Barrow-based shipping firm James Fisher paid £7.7m for specialist underwater equipment firm Pumptools, of Aberdeen.

The 1970s punk band The Rezillos were due to make a first visit to Barrow to play at The Canteen, on Barrow Island.

You could earn up to £12,000 per year working as a park ranger for Continental Landscapes in Barrow Public Park.

A £37m Leonardo Da Vinci painting belonging to Barrow landowner the Duke of Buccleuch was recovered after being stolen four years previously.

25 YEARS AGO

Ulverston grandmother Ginny Stretch fulfilled a lifetime's ambition by leaping from a plane two miles above Furness. Her jump at Cark airfield raised £200 for cancer research.

It was suggested by the Ministry of Defence that the Barrow-built nuclear submarine HMS Dreadnought could be stored in a deep sea grave 400 miles off the Cornish coast.

More than 60 classic bikes were to go on show at Ulverston's Coronation Hall in the Ulverston Custom and Classic Motor Cycle Show.

A dummy run took place ahead of planned movements of 2,700-tonne loads along Barrow roads to the Rampside British Gas terminal.

50 YEARS AGO

Scott's of Ambleside had a four-year-old 250cc Aeriel Leader motorcycle for sale at £85. A 10-year-old BSA 650cc machine was £30.

You could dance to Danny Patterson and The Flamingoes at Barrow's Public Hall, facing Cornwallis Street.

Joe Symonds, MP for Whitehaven, pressed a switch to start the new continuous-strand sinter plant at Millom Ironworks. It had cost £600,000 and took two years to build. Using sinter rather than iron ore cut down on coke coasts.

The Catholic Women's League held a fashion show at Barrow's Victoria Park Hotel.