Twenty Barrow town hall workers were presented with long service awards in a special ceremony in the Mayor’s Parlour in 1991

New Barrow Mayor Cllr Rose Hamezeian presented watches to the award-winning staff.

The longest-serving of them all was Vince Leonard, from the chief executive’s department, who had put in 55 years’ service.

Also receiving awards were, from the highways department, Gordon Patterson (40 years), John Millard (39), John Murthwaite (37) and John Hannah (32). From the cleaning department were Alan Jarvis (34 years), Eileen Haswell (29) and Leslie Holmes (25).

Phillip Oliver (33 years) and Victor Cresswell (39) served in the electrical and parks departments respectively; Cecil Atherton (49), Peter Clarke (25), Steve Warbrick (25) and Michael Ralph (31) all worked for the development department.

From the finance department were Ron Fallows (34 years), Tony Charnley (38) and Leslie Middleton (34). Alongside Mr Leonard in the chief executive’s department was Bernard Adams (33 years).

From the BCBD was Douglas Kitchen (28 years) and from the construction department Raymond Lund (28 years).

Treasures from the table of Barrow’s first mayor, James Ramsden, helped lure more than 300 people to a charity evening and coffee morning at the town hall in November 1995.

Leading the way around the table of treasures was Mayor Flo Proudfoot, clad in the clothing of Fish Maggie, from the late Jack Holgate’s popular book A Clatter of Clogs.

The event also boasted a display of invitations to mayoral receptions and balls stretching back as far as 1883 and music was provided by students from Parkview School and Barrow Sixth Form College.

More than £600 was collected for the mayor's charity fund with stalls for the Blind Society, Guide Dogs for the Blind and a raffle for St Mary's Hospice, Ulverston, also raising their own funds.

The mayor arranged china and cutlery on the banquet table to provide a taste of a setting Ramsden would have sat down at on important civic occasions.