Barrow-in-Furness and its surroundings have changed rapidly over the last century and a half. The contrast between the old and the new is impressive, and nowhere is that better illustrated than in the photographs featured in this book. Focusing on aspects including work, transport, entertainment, buildings and leisure, author Gill Jepson chronicles the changing face of the town across the decades.
The transformation from agriculture to industry and the movement of the urban centres is fascinating. The old occupations of iron ore mining have given way to the newer ones of submarine building and renewable energy. The landscape is testament to the rapid growth of the town and its infrastructure and there are numerous pictures which illustrate quieter and more agrarian times. Photographic evidence of hiring fairs, ploughing and shearing are almost timeless until after the Second World War.
Barrow Island, now home to a shipyard, was once a rural estate with just one house, the Michaelson mansion. Similarly, a grand house built at Abbotswood, a woodland park above Furness Abbey, was replaced in the 1960s by a nuclear bunker, which has since been demolished and a woodland walk has taken its place. Scenes showing busy streets with urchins playing, shops, markets and visiting fairs are vastly different to those witnessed now. Many old buildings were swept away under regeneration plans in the 1960s and 1970s and some of these too have now disappeared. The town is forever changing and meeting the requirements of the modern age and yet echoes of the old world filter through here and there, reminding us of a time gone by.