A lifetime of Islands: Island 41

Monday 14 March 2011

Island 41 - Walney, Cumbria

Walney Island is apparently England's 8th largest offshore island. It is 10 miles long by over a mile wide. It is linked to Barrow in Furness by the Jubilee Bridge, which opened in 1908. The island has been inhabited since the Stone Age. From the 12th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, the island was farmed by the Cistercian monks of Furness Abbey. In 1631 half the population died of plague. The islanders supported Parliament in the Civil War and the Royalists burnt down the village of North Scale in the north east of the island. In the late 19th century a salt extraction industry was set up and the shipyard at Barrow expanded.

In 1898 the Isle of Walney Estates Company began to build a housing estate for the shipyard workers. The company was taken over by Vickers, who owned the shipyard, in 1899 and the housing estate became known as Vickerstown. It was enlarged in the 1930s.

There was a ferry across the Walney Channel until the Jubilee Toll Bridge opened in 1908. The tolls were abolished in 1935.

In 1913 Vickers built a huge shed in the north of Walney to construct airships. The shed was shelled by German U-boats in the First World War. During the Second World War there was an RAF airfield and camp at the north end of the island. This closed in 1946.

Walney has a golf course, a caravan site and 2 nature reserves - North and South Walney, which are managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust. It is a great place to watch birds and the North Walney Reserve claims to have 25% of England's population of the rare natterjack toad. South Walney Reserve is frequented by greater and lesser black backed gulls, common & little terns, eider ducks, oystercatchers and shelducks. The whole island is very flat. It has a variety of terrains - sand dunes, salt marsh, mudflats, heathland and pasture.