Months of back-breaking work spent in his allotment garden earned green-fingered Ulverston man Ken Croasdale more than just a bumper crop of fruit and vegetables in 1994.

Mr Croasdale’s efforts transforming an old hen run into a flourishing allotment bursting with produce had been rewarded with a top prize from Ulverston Council.

Mr Croasdale, who had only taken over his allotment, at Tank Field, in January that year, had been awarded the Most Improved Allotment Shield as part of the town’s Charter Festival celebrations.

The 45-year-old from Lightburn Road, who ran the Greenodd Service Station with his father, was stunned by his win.

“It’s quite a surprise especially as there are lots of other allotments down there which are better than mine,” he said.

Mr Croasdale said it was his first allotment and when he first took it over, he had to get a friend to plough the former hen run for him.

“Later in the winter I dug it all over myself. It’s been a lot of hard work and involved a lot of manual digging,” he said.

Other individual allotment site winner, who would receive gardeners’ gift token prizes at the charter festival awards evening, were:

Mr T Taylor, No 17 The Ellers allotments: Mrs J I Porter, No 37 Dragley Beck allotments: Mr and Mrs A Cooper, No 10 Poplar Grove allotments: Mr J Todd Nos 8 and 9 Hill Fall allotments: and Mr J H Stoddart, No 21 Mill Dam allotments.

A new princess was crowned as Ulverston marked the opening of its fifteenth charter festival in 1994.

Mayor Janette Jenkinson placed the banner over her Nicola Jewitt's head

Town crier Alf Jarvis then went on to announce the events happening over the weekend as part of the fortnight of fun. These included a 38-mile cycle race starting at Birkrigg Common, a road race and fun run.

Twelve-year-old Nicola, who said she was excited to be the princess, was also presented with the charter cup and gift of jewellery donated by Ken Lindow of Lindow's Jewellers.