BARROW AFC welcome Kidderminster to Holker Street on Saturday, February 4, but ambition to reach the last eight of the FA Trophy is not all which links the towns.

Around 150 years ago the skills of Worcestershire men in mining and iron making was high demand as the new Barrow grew rapidly in size.

They were joined by others with skills and experience from Staffordhsire and from Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

The 1881 census shows that 21 people born in Kidderminster had made the 188-mile trip to live and work in Barrow.

They included William Hammond, 48, of Buccleuch Street, who was a gasworks labourer.

Alfred Hill, 40, of Goldsmith Street, was a Barrow Ironworks labourer; while William Marsh, 49, was a boarder at Scott Street and was employed as a boilermaker.

Isiah Solloway, 50, of Granville Street, was a labourer; while Lavinia Walford, 16, was a servant living at Walney View, Hindpool.

Daniel Wall, 34, of Duke Street, was an ironworks labourer and John Williams, 35, of Napier Street, was a confectioner.

A few miles along what is now the preserved Severn Valley Railway is the town of Bewdley – now a tourist attraction but once a place of coal mines and industry.

It was to send several of its workers to Barrow to help with the development of the iron and steel furnaces.

The 1881 census shows Bewdley-born Samuel Jones, aged 31, living at Byron Street and working as a blast furnace labourer. His wife Sarah, 33, had been born at Rowley, Staffordshire.

The Jones family came to Barrow in numbers

Another blast furnace labourer living in Byron Street was James Jones, 52, with his wife Fanny, 53, also born at Bewdley.

Their daughter Rosanne, 15, had been born in Tipton, Sraffordshire.

A few doors away was Joseph Jones, 29, an iron ore miner.

Also in Byron Street was John Wilkinson, 47, a labourer. His wife Elizabeth, 45, was from Tipton.

Charles Crowe, 54, came from Bewdley to live in Coulton Street, Barrow, and work as a sawyer. He brought his wife Anne, 61, who had been born in Kidderminster.