kingdom by Regeneration & Renewal. Progress on the project stalled between 2010 and 2016 due to complications with funding following the disabandonment of the North West Regional Development Agency. BAE Systems opened a large logistics warehouse named the Resolution Building on Dova Way within the designated Business Park Area in October 2016, while and construction of a new access road from Salthouse Road to the Marina Village commenced in May 2017.
The Devonshire Buildings are two adjacent apartment buildings in the Barrow Island area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. They are both recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade II* listed buildings.
The following is a timeline of the history of Barrow-in-Furness, England, United Kingdom.