The Lancashire & North West Magazine | February 2021

February 2021

www.lancmag.com

£2.45

Nelly’s Blog

Winter wellness

bedroom trends

Prince Plumbing & Procleen Cleaning Services, two businesses that survived during lockdown

What happened when Hope menswear teamed up with The Serious Brewing Co Brewery E&M Property Services Boosting the property market across East Lancashire and beyond

The story of Queen Victoria’s visit to the North West in 1851

The Ruby & Daisy Team what it’s like working together

Spen Whittaker The tragic tale of the Burnley Manager

A bit of ghostly history Haunted Halls in Lancashire

New year, new interior We look at how to build a home with heart

Contents...

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66

102

Burnley

Clitheroe

Macclesfield

Features

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8

42

46

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Queen Victoria visits Lancashire

14

Kendal Castle

20

The new gallery of Orme Fine Arts

28

How Covid has changed gardening

32

Burnley manager Spen Whittaker

42

Spring in Lancashire

46

Birkenhead Park, the first of its kind in the world

52

George Formby senior

70

A look at a Burnley property company

80

How to avoid snacking

92

A cleaning services company that has grown during lockdown

98

Tips for a green garden

108 How to create a home with heart 112 Peter Hall, furniture makers and designers 118 Suri Krishnamma talks about his new film ‘The Way Out’.

124 Mabel Esther Allan, the northwest children’s author 138 Tips for a healthier Christmas 142 The haunted halls of Lancashire

108 202

152 The Avenues - an exclusive brand new development by Watkin Jones Homes 156 What happens when you forget to pack any clothes 172 A Q&A with the team at women’s fashion company, Ruby & Daisy 178 The fashion company branching out into beer making

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196 Ex military engineers on a mission to help 202 Discover your bedroom trend tribe

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Contents Regulars 64

Books

82

Deborah Hatswell

85

Subscribe to our magazine

February 2021 • Volume 44 Number 2

64

130

130 PT Health 134 Our food critic 140 Nicola Parker - Herbalist 151 Peter Rutt 158 The life of Di 182 Colour me beautiful 192 Film Reviews 208 Horoscope 210 Business index

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February 2021

www.lancmag.com

£2.45

Nelly’s Blog

Winter wellness

bedroom trends

Prince Plumbing & Procleen Cleaning Services, two businesses that survived during lockdown

What happened when Hope menswear teamed up with The Serious Brewing Co Brewery E&M Property Services Boosting the property market across East Lancashire and beyond

The story of Queen Victoria’s visit to the North West in 1851

The Ruby & Daisy Team what it’s like working together

Spen Whittaker The tragic tale of the Burnley Manager

A bit of ghostly history Haunted Halls in Lancashire

New year, new interior We look at how to build a home with heart

COVER: The team at Ruby & Daisy

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Managing Director Natalie Christopher natalie@lancashiremagazine.co.uk Editorial 01253 336588 editorial@lancashiremagazine.co.uk Sales Enquiries • 07918 685673 Design Manager • Hugh Dairy Designers • Maralette Wenham Roget Pode Accounts • 01253 336582

LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE

General enquiries/subscriptions Sharon Henry 01253 336588 sharon@countymags.co.uk The Lancashire & North West Magazine Ltd, Seasiders Way, Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 6NZ Writers Jessica Gregson • Stephen Roberts • Andrew Harris • Duncan Hodgson • Bevan Ridehalgh • Carl Lee • Karen Pennington • Bernard Bale • Tony Burdon • Pam Graham • Mairead Mahon • Stephanie Monk

UK only Subscription rate: 1 year £25 – saving of £4.40 2 year £48 – saving of £10 3 years £73 – saving of £15 5 year £115 – saving of £32 /thelancashiremagazine @lancashiremag

Visit our website at www.lancmag.com

Note to contributors. While every care is taken with manuscripts, drawings, photographs and transparencies, no responsibility is accepted during transmission or while in the Editor’s hands. The contents of this magazine are fully protected and nothing may be used or reproduced without permission.

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Give Y our Daughter the Very Best Start in Life At our Junior Girls’ School (ages 7-11) your daughter will enjoy:

A supportive and purposeful atmosphere which underpins academic and extra-curricular success

Specialist teaching in languages, science, music and sport

Excellent facilities, including well equipped science lab, art studio and library

A school which mixes tradition and innovation; pupils have made excellent use of their iPads during the pandemic

Outstanding opportunities in sport, music and drama A place where girls can build self-esteem, a respect for others and a belief that anything is possible

We currently have availability in some year groups.

Call 01204 434761 to learn more or to request a prospectus.

www.boltonschool.org/juniorgirls juniorgirls@boltonschool.org tw: @BoltonJnrGirls

In this issue...

It’s the February issue and Covid is still a big part of our lives. It has changed the way we live and do the normal things we take for granted, gardening being one of them. Craig Sams, Co-founder of Carbon Gold, looks at how Covid-19 has changed the gardening industry, and what are the new trends. For all the negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic – and there have been many – there have been some positives. Namely, the huge boom in home gardening and grow-yourown.

I think everyone of a certain generation will be familiar with George Formby. But what about his father, George Formby senior? Margaret Bracknell has written a great article about the forgotten star.

George Formby Senior, had a successful career in show business and was known as one of the country’s most popular music hall performers.

Everyone loves a good ghost story.

We look at a few of the old halls of Lancashire, Chingle hall, Rufford Old Hall and Samlesbury Hall. Each has a spooky tale to tell. With Monks, Gray Ladies and White Ladies, have a read and you decide.

