It seems that what every Victorian woman really wanted was a man with a bushy beard – and one wife was ready to dump her husband for being short in the whisker department.

Our sailor husband was deserted by his wife in Millom back in 1889 after she told him a pack of lies about wanting to go home on the train.

The story was told in the Barrow News on Saturday, December 14 in 1889 under the headline "Extraordinary Husband Desertion Case".

It noted: An extraordinary case is reported from Connah's Quay, Wales.

"It seems that the wife of the mate of a tarding vessel accompanied her husband on his last voyage to a Scotch port.

"On the return voyage the vessel put in at Millom and the wife expressed a desire to return home by train.

"He husband accordingly accompanied her to the Millom railway station and saw her off.

"On reaching Connah's Quay, instead of finding his wife, a letter from her awaited him.

"It informed him that she had decided to leave him for ever, as she could not live any longer with a man that had no whiskers.

"Nothing has since been heard of the runaway wife and the husband has sold all his furniture and gone into lodgings."

Millom pier was a regular destination for sailing ships called schooners from North Wales.

They took out pig iron and iron ore from Millom Ironworks and Hodbarrow mines and brought in wooden pit props and other cargoes.