ANOTHER part of Barrow's Victorian history has bitten the dust with the loss of the former registry office on Abbey Road.

It's probably fair to assume that many a marriage agreed in the building will have gone the same way, although many will have survived too.

Quite often, if you walked by at precisely the moment that a happy couple appeared, you could end up being showered in confetti by excited bridesmaids.

But let's be honest, nostalgia does not keep our landmark buildings upright, as much as we wish that were the case.

Public safety has to come first and unfortunately these big old buildings, built in another time, cost money to maintain, big money, and a lot of expense.

Some of them are now coming to the end of their natural lives, more than a century after they first went up.

Yet with a bit of love and investment we can hang on to our landmarks. You only need to look at the Furness Railway, or the old Co-op as was, to realise that, or the superb job done to redevelop the Duke of Edinburgh.

Owners and businesses may come and go over the years, and we may not always agree with what they become.

The important thing is we try to keep what we can to give us a sense of the place, or allow new life in for the next generation to make it their own.

As long as we keep a bit of Barrow.