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One of our Haunted Halls, Rufford Old Hall

It will look better when it’s finished..

Throughout the year we have been more confined in our homes than ever. Because of this, the DIY and interior design sectors saw a surge in custom. Now we are in 2021 and if you are looking for a new start within your home, we have advice on how to make a home with heart. From furniture restoration, small changes that make a difference, to an outdoor space to work from home in. Still on the subject of being indoors, we have a look at what the style of your bedroom says about your personality. Are you a stressed out serenity seeker or a new wave naturalist, have a read and see if you fit into one of bedroom tribe categories.

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In 1851, Queen Victoria visited the North West. This account of her visit, is an interesting snapshot of the locations at that time. When it became known that Queen Victoria and family planned to stop off at Liverpool and Manchester on their journey home to Windsor Castle after being in Scotland, it made for exciting news.

If you are a Burnley football fan, you may know of the tragic tale of Spen Whittaker, the Burnley manager. Born 150 years ago, we have an interesting account of his life that also highlights the world of football at that time.

And as usual - our regulars. The towns this month are, Burnley, Clitheroe and Macclesfield. Deborah Hatswell has more weird sightings for us, including the ‘Haslingden Hairy Man’ peeping round a door while a woman was on the phone. Nicola Parker has a more natural alternative to tackling that winter infection. Suri Krishnamma reviews the latest film releases for us and we have a Q&A with him about his latest film ‘The Way Out’. Book reviews, fashion, food, and more, all in this issue.

Hope you enjoy the magazine. www.lancmag.com

A rare Royal appearance

The story of Queen Victoria’s visit to the North West in 1851

By Margaret Brecknell The news on 22nd January 1901 that Queen Victoria had died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was greeted with great shock and sorrow by her loyal subjects, not least here in North West England. The Lancashire Evening Post reported that in Manchester the sad news had been received “with abundant signs of grief and sorrow”. In Lancaster, the paper reported, a large crowd had gathered when the news was announced, “the people literally groaning under the sense of sorrow-stricken 8

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grief”. Notwithstanding a little journalistic licence, the passing of the woman who had ruled as the nation’s sovereign for a then record nearly 64 years represented a significant milestone in the lives of many people.

Above: Painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter of Victoria, Albert and Duke of Wellington May 1851

Yet most of those then living in the North West would never have set eyes on their monarch.

Today, visits to the area by the Queen, although still eagerly anticipated, are not as uncommon as they once were. In the time of Queen Victoria, when it took www.lancmag.com

far longer to travel from place to place, a visit from the monarch was viewed as far from the norm and a great privilege.

Thus, when it became known that in October 1851 Queen Victoria and family planned to stop off at Liverpool and Manchester on their journey home to Windsor Castle from their annual holiday in Scotland, the news was received with high excitement.

Victoria’s husband, Albert, had made a popular visit to Liverpool five years previously when he had officially opened the Albert Dock. However, the Queen had not accompanied him on that occasion, having only recently given birth to her fifth child, Helena. Her visit would represent the first time a reigning monarch had set foot in Liverpool since the time of King William III way back in the late 17th century.

On the morning of 8th October 1851 the royal party set off by train from Edinburgh, where they had stayed overnight, arriving in Lancaster at around 1pm. Here they left the train and drove through the town to the castle, where they stayed for an hour or more. In the personal journal which she kept throughout her life, Victoria describes walking “up to the top of the tower called John of Gaunt’s Chair, from which the view is fine and extensive”. Within two hours the Queen and her party had

Above: Croxteth Hall, Liverpool

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reboarded the train and were on their way again, but such was the perceived historical significance of this fleeting visit that over 20 years later the then Lancaster Guardian editor, Charles Edward Quarme, produced a book called A narrative of the visit of Queen Victoria to Lancaster in 1851.

From Lancaster the royal party travelled south to Prescot. They were greeted at the station by the then Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, the 3rd Earl of Sefton, who was to act as their host for the night at his residence, Croxteth Hall. They made their way by carriage, passing through

Above: Lancaster Castle Tom Oates/CC BY-SA3.0

the grounds of Knowsley Hall (then the family home of the Earl of Derby) on the way. Another glance at Queen Victoria’s journal reveals that she enjoyed her sight of Knowsley, which she describes as “very fine, reminding one very much of Windsor”. That evening at Croxteth Hall the royals were treated to a lavish nine-course banquet, along with many of the great and the good of the local area who had been specially invited.

The following morning the royal party set off by carriage on the five-mile journey to the Albert Dock at Liverpool in torrential rain. From there they boarded the small royal steam yacht Fairy.

Queen Victoria was impressed by what she saw at the docks and evidently surprised at its sheer scale, writing that “The mass of shipping is quite enormous and forests of masts are to be seen”.

Not for the first or last time, plans for an event in the North West had to be changed at the last minute because of inclement weather. In view of the rain the royals spent most of their time in the covered cabin on deck, meaning that any well-wishers trying to glimpse a view of the monarch and her family from the shore were afforded only the most fleeting of glances. The large crowds nevertheless remained

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in high spirits, cheering loudly as the royal yacht sailed past.

After returning to the Albert Dock, the royal party proceeded by carriage to the Town Hall, which Victoria describes as “a very handsome building, with fine large rooms”, for a civic reception and lunch. To the delight of the crowd who had gathered below, Victoria and Albert made an appearance on the rear balcony of the Town Hall overlooking Exchange Flags (still known as the Queen’s Balcony today) and waved to the crowd, who cheered and raised their umbrellas in acknowledgment.

