'To be invited to address a professional body in this district is one thing; to be invited to talk and then be given the opportunity of inspecting the house where one's great great grandfather lived before he sold it to John Ruskin is quite another.

'Little wonder that Dr George Parks, Associate Professor at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania, enjoyed his trip to Furness last weekend.'

So began a report in The Mail in November 1967.

Dr Parks visited Brantwood, on the shores of Coniston Water, during his visit to the area.

Dr Parks was in Furness to address a meeting of the Furness and Cumberland Institution of Works Managers on 'Production Management in the USA' and the theme of his address was to stress the need for greater worker participation in all aspects of industrial life.

He said that in order to get the country 'off the ground' it was essential that the latest sophisticated techniques of computer control, organisation and planning be used to the full and that there was a need for workers on the shop floor to be aware of what was needed from them.

Dr Parks was in the country as Visiting Professor in Production at the London Graduate School of Business Studies and would be in London for six months before returning to Pennsylvania.

A great great grandson of W J Linton, a printer and lithographer who owned Brantwood at Coniston, until he emigrated to New York in 1871, Dr Parks was very keen to visit the famous old house.

His ancestors sold the place to John Ruskin for £1,500 and when Dr Parks called there he was shown around the property by the warden.

In 1995 The Mail was on hand to record the official opening of the harbour walk garden at Brantwood.

The ceremony was carried out by Tony Cunningham MEP.

He was accompanied by his wife Anne and daughter Angela and they were shown around the harbour walk garden by Brantwood manager Bruce Hanson and head gardener Sally Beamish.