Walney held its first carnival on Sunday, July 6, 1997.

The parade featured an impressive array of dancers and floats and, of course, a glamorous carnival queen, and it was watched by thousands of people.

The annual event, organised by North Walney Tenants and Residents Association, continued to go from strength to strength and in 2006 organisers were looking to contact all nine previous carnivals queens to take part in and celebrate the tenth parade.

That year The Mail spoke to some of the previous carnival queens, including sisters Ashleigh and Catherine Myers, of Tees Garden, who over the previous two years had born worn the crown.

Ashleigh Myers, 17, had been crowned Walney Carnival Queen two years previously in 2004 when she was 15.

The day Ashley discovered she was to be queen was the day of the Keswick to Barrow walk in May.

"I did the Keswick to Barrow on the same day and got back just in time for the carnival queen disco that night but I fell asleep at the party," she said.

Two months later she found herself riding the carnival queen float through the streets of Walney.

She said: "I was dead scared until I got up on to the float with my ladies-in-waiting on either side. Then we could talk to each other and had a really good time."

She said it was great to represent the island where she lived.

Her youngster sister Catherine was the retiring carnival queen in 2006. She said it was her big sister who inspired her to go for it. "I entered because my sister had done it the year before and enjoyed it so much," she said.

But Catherine thought it was unlikely she would be chosen as the queen because of the relationship and was doubly delighted when she found out.

"It was really good to follow in my sister's footsteps and to help raise money for Walney," she said.

Would she be sad at handing the crown to that year's queen? "Not sad because it has been such a good experience for me."