Later the royals were taken to St George’s Hall, whose interior at the time of their visit was yet to be finished. (It would take another three years before the Hall opened to the public). The royal visit of 1851 coincided with a period of massive growth in Liverpool, as it became one of the most important ports in the British Empire. A reporter from The Times described 10

Liverpool at the time of Victoria’s visit as “the great commercial emporium of the North of England”. The construction of impressive buildings such as St George’s Hall reflected this new-found prosperity.

Above: St George’s Hall Liverpool

Below: James Nasmyth c.1877

Fabiopauleri/CC BY-SA2.0

Now rightly regarded as one of the finest neoclassical buildings in Europe, Victoria was suitably impressed by what she saw, memorably describing St George’s Hall as “one of the finest buildings imaginable, quite worthy of ancient Athens.” Prince Albert was fascinated by what he saw too, discussing with Borough Surveyor, John Weightman, some of the finer details of the Hall’s construction and its interior features. As the Queen’s consort, the Prince had carved a role for himself in public life as a champion of new technology and design. 1851 had proved a busy year for Albert. The Great Exhibition had opened in May at Hyde Park in London and was still attracting huge crowds at the time of the royal family’s visit to the North West.

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Such was the impression that St George’s Hall made on the royal couple, they later commissioned artist William Wyld to paint a picture of the building, which still forms part of the Royal Collection today.

When the royal party left St George’s Hall for the journey to Lime Street Station, the Queen insisted that her carriage be opened so that the crowds were able to catch a proper view of their monarch as she bid farewell to Liverpool.

From Lime Street the royal family headed east by train to begin the next leg of their visit. It had been arranged that they would stay at Worsley Hall as guests of the Earl of Ellesmere. The party alighted at Patricroft Station, near Eccles, and from there were transported to Worsley by barge on the nearby Bridgewater Canal.

Amongst the dignitaries invited to greet the royal party and to spend the evening at Worsley Hall was none other than the Duke of Wellington, famous for leading the victorious English in battle against the French at Waterloo nearly 40 years earlier.

The cheers he received from the large crowd were second only in volume to the Queen herself.

Above: Manchester Royal Exchange

After dinner that evening Victoria and Albert were introduced to Scottish engineer and inventor, James Nasmyth, who part-owned the successful Bridgewater Foundry in nearby Patricroft. Nasmyth is now best known for inventing the steam hammer, but he was also an accomplished astronomer and artist. He constructed his own telescope, by means of which he was able to make more detailed observations of the moon than

Amongst the dignitaries invited to greet the royal party and to spend the evening at Worsley Hall was none other than the Duke of Wellington

had been previously possible, and he then made drawings and plaster models based on his discoveries. His drawings of the lunar landscape had so impressed Prince Albert that one, a large 1849 painting called The Moon, had been on display at the Great Exhibition. Queen Victoria was evidently charmed by Nasmyth at their meeting, remarking in her journal entry that evening, “He has made many wonderful and useful inventions, and is very simple, modest and unaffected”.

The next morning the royals set off by carriage for Manchester.

Like its neighbour, Liverpool, Manchester was experiencing a period of rapid growth and, as one newspaper reported at the time, “A more appropriate period for the first visit of the Queen to this busy commercial centre of her dominions could hardly have been selected”.

Sadly, this prosperity was not necessarily reflected in the health and appearance of the general population. Victoria herself was moved to describe the people that lined the streets to greet her as “a very intelligent but painfully unhealthy and sickly population, men, as well as women...”

Above: Victoria Arch at entrance to Peel Park c.1905

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On reaching Salford the royal procession made a brief diversion into Peel Park, which, when LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 11

Left: Queen Victoria Statue Salford Barrie Price/CC BY-SA4.0

opened five years previously, had been one of the first public parks of its kind in the country. Over 80,000 children from Sunday Schools across Manchester and Salford are said to have been assembled in Peel Park on the day Queen Victoria visited Salford, arriving from 6 o-clock in the morning and all wearing commemorative medals presented to them by Manchester’s Mayor. As the royal party made its way through the park, the children sang the National Anthem, producing, it was said, “a most pleasing and extraordinary effect”, to the evident pleasure of the Queen.

The royal party then proceeded to Manchester, where they were formally greeted by civic dignitaries, not, as may have been expected, at the Town 12

Hall but at the new Manchester Exchange building, which had been completed in 1849. The Exchange, where the cotton trade for which Manchester was famous took place, was hugely significant in commercial and cultural terms and considered by many to be the most important building in the area. Following the royal visit in 1851 the building took the title of the Manchester Royal Exchange, the name by which the theatre now housed in the famous building is still known today.

In late afternoon the royals returned to Worsley Hall, where they once more spent the night before continuing on their journey home to Windsor the following day. Victoria notes in her journal that “we must have seen a million of people, between Manchester and Salford”. The

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royal visit to the North West had proved hugely successful, despite the inclement weather.

Victoria and Albert visited Manchester again six years later in their role as patrons of the Art Treasures Exhibition held in the city in 1857. Sadly Prince Albert did not see Liverpool again before his death in 1861.

The Queen herself did not visit Liverpool again for many years, finally returning to the city in May 1886 for the second and final time. Bearing in mind the infrequent nature of royal visits to North West England, it is unsurprising that so many loyal citizens were willing to stand in the pouring rain to greet their monarch on those memorable days in Liverpool and Manchester in October 1851. www.lancmag.com

Kendal Castle

By Mark Bateman

K

endal castle is a medieval fortification located to the east of the town of Kendal.

