Historical photos of Dockers Barrow-in Furness in early 1900

Barrow docks saw several disasters from the beginning of the 20th century until the 1950s.

The local photographers, the Sankeys, managed to capture some of the main accidents that occurred, including the collapse of the cantilever crane in 1907 in Buccoleuch Dock.

Fortunately, there was no one there at that time and the crane arm managed to remain intact.

However, much of the column network work was severely twisted and bent to the foundations.

A year later, the photographers also captured a fire that exploded in Gradwells Timber Yard, the entrance to the Devonshire dock, in 1908.

Fire in the Timber Yard of Gradwell in 1908 (Image: Sankey online file) A horse -thrown by horses can be seen while emergency workers attend the scene.

You can also see the sailors paddling to the Mayfly aircraft disaster of 512 feet in 1911, where the power vessel broke in half when leaving the shed. The large size of the boat meant that it overturned even more once extracted from water months later.

Decades later, the Sankeys captured the Oreny ship resting on the Buccoleuch dock in 1950 after a fire that burned for three days.

Floating spring towed by the powerful tugboat furniture (Image: Sankey) Edward Sankey spent his training years growing in a railway house next to the Buccoleuch dock and lived directly in front of one of the city’s wooden courtyards.

As referenced in the Sankey Archive, foreign ships with their positions around the world were a source of fascination for him.

Many photographs of Sankey showed the daily life of the Dockers, including their diving team in their bulky work costumes.

These had brass and copper helmets to do their difficult and dangerous work in the murky depths.

An image also shows men who download Pulpwood in Ramsden Dock, rolled sleeves to download a record of records.

According to the Sankey Archive, this was taken in a dry day, which would have made the task less risky.

Workers downloading pulpwood in Ramsden Dock (Image: Sankey) An extraordinary image also shows the sailors and workers uploading the bow of a ship while the crew crows the roof and hundreds of workers align at the dock.

They can also be seen aligning the Ramsden spring station when a ship is about to join with the one -day travel passengers on board.

Furness railway personnel are waiting on the lower right -off platform.

An impressive image shows that two dock workers eclipsed in a small boat in Ramsden Dock in the shadow of SS Furnesia.

The water is being exhausted around the boat by the propellers of the ship, which makes the task of catching the launch line complicated and potentially dangerous.

Two men in the small remote boat eclipsed by SS Quernmore (Image: Sankey) Another impressive image also shows a floating dock towed by the powerful furniture boat like two sailors in a small lifeboat.

Anyone who wants to use Sankey photos in a book, online or in an exhibition must ask permission to use Archives cumbria photos and there may be a position.

However, downloading images for personal use is fine. The complete details about copyright are here: