Superbrains abounded at St Mary's Church Hall in Barrow in 1991 when the youth group held an annual quiz.

Trophies for senior and junior winning teams were presented by mayor Cllr Rose Hamezeian and mayoress Brenda Wade.

Liam Waiting made a presentation on the night to Sister Loreto Walsh, who was leaving the parish to work in Dublin.

In 2005 The Mail reported that St Mary's Roman Catholic church, on Duke Street, stood to inherit £923,527 from the estate of the late William McDowell, formerly of Newbiggin.

He left an estate valued at £1,008,527, with bequests including £50,000 to Save the Children and £1,000 to the Samarians.

But the bulk of the estate had been left to St Mary's, with the condition that a yearly Mass was said for Mr McDowell's late wife, Margaret, mother Agnes, father William, and brother Edward and Elsie Smith.

Mr McDowell grew up in the Hindpool area, where his mother kept a sweet shop on Walney Road.

He left St Mary's School at the age of 14, and was apprenticed as an electrician in the shipyard. He became a successful builder and letting agent who was reputed to have built half of the houses in Newbiggin.

After marriage, he built a house in Newbiggin for his wife Margaret. The couple were happily married until her death more than 10 years previously.

His cousin Molly McSkimmings, 79, of Clifford Street, Barrow, who was also a parishioner of St Mary's described his as a devout, hard-working man.

The Bishop of Lancaster, the Right Reverend Patrick O'Donoghue, said: "I am absolutely delighted because there is so much work to be done in the parish and in the church.

"We are immensely grateful to him for thinking about us and it will help enormously with the work of the parish and in the church in Barrow."