10 YEARS AGO Barrow Town Hall officials were launching an appeal to find a new home for the Dalton Road gazebo. It had been moved to make way for the route of Barrow carnival. It had cost £3,000 to build in 1990. A semi-detached house at Queens Park, Millom, was offered for sale at £72,500. A detached cottage at Ireleth Road, Ireleth, was £219,995. The first chemist shop in Barrow’s Ormsgill was opened at Middlefield for pharmacy chain Murrays after a £100,000 investment.

25 YEARS AGO Newby Bridge film-maker Kat Thurston wrote a book called the Curiosities of Cumbria. Her first book had been about riding around India on a motorbike. Cumbria’s Chief Constable Alan Elliott wanted to ease the county’s homeless problem by making use of surplus police houses. He had contacted all six district councils about the possibility of police houses being available for sale or lease. Dalton mothers were demanding extra nursery places in the town. Chapel Street Infant School had 52 nursery places but had to turn 40 away.

50 YEARS AGO The curate of St Luke’s Church, Barrow, the Reverend Clive Gillhespey, was leaving the town to become vicar of Flookburgh. You could earn £14.23 for a 42-hour week as a petrol pump attendant at the Westbourne Service Station on Abbey Road, Barrow. Brian Todd, Stephen Corran and Fred Benson landed a seven pound thornback skate at Earnse Bay, Walney.