page_title: Furness
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Furness / History
caption_attribution_description: en:Furness Abbey, South West Cumbria, UK. Photograph taken by a family member of Mikef.
context_page_description: Furness is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire.
  The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of villages, agricultural land and low-lying moorland, with the industrial town of Barrow at its head. The peninsula is bordered by the estuaries of the River Duddon to the west and the River Leven in Morecambe Bay to the east. The wider region of Furness consists of the peninsula and the area known as High Furness, which is a relatively mountainous and sparsely populated part of England, extending inland into the Lake District and containing the Furness Fells. The inland boundary of the region is formed by the rivers Leven, Brathay and Duddon, and the lake of Windermere. Off the southern tip of Furness is Walney Island, 11 miles long, as well as several smaller islands.
  The Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, which developed when the Furness iron industry flourished in the 19th century, is the region's largest settlement, with a population of over 91,000.
context_section_description: Furness seems to have been scantly populated in ancient times. A handful of Brittonic placenames survive around Barrow, suggesting this part was settled earliest. Anglo-Saxons arrived in Low Furness in the 7th century, but do not seem to have spread to High Furness, which remained almost empty until it was populated by incoming Scandinavians in the 10th century. It has been suggested that they had a small mountain kingdom there, centred on Coniston (which means "king's town").  The prevalence of names with the element "thwaite" in High Furness (from Norse thveit, "clearing"), and the absence thereof in Low Furness, suggests that the latter had already been deforested by the time the Scandinavians arrived. Scandinavians probably formed the majority of the Furness population, and Old Norse remained a living language in the region until at least the late 12th century.
  Before the Conquest, Furness, assessed to contain 82 ploughlands, was part of the Manor of Hougun, held by Tostig, Earl of Northumbria. By 1086, Furness was in the possession of the crown. In 1127 Prince Stephen founded Furness Abbey, granting the abbot most of the land in Furness and giving the rest to a Fleming named Michael. Henry III later granted the rent due from the lord of Michael's Land (£10 per year) to the abbot of Furness, making him the sole tenant-in-chief, and thus one of the most powerful abbots in the country.
  In the 14th century Dalton Castle and Piel Castle were built by the abbots of Furness to defend the market town of Dalton and the port of Barrow respectively. The area had been raided by Scots in 1316 and again in 1322, though in the latter year the abbot paid Robert the Bruce a ransom to stop his men harrying Low Furness.
  The pretender Lambert Simnel landed with his army at Piel Island in 1487. A few locals joined him, including Sir Thomas Broughton of Broughton Tower, who would be killed at the disastrous Battle of Stoke Field.
  The abbey was closed in 1536 after the monks lent their support to the Pilgrimage of Grace, and the abbot's lands were seized by the crown, becoming part of the royal duchy of Lancaster. Later they were granted to the dukes of Buccleuch and Devonshire.
  In May 1643, Furness was occupied and plundered by a large Royalist force commanded by Richard Viscount Molyneux. Later that year they prepared to march to the relief of Thurland Castle in South Lonsdale, then besieged by Colonel Rigby, but Rigby took some of his men over the sands and met the Royalists at Lindal, where they were routed. The Parliamentarians looted the Dalton neighbourhood before retreating to Cartmel the same night. In 1644 the Royalists remained in control of Furness, though the country folk were hostile to them, and Parliament ships landed at Piel Island to aid in a rising. After a fight at Hawcoat the resistance was quashed, and the Parliament ships left for Liverpool. After collecting the king's rents, the Royalists left for Cartmel. After the Restoration of the monarchy, one Furness landowner, Colonel Sawry, attempted a rising.
  Iron had been mined in Furness since prehistory, and by the late 18th century ore was being exported from Barrow. The Furness Railway was built in the 19th century to cater to the increasing demand. Iron and steelworks were established at Barrow, and the town's population grew from 325 in 1847 to 51,712 in 1891, surpassing Dalton's and Ulverston's. Mining in Furness reached its peak in 1882, when 1,408,693 tons of ore were won. At the same time, tourism in the Lake District increased, popularised in part by the work of John Ruskin and William Wordsworth.
  Tourism in High Furness was promoted by the writings of Beatrix Potter in the early 20th century. Potter was one of the largest landowners in the area, eventually donating her many properties to the National Trust.
  Shipbuilding later replaced iron and steel as Low Furness's main industry, and Barrow's shipyards became the largest in England. In particular, submarine development became a specialty of the town, with the Royal Navy's first submarines built there. During 
caption: The ruins of Furness Abbey, just north of Barrow
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