IN this edition of nostalgia, we are looking back at what the residents of north Cumbria got up to in the year 1986.

In national news, the explosion of the Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in April caused the release of radioactive material across much of Europe.

Also in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launching, killing all seven astronauts on board. And mad cow disease was found in November of 1986.

In happier news for the year, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical Phantom of the Opera opened in London’s West End and on TV Casualty hit our screens.

Closer to home the Metro shopping centre opened in Gateshead and in Cumbria the last deep coal mine in Cumbria closed at Haig Pit, Whitehaven. 

Nelson Thomlinson school feature twice in the list, from the girls under 16 hockey team posing for a photo in Wigton to the under-12s 6-a-side football squad in 1986.