PUBS, inns and hotels have been the community centres for Cumbrian towns and villages for decades but have never been under such pressure to survive in a rapidly changing world.

Cheap supermarket bottles and cans and the impact of the smoking ban on public places has brought new challenges to existing ones — such as town centre development schemes and big-budget buyers wanting to turn country pubs into desirable private houses.

We are taking a look at a cross-section of archive images showing pubs and their regulars across the county — some of which are sadly no longer open for business.

Carlisle has lost many of its pubs in recent times — gone to demolition, or conversion to shops and houses.

Among them is The Avenue, in Central Avenue, which closed in 2001 and was demolished two years later, or the Blue Bell Inn, on Scotch Street, which closed in 1973.

The city's Border Terrier, on Morton Park, pulled its last pints in 2014 and the Green Dragon, on Newton Road, shut in 1998 and became a house.

It was last orders in 2004 at The Cumberland Wrestlers, on Currock Street, which had been built in 1938.

The London Tavern, on Alexander Street, opened in 1916 during the First World War and in 2007 closed to become a betting shop.

Queen Victoria was celebrating her golden jubilee when the Viaduct Hotel was opened on the Victoria Viaduct.

It was demolished in 1969 to make way for a Tesco store.

A host of Barrow pubs and hotels were demolished at the end of the 1960s to make way for a development which had brought a new indoor market, rooftop car park and Civic Hall by the time of the Queen's official visit in 1971.

Among the casualties was the Bull Hotel, on the corner of Paxton Terrace and Dalton Road, which had been open for business since 1860.

Also to go in the name of shopping progress was the Railway Inn, on John Street, and the Snipe Inn, on Paxton Street.

The Mason's Arms had been open since 1860 — and was one of the oldest buildings in Barrow — but closed in 1968 to be demolished for the Furness House development.

Other Barrow pubs became flats — including the Crystal Palace, The Sandgate, the Wheatsheaf and the Washington.

The big chain J. D. Wetherspoon has turned large and often unusual buildings into places to eat and drink. In Cumbria, these have included the Furness Railway — in the converted Barrow Co-operative Society department store, in Abbey Road, Barrow.

There is also The Chief Justice of the Common Please in the old courts and police station at Keswick and The Bransty Arch, in part of the former Cumberland Motor Services base at Whitehaven.

For more than 50 years the pubs, off-licenses and breweries in Carlisle were the subject of a state management scheme, designed to save Gretna munitions workers from the evils of drink during the First World War.

The Carlisle Experiment amazingly lasted from 1916 to 1973 and saw every aspect of alcohol provision in the city and its surroundings controlled by civil servants on behalf of the state.

Many drinking dens were shut during the war and slowly they were replaced with model pubs — many designed by Harry Redfern, which encouraged the serving of drink with food and the promotion of pub games and entertainment — rather than heavy alcohol consumption.