The following is summarised from information provided by Alice
Leach, Barrow-in-Furness Civic & Local History Society
(web site: www.barrowhistorysociety.org.uk).
On this page:
From Barrai to Barrow - By Alice Leach
Like many other Low Furness villages, Barrow was founded as a
grange or home farm by the Cistercian monks of Furness Abbey. First
mentioned in monastic records in 1190, the grange of Barrai was
situated close to the site occupied by William Fisher's
19
th century farm (see No 7 of
Barrow Village plan).
Granges consisted of a normal range of farm buildings albeit
on a larger scale. One or possibly more large barns were used for
storage and there was often a dovecote. There would have been
animal sheds and there may have been fishponds or a mill. Lay
brothers from the monastery worked alongside locals on these
granges. According to Mick Aston, writing in "Monasteries in the
Landscape", the monks' land "was intermixed in common field systems
with that of the villagers and the grange was an integral part of
the village structure. The historical definition of a grange tends
to reflect the former a consolidated block of land from which all
common rights have been excluded while the archaeological viewpoint
sees granges as groups of buildings from which an estate was
worked, regardless of the style of landholding".
For a map of Furness Abbey granges see the English Heritage
Furness Abbey guide book 1998, and illuminated slides, displayed at
Furness
Abbey Museum.
!
A
reconstruction of the grange at Dean Court Farm, Oxfordshire, based
on the evidence recovered from recent excavations by Tim Allen and
the Oxford Archaeological Unit. The grange belonged to Abingdon
Abbey and is reproduced on p130 "Monasteries and the Landscape" by
Mick Aston. The illustration is by Harry Lange, amended by Daniel
Ray,
Oxford Archaeological
Unit.
Barrow Village, Plan of Owners and Occupiers, 1843 -
Summary by W.B. Kendall
The following information relates to the plan of the
Village of Barrow, 1843, based on the original surveys by W.B.
Kendall C.E.
Until about the year 1780 the village of Barrow consisted
of five farm-houses with the usual out-buildings, numbered
respectively on the plan 1, 4, 7, 18 and 26. A sixth farm-house,
which had stood near the house No 14 on the plan, was pulled down
about the middle of the 18th century when Lord Cavendish acquired
the estate.
Originally the Monks established eight homesteads at Barrow,
two of which occupying sites near the cottages numbered 10 and 21
on the plan respectively, were rebuilt at Hindpool soon after the
dissolution of the Monastery.
Besides the five farm-houses there was the house numbered 20,
afterwards known as the 'Ship Inn', and two cottages; eight houses
in all.
Iron ore was not exported from Barrow till the year 1745 when
the Backbarrow Iron Company began occasionally to ship ore here;
but no great quantity was shipped till the year 1782 when the
Newland Iron Company made Barrow their principal shipping
port.
About that time one or two additional cottages were provided
for ore-loaders, and before the close of the 18th century, a
grocer's shop and general store had been established in the
village.
Early in the 19th century a larger grocer's shop was built,
and at this period we find also a tailor, tide-waiter,
schoolmaster, schoolmistress, and a pilot in the place, while a
blacksmith attended from Hawcoat twice a week.
In 1801 the number of dwelling houses in the village was
eleven. Twenty-one years later we find that a resident blacksmith,
a butcher, and a shoemaker had been added to the population, a
malt-kiln had been built, and the number of dwellings had increased
to twenty.
In 1843, after the lapse of another twenty-one years, the
number of houses was twenty-eight.
In 1842 a lease of the Ore yard was granted to John Schneider
and others and in 1845 the site of the Old Railway Station,
including the foreshore was acquired by the Furness Railway
Company. In 1846 John Paxton sold the field behind Rabbit Hill,
afterwards the site of St George's Church and Vicarage, and part of
the Schools and schoolyard as far as the back of the 'Queen's Arms'
to John Whitwell of Kendal, who sold the site of the Bank and the
'Harbour Hotel' in 1850, and soon afterwards conveyed the rest of
the field to R W Lumley by whom it was conveyed to the Furness
Railway Company and by them to the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners.
In November, 1854, David Rigby Stables entered upon the
'Harbour Hotel'.
Barrow Harbour, from the east, showing the method of loading iron
ore, from a water colour by Mrs. Michaelson. From Barrow in-Furness
(1881) its history, development, commerce, industries, and
institutions, by J.Richardson. The original Michaelson paintings
are stored in the Dock Museum.
See larger version of
Barrow Harbour painting. (jpg 20kb).
Barrow Village by Alice Leach 2005
William Fisher of Barrow Village.
"The Packman" (in Fishers Yard), sketch by James Askew.
The most important man in Barrow Village (late 18th century to
late 19th century) was William Fisher. He was born in Barrow
Village in 1775 and died in 1861; he was a Low Furness yeoman
farmer ie a wealthy worker of the land. From 1811 - 1859 he kept a
diary of local events: births, marriages and deaths - the
'hatchings, matchings and dispatches' column of today's Evening
Mail. He also recorded seed and harvest times, catastrophes and
commonplace events. The diary is important because it gives us
interesting glimpses of how the villagers of this small farming
community used to live during a vibrant period of the area's
history; during the 48 years covered by the diary the village of
Barrow grew into the industrial town of Barrow, which was founded
on the wealth from the red haematite iron ore of Furness and the
slate of Kirkby.
The Tithe Commution Schedule for Dalton-in-Furness 1842 shows that
William Fisher's farm consisted of slightly more than 85 acres; his
arable crops were grown on land near the Town Hall and Schneider
Square area and probably his orchards, gardens and cow sheds were
sited on land now occupied by the doctor's surgery, the Alfred
Barrow School and the car park (opposite).
The Diary of William Fisher of Barrow 1811 - 1859 is owned by
the Rowlandson family from Ulverston, but thanks to their
generosity the Fisher manuscripts is housed in Cumbria Record
Office, Ramsden Square, where it is on permanent loan. The diary
was published by the Centre for North-West Regional Studies,
University of Lancaster as an Occasional Paper No 15 in 1986 and
edited by the late Dr W Rollinson and former archivist, Brett
Harrison.
Further Information
If you wish to know more about the history of Barrow you
can visit Barrow Library and Archive Service, or The Dock
Museum.
Barrow Borough Council's online mapping service (www.barrowbc.gov.uk/mapping)
provides current and historical maps of the Borough.
Links to Local Community Web sites:
Barrow Civic & Local History Society can be contacted
through:
Alice Leach,
2 Castle Street,
Dalton-in-Furness,
Cumbria,
LA15 8BB.
Barrow-in-Furness Civic & Local
History Society web site: http://www.barrowhistorysociety.org.uk/.