Fascinating black and white photographs depicting street scenes in Barrow reveal just how much life has changed since the early 20th century.

Images taken by local photographers the Sankeys from the 1910s onwards depict a way of life with many aspects largely forgotten in the modern age. 

Capturing life in and around Barrow, the photographers snapped many street scenes in which a motor vehicle was rarely seen.

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The Signal Film and Media Sankey archive shows just how much more shop fronts were individually styled with hand-painted signs and witty slogans which dominated advertising around this time.

'From a pin to a Piano' was the slogan for one large corner shop, Pass &Co, on Duke Street pictured in the 1920s.

Pass & Co in the early 1920s  (Image: Sankey online archive) Many of the shops pictured specialised in the likes of baked goods, meat, fish, tea and clothes.

A booming Market Street in Ulverston in 1912 shows, in the days before online shopping and supermarkets, people getting all they needed from one street.

A trip to the shop was also a valued social experience which can be seen in one classic image of two pairs of women chatting on the street corner on Ship Street in the 1940s.

Women chatting on the corner of Ship Street in the 1940s  (Image: Sankey online archive) Theatres and cinemas were classed as a major social outing becoming ‘the peoples’ form of entertainment from the 1910s onwards.

Buildings in town reflected this such as The Picture Palace seen in the gallery in 1918 with its elaborate facade and ornate features.

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Theatres with live acts were often combined with cinemas and after this photo was taken, the Palace Theatre expanded its seating capacity to 2,000 when it was combined into a full-time cinema in 1915.

An impromptu march by the scouts in the early 20th century causing children to run over (Image: Sankey online archive) A snap taken in the 1910s shows the immediacy of small unexpected events in the town centre as boys and girls run to catch up to an impromptu march of the Scouts.

One image of the Barrow Island tenements, built to house workers of the Barrow Iron Shipbuilding Company, show a group of woman huddle on the corner of Sloop Street with one man sweeping in front of the 'old dock buildings'.

Despite advances some mechanical advances in the Victorian era, many still cleaned their own street in the early 1900s with push carts and brooms.

Hundreds of workmen on their way to Vickers shipyard 

In 1914 there were 22,000 employees at the shipyard.

One photos taken looking towards Schneider Square shows hundreds of workmen on their way to Vickers shipyard.

Almost all of the people in this picture are wearing in a flat cap.

Another amazing photograph taken in Gloucester Street, Barrow, shows a large crowd of children out in the street unhindered by cars.

Gloucester Street, Barrow - a large crowd of children out in the street unhindered by cars (Image: Sankey online archive)

One image taken at the Scotch Buildings in the early 20th century shows the poverty of the times with a groups of boys and girls, who are mostly barefoot, playing with a dog. 

A communal midden, which is an old dump for domestic waste, can be seen in the foreground with washing out in the street despite the smoky chimneys.

The Scotch Buildings in the early 20th century group of boys and girls barefoot playing with  dog (Image: Sankey online archive) For many people Monday was washing day after the weekend's rest.

This can be seen one extraordinary picture of laundry adorning the washing lines on Ship Street taken just after the turn of the century.