There have been a couple of castles built on the same site and the stunning ruins of the most recent one is a popular tourist attraction.

The castle ruins are set on top of a glacial drumlin which is a long, half-buried egg like shape which is formed by glacial ice acting on the underlying soil.

The first castle to exist on the site was built following the Norman invasion of 1066. King William II granted the barony of Kentdale which included large parts of Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire to Ivo De Taillebois who in 1087 built an earth and timber Motte and Bailey style castle which is now referred to as Castle Howe.

A motte and bailey castle consisted of a stone keep on a raised area of ground (the motte) surrounded by a walled courtyard known as a bailey. This was surrounded by a protective ditch and a palisade which was a wooden fortified wall.

The castle changed hands again in 1189 when Gilbert Fitz Reinfred who was the current Baron of Kendal obtained the castle through marriage.

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Then in the same year Richard I (the Lionheart) granted Kendal a market charter. It is likely the market provided a new revenue stream for Reinfred who set about building a new stone castle.

The original earth and timber structure was abandoned and Reinfred set about building a new castle which was a magnificent structure that was designed to impress. It was built in stone with six towers connected by a curtain wall and protected by a dry moat.

The main tower, which rises up 3 storeys, is set against the south wall. Around the inside of the wall were service buildings. To the east of the gatehouse there was a circular guard tower known as ‘Troutbeck Tower’ which had a dungeon at its base and a Garderobe (bedroom) above.

Located next to the tower and the hall was the chapel site and in the centre of the courtyard there was a small dovecote. Next to the chapel was the well which was of crucial importance for any castle. If a castle was under siege, as sometimes happened for weeks or even months, it was vital they had their own supply of clean drinking water. www.lancmag.com

Below: the ruins of Kendal Castle in Cumbria

Also next to the hall there was a projecting tower known as the ‘Lyons Den Tower’ or ‘Machel Tower’ which was probably used by the lord and his family for accommodation.

Modern excavations of the site have found the remains of two towers and some other walls. They also found evidence of a large hall and kitchens with private apartments and ladies quarters.

However, despite its magnificence the castle was confiscated by King John because of Reinfred’s support for the rebel cause in the first Baron’s War. The castle was later returned to Gilbert Reinfred’s son William in 1241.

The first castle to exist on the site was built following the Norman invasion of 1066

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Above: Kendal Castle Ruins

Despite its fortifications it is believed that the Castle never actually saw any military action but rather it served as an administrative hub for the whole district.

Over the following years the castle passed through the hands of a number of occupants including belonging to the crown itself. But by far its most famous occupants were the Parr family. The Parr’s had lived in Kendal since Sir William Parr married the heiress of Kendal Elizabeth Ros during the reign of Edward III. They were LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 15

a strong Northern family, and after the crown were the most notable family in Westmorland.

The Parr’s created their wealth through the wool and cloth trade. William’s wife and Grandmother were ladies in waiting at the Royal court. This enabled his son Thomas to be well educated and become a notable presence at the court of Henry VIII which is where young Catherine caught the King’s eye.

Catherine was born in 1512 and originally there were some claims that she had been born there although this has now been shown to be untrue and she was actually born at another of the Parr’s homes in Blackfriars London. There is some debate over whether she ever set foot in the castle as she preferred to spend her time at Court where she caught the King’s eye and became Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife in 1543.

But the history of the castle has not been lost. In 2018 new signs and information panels were put up at the castle telling the story of life at Kendal Castle during the medieval period. These include ‘look through panels’ to engage children and a medieval map of Kendal which shows many street names have not changed much right through to the present day.

The project has been funded by the ‘Locally important Scheme’ which has also created a new audio-visual trail about the castle which can be found at www.visit-kendal.co.uk Kendal museum also has an exhibition about the castle which includes displays of medieval objects and a reconstruction of the castle as it would have been originally. There are also computer displays and activities such as coin rubbing to help the whole family enjoy bringing this ancient treasure to life.

Below: Kendal castle and the surrounding area in the autumn

Unfortunately, it appears that most of the Parrs spent their time living and working in London and it was under their stewardship that the castle originally fell into neglect and eventually ruin. It is believed that by 1571 the castle was derelict.

In 1578 a government official surveyed the remains of the castle and concluded sadly that most of the stone and other useful building materials had already been stolen for use elsewhere.

The site of the original castle, Castle Howe was left undeveloped until 1788 when a monument was erected on the mound to celebrate one hundred years since the overthrow of Catholic King James II in ‘the glorious revolution’.

After 1578 what remained of the stone castle was left to decay peacefully until, in 1896 it was bought by the Kendal corporation to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee and converted into a public park.

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Spend more time outdoors As the days get shorter, you may feel less motivated to go outdoors for regular exercise. Spending time outdoors can help to improve both your physical and mental health. What’s more, if you do something that gets your heart beating faster, warms you up and leaves you feeling slightly out of breath, it will benefit your heart too. We have some tips to help you make the most of the great outdoors to help keep your mind, body and heart in sound health.

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Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip,

by Dr Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK

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They say there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing! When you go outdoors, make sure you wear suitable clothing to stay warm and dry. Feeling cold and wet is a miserable experience and it may deter you from going out regularly.

Start each day by wrapping up warm and heading out for a stroll around the garden, neighbourhood or local park. You could take a hot drink to help you to stay warm.

