Barrow In Furness, Walney Bridge 1908

Photo ref: 60048

More about this scene

At the outset, the tenants of Vickerstown found that the only ways to gain access to Walney Island were to ford the channel at low tide - that way across is still possible - or to use the Furness Railway Company's Walney Ferry. The residents of Walney found this situation unsatisfactory, and against the strong, and expected, opposition from the railway company, a bridge was eventually completed. The public opening was on 30 June 1908, and the mayoress of Barrow, Mrs T F Butler, performed the ceremony. Mr & Mrs Bill and Joan Anderson, born in the 1920s, remembered that you had to pay to cross the bridge or you gave one penny to cross on the ferry, and during the summer holidays schoolchildren in Barrow were given free passes to cross the bridge. They also remembered that in 1935, to celebrate the jubilee of King George V, the toll was removed and the bridge acquired its name of Jubilee Bridge.