WE all love to grumble about the state of the roads in South Cumbria but compared to 200 years ago the surfaces are of amazing quality.

TODAY’S set of pictures from the Evening Mail archive features members of the Barrow Ladies Circle at an evening of flowers and fashion staged at Barrow Civic Hall in October 1973.

• County gets new look for museum
• Ruinous party killed off the guild tradition
• The country cures

A UNIQUE 19th century industrial bridge across Ulverston Canal has just been granted special legal protection.

PLENTY of you were quick to suggest uses for the mystery tool which featured on Monday’s Memories Page.

• Old world look with latest tricks

THE history of beer and brewing comes under the spotlight in three Cumbrian events in the next few weeks.

A BATTLESHIP and a new technical school stole the headlines but a pair of Hindpool streets may have made a bigger impression on a visiting princess.

• Were you an evacuee from the Blitz?

WE are hoping that readers may be able to suggest the correct use for this curious vintage tool.

• Stone quarries found everywhere

NOT many 21-year-olds get the chance to fly all over the world and take a leading role in a major NATO exercise, but that was just part of life for RAF navigator Ernie Diamond.

• Jet bomber introduced a new era to warfare
• Haggis for all

FEW Barrow submarines were given so many prominent wartime tasks as HMS Seraph – including a star role in a successful project to mislead the Germans with the use of a dead body carrying bogus papers.

• Flying winger turned down big clubs

HAVING named most of the wartime forestry workers on two Grizedale pictures (January 19) we can now tell you who took the pictures.

A REQUEST for information about a song written about Walney brought back happy memories for several readers.

THESE days you can’t even bank on decent summer weather so it makes sense to get away from it all for a winter break in the country and avoid the crowds.

FURNESS features strongly in a day devoted to the latest research in archaeology being hosted by the Centre for North-West Regional Studies on March 3.

• Teacher spotted in class 2A
• Uniforms got a first outing to the studio

YOU can be asked to help judge some unusual contests but one for head bands takes some beating.

• Names found for timber girls
• Last of fire station six is identified
• No leaders

SIXTY pupils from Ulverston’s Sir John Barrow School went back in time to discover what education was like in the Victorian era.

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THE golden key used by Princess Louise to open the iconic Barrow Technical School in Abbey Road is being offered for sale at just under £10,000.

Members and guests of the Rotary Club of Furness at the sixth charter anniversary dinner held in July 1997 at the Coot, Urswick.

• Putting some steam back into a legend
• Restorers hunting out elusive motorcycle parts
• Lighting the way for servants and poor

WITH Walney Central playing Kells in the Cumbria Cup final at the Copeland Stadium tomorrow, amateur rugby league writer Paddy McAteer takes a look at former Walney teams from his vast collection of pictures.

We have had names suggested for the five soccer team boys pictured at Lightburn School, Ulverston, around 1970 (Memories Page, Monday).

• Teenagers called on to serve the nation
• Tough times in an era without jobs

COUNTRY and town centre pubs face ever- increasing financial pressures from the recession and our changing habits.
These Evening Mail archive pictures are from the 1990s when more people were keen to take over the reins at the traditional watering holes in South Cumbria.
It was a more care-free era before the advent of the now commonplace cut-price beer offers at supermarkets.

THIS set of Evening Mail archive pictures shows the major transformation of the 2,000-seater cinema auditorium of the old Ritz into the three-screen Astra.

JACK Marsh, of Barnard Street, Barrow, takes a look back to Barrow’s role in the brief heyday of the airship.

• Can you name the mystery football five?

THIS interesting group of pictures comes from the Evening Mail archive and shows youngsters from the South Cumbria Scout and Guide movement at an end-of-year fun event.

• A night off from the shop
• Star of the shows
• Men getting used to life in the trenches

WE have had success in finding names for several of the 1960s Barrow firefighters and fire station workers (Memories Page, December 28).

• Names found for the classmates of 1952

ROOSECOTE has played an important role in the generation of power supplies for decades and looks set to do so in the future through plans to burn biomass.

THIS picture from the 1950s shows workers taking a break at the old West Cost Tannery at Haverigg.

• Demolition marked end of era for town power

THE old Newbarns Infant School, Barrow, has now gone and been replaced by housing at Bewley Steps.

• Terry was top of the amateurs at boxing