Look out for opportunities in your daily schedule to get up and go outdoors, even if it is just for ten minutes. Try to plan activities in your diary to make you get outdoors every day.

Getting out on your bike can be more challenging in the cold, dark winter months. Why not blow away the cobwebs as you discover local cycle routes on your bike. Don’t forget to take your bicycle lights with you so you don’t get caught out as the days get shorter.

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Orme Galleries now open for business!

After almost 2 years in the making, Orme Galleries opened its doors to the public on Wednesday 2nd December. The 5000 square foot premises is located at the Retail Park – Park 66, Pilsworth.

Christopher Orme started the family business almost 25 years ago (originally under the name of ‘E Anthony Orme Gallery and Framers’), in a small, quaint Gallery on Stand Lane, Radcliffe.

Left: E. Anthony Orme artist

Christopher established the Stand Lane business back in 1997, with support from his Father ‘E Anthony Orme,’ whose work is exclusively exhibited at the Gallery. Of course having artistic talent in the family, meant that it was a smooth and natural progression into the Art and Framing business. Many years later, ‘Photographic Studios’ was opened by Christopher and his wife, Vlasta. After 5 or so years of running the Gallery and Studio, a big decision was made to combine the two, creating the largest Retail Art and Framing Gallery in the UK.

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On display at the premises and available at their award-winning website, are E Anthony Orme fine art originals and fine art prints . Anthony (E Anthony Orme) takes a complete open-minded approach towards his art work. Some of the relatable, nostalgic scenes are inspired by his childhood in and around Greater Manchester. In contrast to this style, Anthony has also painted nudes, semi-nudes, ballerinas, Parisian/Venetian scenes, trains and interpretations of many icons such as; Marylin Monroe, Jimmy Hendrix and John Lennon.

Above: Christopher Orme GCF (APF)

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Aside from the fantastic range of art work available, Orme Galleries have a high-quality, professional, bespoke framing service. Christopher, who is also the main framer at the Gallery, is a fully qualified Fine Art Trade Guild, Certified Framer. Christopher trained at The British Museum, to learn the ‘museum standard’ techniques.

Everything is produced in-house by the team, including the production of the frames. Customers have the opportunity to see the frames being produced, which the Gallery proudly demonstrates to the public. The extensive skill and knowledge shared between Christopher and the team gives much flexibility in what they can offer to customers.

Bespoke, custom frames up to a museum standard, in all sizes and colours are available. interestingly, this isn’t just for your paintings and prints! You can also have your photographs, 3D objects and memorabilia in showcase frames, with the option of having it illuminated with LED lights. Conservation preservation techniques and materials are used, to keep your valuable art work protected.

There is also a wide range of giftware on offer including; mugs, coasters and greetings cards. Finally, the premises has its own designated photography studio www.lancmag.com

whereby the team can scan, digitally restore, reprint and frame any old or cherished photographs, restoring them back to their former glory.

The diverse approach Orme Galleries take with both its custom framing and diverse art work, puts the business in a unique and desirable position that separates them from a lot of other galleries in the country. Follow their social media for frequent competitions, events and don’t forget visit for their Boxing Day sales!

Orme Galleries, Unit 1A, Park 66, BURY, BL9 8RZ. Tel: 0161 7669991 • Email: enquiries@eanthonyorme.co.uk For gallery’s opening times, please call tel: 0161 7669991, check out our website www.eanthonyorme.co.uk, or follow our social media accounts: Instagram: @ormegalleries • Facebook: Orme Galleries • Twitter: @OrmeGalleries

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Lakeland Book of the Year Entries open for Lake District literary awards Did you use lockdown to publish that book you always meant to write? The 2021 Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year is open for entries and the judges are looking for their next winner.

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T

he competition celebrates and showcases the myriad of literature the Lake District inspires each year. Open to any book published in 2020 - set in or featuring Cumbria the awards attract entries include authors, poets, historians and more following in the footsteps of Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and countless others whose work has helped put Cumbria on the literary map.

Now in its 37th year, the competition continues to go from strength to strength, with not even the Coronavirus pandemic halting proceedings. “2020 definitely gave us an extra challenge” says Sam Tollerson, awards organiser. “We had to hold the ceremony online for the first time ever! All being well, we’ll be able to meet the authors in person next year as we celebrate their achievements together.”

2021’s winner was The Lake District in 101 Maps and Infographics by David Felton, Evelyn Sinclair and Andrew Chapman, a unique and dazzling collection of facts and statistics shedding light on all aspects of the area’s history, culture and more. Special recognition was also given to local hotelier John Cunliffe’s memoir Slightly Perfect following his passing earlier this year. www.lancmag.com

Lakeland Book of the Year Shortlist 2020

Cumbria Tourism MD Gill Haigh with LBOY Judges (L-R Gill Haigh, Eric Robson, Hunter Davies, Fiona Armstrong) Other recent winners have included Alan Cleaver and Lesley Park’s The Corpse Roads of Cumbria in 2019 and Phil Rigby’s photographic collection Portrait of Cumbria in 2018.

Many entries also focus on the area’s worldwide reputation for adventure and the outdoors, with Lakeland legend Alfred Wainwright winning in 1985.

winners and the overall Book of the Year are announced at a charity event in June, in support of the Stroke Association.

Joint 2019 winner David Felton said “Winning Lakeland Book of the Year in 2020 really helped drive interest in – and sales of - my book in what has been a tough year for Cumbrian retail and small independent businesses based in the county. The Lakeland Book of the Year event is always a highlight of the calendar for those of us with a passion for books, for Cumbria – and for both.”

