THE village of Greenodd became a relatively quiet place when it was bypassed by the A590 but for centuries was a busy place of industry, commerce and transport by rail and water.

On Tuesday, November 19, its village hall hosts a talk on the story of ropemaking - once an important industry in places like Ulverston and Barrow.

David Ellwood, author of Yarns from the Ropeworks, will be the speaker on his family business in Kendal. All are welcome.

The event, from 7.30pm, is part of the programme arranged by the Cumbria Industrial History Society.

It hosts visits, talks and study days around the county to preserve information and pictures about the ways people in the county have made a living through the centuries.

Today’s pictures from The Mail’s archive show aspects of village life in Greenodd through the decades.

It once had a station on the branch railway line from Ulverston to Lakeside and back in the 18th and 19thcenturies was a place where boats were built and took cargoes around the world- particularly barrels of gunpowder produced at nearby Low Wood.

In the late 1700s the value of products taken by flat-bottomed sailing barges from quays at Greenodd was put at £150,000 per year.

Greenodd got a new stone bridge over the River Crake in 1820 to increase the speed for travellers on an improved turnpike road - which you had to pay to use.

The old bridge was found to be unsafe in 1987 and by the middle of 1992 work was taking place to replace it at a cost of £500,000.

It is thought that ships were constructed at the side of the river, close to the village tennis courts and possibly under the former railway bridge - which was built in 1868.

Some of the boats which traded out of Greenodd included the Hollow Oak, Leven, Kent and July Flower Tree -named after a house near Finsthwaite.

There is still the remains of a Greenodd lime kiln where limestone was turned into powder for use in plaster,mortar and fertiliser.