A POEM that debunks Barrow's negative connotations has gone viral and brought Barrovians to tears.

The short poem ‘Our Barra Town’ created by Sally Ann Staunton and John Rennie expresses the hometown pride of being a Barrovian.

The writers noticed Barrow had received negative press in the national media in recent years and felt the criticism had been unfair - so created this video in response.

Producer John Rennie said Barrow is a good town with good people and this message needs to be shared with the world. 

 

He said: “Sally and I are schoolmates who both came back to the town in 2020 after living and working away. We’ve both gone through a period of reconnection with people and places in the area which has made this feel like home again.

“As we all know Barrow has received a lot of negative press and media in recent years. Sally was upset about this, feeling it was unjustified having been welcomed back so warmly.

“She told me she went for a run down the Old Line,  while thinking about all the names people call the town when the line Barra, “Basra, Barrowbados, Barrow” came into her head and from there she started to write the poem. When she had a rough draft she told me about the project.

The Mail:

“I loved the idea and wanted to be involved. I offered my video production services and I also offered to help finalise the script. We agreed that we wanted to write words that Barrovians could take ownership of. We wanted to write something that Barrovians could say in response to any criticism or negativity about the town. We wanted Barrovians to say the words proudly and feel like they wrote it themselves.

“We got a small amount of funding from Barrowfull for their Boosting Barrow’s Creativity project. I used the money to buy a bit of equipment I needed and from there on in it was a passion project. I spent countless hours writing messages, meeting people, filming, editing and so on.

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“It was really enjoyable but also really tough at times. I felt quite overwhelmed at different points with how much work needed to be done to get the final video to the standard I wanted.

The Mail:

“I was wondering how I was going to get all the drone footage I needed. That’s when I put a post on the Beauty of Barrow and Furness Facebook page asking for nice drone footage of the area. The response was huge. I put it all together but the final piece is the product of a real community effort."

John said the response to the video had been incredible and they received  many lovely messages saying it moved them and brought them to tears.

“We’ve had messages from Barrovians who live in Australia, Japan and other parts of the country saying it made them homesick," he said.

“It’s amazing to read all the positive comments. We just can’t keep up with them but thank you to everyone for showing your appreciation."

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP_bDKqPtOM