The Lakeland Book of the Year is generously supported by the Cumbria Community Foundation and the Hunter Davies Fund, which allow the continued celebration of the county’s literary prowess.

The judges, who all have a background in writing and broadcasting, are:

Authors and publishers can learn more about how to enter at www.lakelandbookoftheyear.co.uk or by contacting Cumbria Tourism at info@cumbriatourism.org.

The deadline for entries is Friday 26th February 2021.

Cumbria Tourism provides administration and PR support to the Lakeland Book of the Year alongside external organisers and the judging panel.

• Awards founder Hunter Davies OBE • Broadcaster and Cumbria Tourism President, Eric Robson • Fiona Armstrong, Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries The panel will read and shortlist entries before category www.lancmag.com

LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 23

Burnley

By Mark Bateman

B

urnley is a Lancashire town located twenty miles north of Manchester in an area where the River Calder and the River Brun come together.

The name is believed to come from the old ‘Brun Lea’ which means the ‘meadow by the river Brun’.

There are signs of Stone Age settlement in the area and flint tools have been found on the Moors surrounding Burnley. There are also signs of ‘Tumuli’ (ancient burial mounds) and stone circles in the area. At Castlecliff near Nelson and Colne an Iron Age fort has been discovered believed to date back as far as 600 B.C. During this time, it is likely that the area was ruled over by the fearsome Celtic tribe the Brigantes who controlled much of Northern England.

There is evidence of Roman activity in the area including the discovery of Roman coins. However, no signs have been found of permanent Roman settlement in Burnley and it seems likely the area was a point on the route to the Roman fort of Ribchester.

After the Romans withdrew from the area it became part of the kingdom of Rheged and then Northumbria, but there is no evidence of any permanent settlement in the area until the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

From the time of the Norman invasion until the 13th century it seems likely that Burnley was a small farming community, and its main cottage industry was the production of wool and processing wool garments.

In 1290 the community constructed a Corn Mill and then in 1294 a market was established. The market cross was erected in 1295 and is still visible today.

The market was followed by a Fulling Mill in 1296.

At this time there were approximately fifty families in the area but by 1550 the town had grown to around 12,000 inhabitants living mostly around St Peter’s Church (built in the 15th Century).

It was during this time that prosperous landowners built large houses on large estates such as Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham and Towneley Park. The Towneley family were important landowners in the area who could trace

Above: Towneley Hall and Park

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It was during this time that prosperous landowners built large houses on large estates such as Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham and Towneley Park.

Above: Towneley Hall

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their lineage back to Norman England.

Their status is reflected in the grandeur of the hall and the sheer size of the surrounding park which was a whopping 440 acres.

Towneley Park was the home of the family until it was sold along with 62 acres to the Burnley corporation. The hall is now a Grade 1 listed building containing a museum and a gallery. The park has been, and remains, a popular green area to play in for generations of Burnley children.

In the second half of the 18th Century the industrial revolution swept through the country. Small- scale cottage industry was replaced by centralised, factorybased large scale production. Cotton imported from America took over from wool as the textile of choice.

The first cotton mills were powered by water wheels and Burnley was ideally located to utilise this natural resource. The earliest mills in Burnley were located on the River Calder where waterpower was harnessed to power a new generation of radical spinning machines such as the Spinning Jenny a multi- spindle spinning frame which allowed a worker to use eight or more spools at once and hence be much more productive.

Investment in roads helped the area grow and in 1754 the first turnpike (toll) road was built in the area linking Burnley to Blackburn and Colne. Transport links were further boosted in 1796 with the development of the Leeds to Liverpool canal. This meant raw materials and finished products could be moved on a much larger scale boosting industry in town.

While building the section of canal at Burnley instead of using locks to cross the Calder Valley the engineer Whitworth designed what became known as ‘The Burnley embankment’ or the ‘straight mile’. Built between 1796-1801 this is a raised section over 1000 metres long and over 18 metres high. It was so technically impressive that it was named as one of the seven wonders of the British Waterways.

The 18th Century also saw the development and growth of coal mining on Burnley coalfield which surrounded Burnley, Nelson, Blackburn, and Accrington.

Deeper shafts were mined to meet increasing domestic and industrial needs.

The growth of the coal industry also saw the development of foundries and iron works which manufactured equipment for the mills allowing the two industries to develop hand in hand. The town became world- famous for its outstanding milling engines including the Burnley Loom – a semi-automatic loom invented in 1842 and regarded as one of the best looms in the world. It 26

became central to the Lancashire cotton industry for over a century, and by 1832 there were 32 steam engines in the town.

All this ready work meant an influx of workers into the town to work in the mills and foundries and new housing was built to accommodate them, and by 1851 the town had boomed to a population of 21,000.

Despite the downturn of the cotton famine in 1861-65 which dented production the town bounced back and by 1866 Burnley was the largest producer of cotton cloth in the world. By the start of the 20th century the textile industry was at its peak with over 100,000 looms in the town.

This great industrial heritage is remembered in the area of town known as ‘The Weaver’s Triangle’. This is a cluster of industrial buildings of historical interest around the Leeds – Liverpool canal including cotton mills, canal warehouses, weaving sheds and spinning mills. It also includes Burnley Iron works home to the famous Harle Syke engine.

A visitor’s centre is located in the former Wharf master’s House and Toll Office at Burnley Wharf on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. There is a display showing how cotton is made and as well as this there are rooms from different periods including - a Victorian parlour and a weaver’s dwelling which show a contrast of two different lifestyles. It also includes the Burnley Fair Room, with a working model fairground, and a recreated Victorian schoolroom.

