10 YEARS AGO: Barrow Park won the Landscape Institute Award after a £2.5m facelift in 2004 and 2005. Among the runners-up were London’s Bloomsbury Square and Polesworth Abbey in Warwickshire.

The number of people claiming the job seeker’s allowance in Barrow was 1,028 - 796 men and 232 women.

A semi-detached house at Cypress Walk, Barrow, was offered for sale at £194,950. A terraced house at Medway Road, Walney, was £119,950.

Tesco got permission from the Office of Fair Trading to take over one of Barrow's former Kwik Save branches.

25 YEARS AGO: The county's ambulance chief Jeff Owen was appointed chief executive of the new Cumbria Ambulance Service Trust. The finance director was to be Paul Megson with Alan Donkersley as operations director.

The Furness and Cartmel Tourism organisation launched a nationwide search for a sculptor to design a 13ft statue of Ulverston-born movie star Stan Laurel. It was expected to cost £75,000 to construct.

Cumbria County Council was to syphon off radioactive radon gas which was seeping into a Dalton house from an underlying rock formation.

South Lakeland councillors would be powerless to stop the spread of new phone masts throughout the district, said planning chief Phil Morris.

50 YEARS AGO: Hawkshead had the ugliest car park in England, Cllr Miss A. C. F. Dobson told North Lonsdale Rural District Council's finance committee.

Barrow Rugby League Club winger Mike Murray was to compete over 100 yards in the Powderhall Sprint at Edinburgh on New Year's Day. Fellow Barrow player Bob Wear was also due to run.

Research into wildlife in woodland was to be concentrated at the Nature Conservancy centre at Merlewood, near Grange.

Ulverston's newest shop was run by the tailor and outfitter J. McKibbin at 1 Market Place. On offer was a large range of suit materials, knitwear, shirts, ties and pyjamas.