The causeway. It’s back again!

The editorial of February 11 ('Bay-bridge barrage deserves serious thought') and the letter from John Miller (March 24, 'Causeway opportunities') refer to a, not new, but a very long-standing issue, which has certainly received lots of serious thought and debate in the past.

The idea of a causeway over Morecambe Bay was first mooted as long ago as 1786.

The great ironmaster of Lindale, John Wilkinson, a star of the industrial revolution, proposed a causeway over the sands from near Lancaster in a direct line towards Millom (Barrow scarcely existed at the time). His main reason for this was the reclamation of huge areas of land.

When the Lancaster to Carlisle railway was being planned around 1837, there was a division of opinion as to the route. Joseph Locke, builder of the Birmingham to Liverpool line, proposed the route via Tebay and Shap summit.

Cornelius Nicholsen, owner of Burneside paper mills, wanted the line to pass through Kendal and then up Longsleddale and through a tunnel to Mardale (essentially the line of the later Manchester aquaduct).

However, George Stevenson, known as the 'Father of the Railways', favoured avoiding the difficult conditions of Shap Fell and route the line via Poulton over a causeway to Humphrey Head and over further causeways crossing the Leven and Duddon sands to serve the growing towns of Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport before going on to Carlisle.

His argument, apart from ease of construction and operation, was again the reclamation of large tracts of agricultural land and the servicing of the three west Cumbrian towns.

As we know, Locke’s view prevailed.

The causeway idea surfaced at regular intervals over the succeeding almost 200 years (faithfully reported in The Westmorland Gazette), most notably in connection with the construction of the M6, where contrasting views similar to those of Stevenson and Locke, were put forward.

Today, the old advantages remain and Barrow is now an important town, often known as 'the town at the end of Britain’s longest cul-de-sac'.

It desperately needs better access, as does west Cumbria, long a backwater.

Agricultural land is now at a premium and this scheme can contradict Mark Twain’s advice to invest in land because, “They ain’t making it any more.” Additionally we now have a demand for carbon-free energy, which such a barrage could deliver in significant amounts.

There are only two obstacles: funding and the objections to yet another environmentally changing project.

Will this long dream ever materialise?

Kent Brooks

Kendal