Barrow-in-Furness

The weather forecast for today looked decidedly dodgy, so I decided to take my first ever rail trip across the Kent estuary and headed to Barrow-in-Furness.

My first impressions were not good. Barrow is not a tourist destination (I asked in a couple of places if there was a map of the town, a question that was met with some bemusement). The second largest town in Cumbria after Carlisle it has serious issues of deprivation and poverty, and the town centre (and indeed the town more generally) has a lot of vacant and derelict buildings. I began to wonder if there was enough to see to fill in the time I had.

But first impressions are sometimes deceiving. I had a good lunch in the local arts centre which sits opposite the impressive town hall building. There’s a good programme of events. Then I walked across to Barrow Island, which has some extraordinary (huge) Victorian buildings, of a kind I have not seen anywhere else. There were plenty of eider ducks resting on the dock edges. Then to the Dock Museum, built into a former graving dock, which is excellent. The history of this planned town is fascinating. The Museum sits in front of the Devonshire Dock Hall, which dominates the town, and within which nuclear submarines which will carry the UK's nuclear deterrent are under construction (main image). Then I walked along the Walney Channel and onto the former slag heaps (the by-product of the iron and steel works) from which there are quite spectacular views of the town, Walney Island, and Black Combe and the coast to the north. Here I came across bee orchids.

In various places hand made bunting was going up. Tomorrow is “I’m having a Dave Day”. Si King, the hairy biker, is leading bikers from the North Circular in London on a 300 mile journey (with stops on the way to be joined by others) to Barrow. It’s to honour Dave Myers, the other half of the hairy bikers who died earlier this year, all money raised to go to a. Cancer charity and a children’s charity. Dave was a proud Barrovian, who it’s clear was much loved in the town. 10 - 15,000 bikers are expected, which will be quite a sight (and a good reason to avoid the A590 tomorrow).

On arrival back at Arnside early evening - excellent fish and chips to take back to the caravan.

I’ve added a few extras temporarily.