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Barrow-in-Furness

Today, Barrow is a major shopping centre for the area with a huge indoor market where some 80 independent traders display their wares, and a thrice-weekly outdoor market on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Undoubtedly the best introduction to the town is to pay a visit to the Dock Museum, an impressive glass and steel structure that hangs suspended above a Victorian graving dock. Audio-visual displays and a series of exhibits describe how Barrow grew from a tiny hamlet in the early 1800s to become the largest iron and steel centre in the world as well as a major shipbuilding force in just 40 years. The museum has some spectacular models of ships of every kind, an art gallery hosting both permanent and travelling exhibitions, and a high tech interactive film show where characters from Barrow's history come to life to tell the town's story.

It was James (later Sir James) Ramsden who established the first Barrow Iron Ship Company in 1870, taking advantage of local steel production skills. In 1896, the firm was acquired by Vickers, a name forever linked with Barrow, and for a number of years was the largest armaments works in the world. Sir James was also the general manager of the Furness Railway and the town's first mayor. At the Ramsden Square roundabout is a statue of him, and at the next roundabout is a statue of HW Schneider, one of the men who developed the Furness iron mines and was involved in the Barrow Haematite Steel Company.

Barrow is the western starting point of the Cistercian Way, a 33-mile walk to Grange-over-Sands through wonderfully unspoilt countryside.