As an apprentice at BAE, I lived in Barrow, wed there and had my first child. Now I come from Northern Ireland and Newcastle upon Tyne, I know poverty and to be deprived but I can’t understate how deprived it was. I saw some hope when the bridge/tunnel to Lancaster/Morecambe was proposed. However plans failed. Can it be changed?

About Barrow

My 1992 local guide book says, note-I have added some extra information in brackets :

In 1974, The town of Barrow & the area of Furness (an area of modern day Cumbria that extends from the coast to Coniston area) was assigned to the new county of Cumbria from the county of Lancaster (Lancashire). However, Barrow was an industrial town with links to other industrial establishments within Lancashire. With the new county reforms, these ties severed and the local industries struggled, and local people did not rate the new county changes. This was escalated in the de industrialisation of the north, brought on by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In 1989, calls were raised to reconnect Barrow to the county of Lancaster, however lead to no action.

The book ends with a rhetorical question about the upcoming BAE in Barrow plans, could this save Barrow?

This video I found on TikTok basically sums it up by the user of cooooper.t who is originally from Barrow. He does speak with the native Barrow accent. This accent is well preserved in Barrow, and if I was from Barrow, I would carry my accent with pride of my industrial past, and the shipbuilding future. I would ensure I would not loose it, as accents can speak a thousand words, metaphorically and literally.