But to return to Burnley’s history, the first World War (1914-1918) hit Burnley hard as it did everywhere. Over 4000 men were killed which represented 15% of the working age population of men. 250 Burnley men known as ‘The Burnley Pals’ were part of the East Lancashire regiment which became immortalised as ‘The Accrington Pals’ whose exploits and bravery were recorded in the 1981 play by Peter Whelan. In 1926 a memorial to those lost in the war was built at Towneley Park.

Burnley also played its part in World War II with many men going off to serve their country. The town was lucky to escape the devastating bombing raids of the war possibly due to its proximity to Manchester which was seen as a bigger target by the Germans.

After two world wars the town needed something to cheer it up and this came in 1960 when the Town’s beloved football team won what was then the old first division to become league champions. The club was founded in 1882 and was one of the first clubs to become professional in 1883.

Burnley F.C. were also one of the 12 founder members of the football league in 1888-89.

Today the team play at Turf Moor and

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are known as ‘The Clarets’. The club has always been passionately supported and it is claimed that the club is the best supported in the whole country based on the ratio of match attendees to the town population.

Over the years the club has had great success winning the F.A. Cup in 1913-14, winning the F.A. charity shield twice in 1960 and 1973. Today they are still fiercely competitive in the Premier League.

In the 1960s redevelopment of the town began with the demolition of old houses and buildings. New projects included the Charter Walk shopping centre, Centenary Way, a new bus station, Trafalgar flats and some new office blocks.

Then in 1971 the town’s largest coal mine – Bank Hall Colliery was closed and re-developed as a park. But good news came in the 1980s when the town was connected to the motorway network by the M65 leading to an expansion of the town as large new housing estates were built.

The dominant industries in Burnley have also changed. Health and manufacture are now the biggest employers in the www.lancmag.com

Above: The Singing Ringing Tree

town. Much of the manufacture is highly specialised and skilled including aerospace technology and digital industries.

In fact, so successful has the development of new industry been that in 2013 Burnley received an award for being the ‘most enterprising area’ in the U.K. This award recognised Burnley for its commitment to small and medium sized businesses in the area. It recognised the work of the Burnley bondholders which brings together 100 local firms who work together to promote Burnley as a great place for businesses to set up and develop. Together the bondholders have attracted over £10 million of investment into the area and marked Burnley out as place where innovation and enterprise are thriving.

Building on this success a 2016 study by financial website totallymoney.com found that Burnley was the best place in the U.K. to make a living looking at criteria such as employment rates, average wages, and cost of living.

The Town is also home to the world-famous independent brewery Moorhouse’s founded in 1865. Until it changed hands in 1978 the www.lancmag.com

brewery produced mineral waters, but it is now known for producing a great range of tap beers and beers stocked in local supermarkets. These include Pendle Witches Brew, Blonde Witch and Scaredy Cat. Burnley also enjoys a strong, leisure, cultural and artistic life. There are cinemas, bowling alleys, museums, and galleries.

As well as the Weaver’s Triangle there is Queen Street Mill Textile museum which houses the world’s only surviving steam – driven cotton weaving shed.

The town has a strong musical heritage.

During the 160s and 70s it was important as a venue for the popular Northern Soul dance nights. It also hosts a two-day international Rock and Blues festival.

Started in 1988 the festival is usually held around May Day and is one of the biggest Blues festivals in the country.

There are many famous musicians from Burnley, most famous in modern times are the anarchic punk- folk band Chumbawumba.

But it’s not just musicians who hail from the town, it was the birthplace of the world

-renowned actor Sir Ian McKellen as well as other well – known actors including Irene Sutcliffe (Coronation Street) Julia Haworth (Coronation Street) and Jody Lee Latham who appeared in ‘Shameless.’

On the Art front Burnley was also involved in the Panopticons art project run by the mid Pennine arts project. In Burnley this involved the construction of the weird and wonderful ‘Singing Ringing Tree’.

A sculpture made of different lengths of galvanised steel tubing which utilises the power of the wind to create a range of notes.

There is a lot that is changing and developing in Burnley in recent times. Despite being a traditional staunch Labour supporting town in 2019 the town got its first Conservative MP in over 100 years Antony Higginbotham.

Burnley is a resolutely modern town with a strong heritage that is looking forward to meeting whatever the future throws at it.

Whatever it holds, this fantastic town will thrive and grow as it always has done.

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Covid-19 has transformed the gardening industry – so what are the new trends?

By Craig Sams, Co-founder of Carbon Gold For all the negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic – and there have been many – there have been some positives.

Namely, the huge boom in home gardening and grow-your-own.

budding horticulturalists seeking a connection to nature and more food security. In fact, the industry has been positively transformed in a matter of months – and many trends appear to be here to stay.

As the world entered lockdown, many millions of us were furloughed or forced to isolate at home, leaving growers with plenty more time to spend in their gardens and allotments.

So, what does the post-Covid gardening industry look like today?

Little did we know though that while coronavirus would endanger many industries, the gardening sector would explode due to

I

It’s bigger, and younger

’ve been heartened by the millions of new British growers who have sprung up this year – almost three million, according to research from The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA). Nearly half of these new gardeners are aged under 45.

As you might expect, many of these new growers said that the lockdown gave them more time and energy to immerse themselves in a new passion for growing.

