A REMARKABLE group of old framed photographs showing Barrow, Walney and Ulverston was salvaged when the White House Hotel on Abbey Road, Barrow, was demolished.

The White House is now the Prestige and Sport site for family-owned car dealers Furness Park.

The historic pictures have been kindly shared with the Memories Page by Alan Stoker, who started Furness Park 50 years ago.

Today’s selection of pictures have a transport theme – featuring a tram, vintage bus and ships. Barrow got permission for a tramway system in 1881 and in 1885 William Parsons drove the first vehicle.

In 1898 the system went into liquidation and was taken over by the British Electric Traction Company, which had 50 concerns across the British Isles. Work towards powering the system from overhead electric cables started in 1903 and was completed in 1904.

Barrow Council paid £96,250 for the tramway system in 1920 and the last tram, again driven by William Parsons, ran on April 5 in 1932.

A horse bus service started in Barrow from 1877 - from Barrow Island to the Strawberry Hotel on Abbey Road - but was not an immediate success.

Motor bus service started in Barrow in 1915 when the British Electric Traction Company applied for a licence for a service from Barrow Town Hall to Dalton and Ulverston using six Daimler CD vehicles. Barrow Corporation started its own bus service in May 1925.

It used Guy single-deckers but by the 1930s the expanded council fleet was provided by Leyland and Crossley.

The cruiser Rurik was built by Vickers for Russia. It was launched on November 4 in 1906 and completed in July 1909.

The ship was 15,700 tons and had a top speed of 21 knots.

Main armament was four guns of 10 inch barrel diameter, arranged in two turrets.

Rurik hit a mine and sank in the Baltic sea in 1916 but was refloated, repaired and returned to service.

It was sold for scrapping in 1930. HMS Vanguard was launched at Barrow on April 2 in 1908 and commissioned into Royal Navy service on March 1 in 1910.

It exploded and sank at anchor in Scapa Flow, Orkney, on July 9 in 1917.

The likely cause was the spontaneous ignition of explosives stored on the ship to fire its big naval shells.

More than 700 sailors died, including Petty officer Alfred Thomson, of Hindpool Road, Barrow.

Its brass bell, recovered from the sea bed, is on display in the Dock Martime Museum.

Look out for more pictures from the Furness Park collection in a future article.