Walney Island and Nature Reserve By Mark Bateman
Walney Island, also known as ‘The Isle of Walney’, is an Island lying just off the Cumbrian coast at Barrow in Furness in the Irish sea. It is part of the ‘Furness Islands’ a group which is made up of seven islands lying off the South West, and East, of the Furness peninsula. Of these islands only four are inhabited with Walney Island being by far the largest at eleven miles long and up to two kilometres wide in places. Walney is the eighth largest Island in England with a recorded population of over 10,500 residents in 2011. 114
T
he Island was formed during the last glacial period approximately 15,000 years ago when glacial till (sediment) was deposited at the mouth of the River Duddon which was itself formed by glacial melt. Evidence of a long period of habitation on Walney has been discovered in the excavation of the sand dunes where Bronze age pottery fragments have been discovered. It is believed that the area known as ‘Low Furness’ (which included Barrow) was inhabited by Norse settlers who came to the area from Ireland and the Isle of Man. Through the middle ages activity on Walney was mainly agricultural and would have been over seen by the monks of Furness Abbey who
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
built the flood defences at Bigger Dyke on the east of the Island. Settlements on the West coast included Earnse Bay and Biggar Bank. Biggar is more isolated lying two miles south of Vickers Town and was an agricultural area consisting mainly of farms. Biggar is also perhaps the oldest known settlement on Walney as a grange at Biggar was mentioned in Furness Abbey records dating back to 1292. Walney remained essentially made up of farms until the arrival of the industrial revolution and in particular the booming ship building industry at neighbouring Barrow. The Island provided a shelter from the rough Irish sea allowing shipping docks, and yards, to be built on Barrow Island in the Walney channel from the 1870s onwards. www.lancmag.com
