AN OFFICIAL report claimed Britain was locked in the longest recession since the Second World War.

The economy shrank for the sixth consecutive quarter, dashing hopes that a recovery had begun.

Government figures only go back as far as 1970, but the recession was believed to be longer than any other since the 1930s.

An angler caught a 27-inch wild trout which was the biggest ever landed in Rossendale at the time.

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