IT was the musical society that could boast a list of shows as extensive as its popularity among local residents.

In 1988, the Abbey Musical society put on a performance at Barrow Civic Hall.

The show included songs from their summer show and was a first-time outing for some of their new singers.

The performance brought a collection of their songs from their previous shows together to make one large musical number.

Members of the group had often used the hall for practise and had hosted several shows at the venue over the years.

In 1990, the Abbey group presented its production of the Here Comes Summer show at the Barrow Town Hall’s banqueting hall on two days in March.

The show contained popular Rodgers and Hammerstein numbers, plus music from Les Miserables and a condensed version of The Boyfriend.

Among the principal singers were Anne Woods, Bill Steel, Marie Almark, Gordon Woodhouse and Heather Collinge.

They were backed by a full chorus, as well as Dennis Wootton on the piano, Gordan Woodhouse on the drums and bass player Brian Parkinson was also part of the group.

Noreen Steel acted as musical director and tickets for the show were sold at That Shop on Cavendish Street.

The main show of that year was chosen as Finian’s Rainbow, with Gordan Woodhouse once again playing a main role as Finian. Heather Collinge would play his daughter Sharon.

The society had hoped that the show would be the first local amateur production to be staged at the newly-built Forum 28, a renovation of the Civic.

In 1992, the group put on their own version of the sort after play Blitz.

The show took place in Forum 28 and was a sell-out show soon after it was announced in the town. This was viewed as a very rare occurrence for the actors as it was initially thought unlikely that permission would be given by the show’s creator, Lionel Bart.