Vickerstown
Vickerstown is an area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, covered by the wards of Walney North and Walney South. It is an example of a model village built for workers by a company needing to expand, having been constructed in the early 20th century by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering. Vickerstown contains two Conservation Areas and is home to the majority of the population of Walney Island.
History
Beginnings
Its construction was prompted by a lack of housing available for the workers at Barrow's shipyard, owned at the time by Vickers. Some workers were forced to live on board the Atlantic liner, which was moored in the docks. Plans for its development were begun in 1898 and Vickers bought out the Isle of Walney Estates Company to handle the construction.Homes were designed to last, with the houses in a Tudor Revival terrace style. Larger houses overlooking Walney Channel were reserved for managers' families. The good construction of this estate meant that Walney did not have the slums that plagued other parts of the country and even Barrow in the 1950s. Most streets in Vickerstown are named after ships built at Vickers and other portstowns and cities in the UK.
Development
The first 1,000 houses were completed in 1901 and tenants soon moved in, with strict selection criteria. A toll bridge to the mainland was opened in 1908.The rearmament programme and the First World War led to a second phase of building during which government loans were used to build accommodation for workers but these houses were more utilitarian than those in the original plans.
After the First World War, houses began to be sold on to tenants and in 1951, with only a handful of properties still under its control, the estate company was wound up.