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Barrow Lifeboat Station

lifeboat station in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, UK

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ108283831 ↗
Source-derived summary

Barrow Lifeboat Station is located on Roa Island, near the town of Barrow in Furness, formerly part of Lancashire, but now in Cumbria.

A lifeboat was first stationed at Barrow-in-Furness by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1864.

The station currently operates a slipway launched Tamar-class All-weather lifeboat, 16-08 Grace Dixon (ON 1288), on station since 2008, and a D-class (IB1) Inshore lifeboat, Raymond and Dorothy Billingham (D-866), on station since 2022.

History

In 1864, Barrow industrialist James Ramsden, and Capt. L. Barstow, RN, Inspecting Commander of Coastguard, wrote to the RNLI requesting that a lifeboat be stationed at Barrow. At a meeting of the RNLI committee of management on 7 April 1864, with the additional offer of local funding, a new station was agreed.

A station was built on Roa Island, the island having been joined to the mainland with the construction of a causeway in 1846. It is located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Barrow, overlooking Piel Channel, the entrance to the Port of Barrow, with easy access to the Irish Sea. The station was named as Piel (Barrow) Lifeboat Station.

The first boat supplied to the station had previously served at Berwick-upon-Tweed, and was a 30 ft (9.1 m) self-righting pulling & sailing type lifeboat.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Barrow Lifeboat Station” as lifeboat station in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Barrow, Lifeboat and Station.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 1288, 2008, 2022—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Barrow, Lifeboat and Station providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Barrow Lifeboat Station”, the useful work is to connect “lifeboat station in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108283831. Authority coordinates are 54.073, -3.173. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1864, 1288, 2008 and 2022.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Barrow Lifeboat Station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Barrow Lifeboat Station primary sources, Barrow Lifeboat Station archive and Barrow research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Barrow Lifeboat Station”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Barrow Lifeboat Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.