BARROW-IN-FURNESS, England, sea port, parliamentary and county borough, in the district of Furness, situated opposite to and including the island. of Walney, Lancashire, 50 miles northwest of Liverpool In the middle of the 19th century it was a fishing village with 300 inhabitants; in 1911 its popula tion was 63,770. This extraordinary prosperity is due to the working of the rich mines of red hematite iron-ore which abound in the district, and to the extension of the railway to Barrow, by which its excellent natural position and capabilities of development as a seaport have been taken advantage of. There are now four docks completed, and the depth of water is suf ficient to admit the largest ships at present afloat. Much timber is imported from the north of Europe and from Canada and Nor way, large numbers of cattle are brought from Belfast, preserved provisions are brought from the United States, and an extensive trade is done in grain and flour. Iron-ore and pig-iron are largely shipped from the port. There is a large passenger traffic with the Isle of Man and Belfast. The chief industrial occupations are the manufacture of iron and Bessemer steel, ship-building, iron-founding, rolling stock, and the making of ropes, sails, bricks, and large jute works, paper-pulp works and salt works have been established. Barrow owes a great
deal of its prosperity to the discovery of the Bessemer process of steel-making and to the fact that the hematite ores of the district are specially adapted to this process. Messrs. Vick ers, Sons & Maxim, 'Limited, employ thou sands of hands, and have built some of the largest merchant and war-vessels afloat. They also manufacture ordnance and armor plate. The town is laid• out on a regular plan, mostly in rectangles, is substantially built and well drained and supplied with gas, water and elec tricity. It contains a free public library, work men's institute and a town-hall, built at a cost of over £60,000. The Redistribution Act of 1885 erected it into a parliamentary borough, returning one member. The interesting ruins of Furness Abbey, which was founded in 1127, lie within two miles of the town. Consult Rich ardson, 'Furness, Past and Present) (1880).