The National Allotment Society also reported a rise in the number of people joining their local council’s waiting lists for plots during the lockdown, proving that this is an urban as a well as a rural trend.

Whether garden or allotment, such wonderful

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patches of nature have become crucial sources of green space in urban areas, and key to keeping good mental health in these trying times.

It’s said that it takes 66 days to form a new habit. Lockdown lasted much longer than this, so I’m confident these new growers aren’t just a flash in the pan – they’re here to stay.

Growers are spending more Not only does the gardening industry have more customers, but growers as a whole are spending more as they stock up their horticultural armoury.

The HTA Garden Retail Monitor found that sales of gardening products were up 34%, 17% and www.lancmag.com

19% in June, July and August respectively in UK garden centres, compared to the same time last year. On average, individual customers were spending 35% more on gardening products.

Sales also surged in bedding plants (29%), seeds (59%) and gardening equipment (51%), while garden leisure categories were higher than in August 2019.

According to Garden Trade News UK, outdoor plants were the country’s most popular purchase, followed closely by compost.

Growing to eat When Coronavirus reached our shores, panic buying swept across the UK. Walk into nearly any supermarket and you’d see swathes of shelves that were either severely depleted, or stripped bare. Meanwhile, food delivery slots had weekslong waiting times.

For fruit and veg lovers, the lack of fresh produce was particularly grim. So individuals and those sharing community gardens decided that growing and harvesting their own fresh food would be a no-brainer.

In fact, seed producers reported a massive rise in sales during lockdown.

And in March, the Royal Horticultural Society said visits to their web pages with advice on growing vegetables had more than doubled compared with the same time last year.

Growers will know that homegrown veg not www.lancmag.com

only tastes better than shop-bought food, but you also have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve grown it yourself, and, with no plastic or drive to the supermarket, have cut your carbon footprint to boot.

With potentially millions more of us growing some of our own food, we have become less reliant on shop-bought fruit and veg, which is often imported from abroad.

This will ultimately help to make the UK’s food chain more resilient.

We’re going green – and organic The world has gradually been waking up to the unavoidable threat of the climate crisis. However, although the lockdown led to a decrease in pollution, the immediacy of the pandemic has made it difficult to give our environment the attention it deserves.

I’m hopeful that the influx of new gardeners – who will surely deepen their love of the environment – will add to those forces fighting to protect it. But

their activities and buying choices will be crucial.

Thankfully, many chemical inputs once relied upon by growers and gardeners for fertility and disease control are now avoided due to fears about their impact on human and environmental health.

In fact, some 67% of UK gardeners say they’re eco-conscious and 46% of this group already use organic fertilisers.

This is also a growing trend. The 2020 Organic Market Report revealed that the organic market had seen an eighth year of strong growth. It grew 4.5% in 2019 to reach a record £2.45bn.

However, David Ware, head of eco garden centre Edibleculture in Kent has warned consumers to be wary of ‘greenwashing’ from brands who sell faux-eco products, “The real problems for the environment from horticulture come from this kind of greenwashing, peat and peat-based compost where its production destroys a fragile ecosystem”, he added.

The use of peat-based composts is something that resonates with me in particular. After learning that they destroy natural, CO2-absorbing habitats and fuel the climate crisis, I realised how important biochar (a type of charcoal) is in providing a more sustainable and effective solution.

Biochar delivers comparable benefits to chemical and peat products, yet lasts far longer in the soil and locks away CO2. I ended up founding Carbon Gold to make sure that organic biochar products were available to UK growers.

Dr David Bek is a reader of sustainable economics at Coventry University who studies how the horticulture industry can increase sustainability in the supply chain.

He told Horticulture Week that Covid-19 has “emphasised the need for all businesses to review their resilience and sustainability”. He added: “There is a sense that the pandemic is a warning sign about humans’ relationship with the planet — a real wake-up call.”

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Stronger still are David Attenborough’s wise words that “Covid will be a footnote in human history – climate change will change everything.” I truly hope that all who care about the natural world do not lose sight of this.

I am, however, heartened that growers will be a key force in fighting climate change. Against all odds, a global pandemic transformed the gardening industry, making it bigger, stronger and more resilient.

Having rewarded us greatly in these dark times, I now hope that all of us who make up the world of growing will help to protect the environment that we love.

About the Author - Craig Sams

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Craig Sams is a pioneer of the organic and health food movement. He co-founded Green & Black’s chocolate and Whole Earth Foods, and launched the UK’s first vegan restaurant.

He’s also a director of Soil Association Certification Ltd and

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the former chairman of Soil Association.

Most recently, Craig founded Carbon Gold, which produces organic biochar products that support sustainable growing while fighting climate change. Carbon Gold’s scientifically

and commerciallyproven formulas replace harmful pesticides and unsustainable peat composts, last longer, support healthy soil biology (the key to good growing), and lock away CO2.

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Below: Early Burnley FC postcard feat Spen Whittaker as manager (back row far right)

The tragic story of Burnley manager Spen Whittaker

By Margaret Brecknell

T

he name of Spencer Whittaker, who was born 150 years ago, is today little known other than by football historians with an interest in the early years of Burnley Football Club. However, the story of his life and his tragic untimely death deserves to be told for its own sake, as well as providing an interesting insight into the world of professional football at the turn of the 20th century.

Spencer Whittaker (known as “Spen”) was born in Oswaldtwistle, near Accrington, in February 1871. His

formative years coincided with the development of football into a league structure that formed the basis of that still seen in the modern game today. When the Football League commenced in September 1888, it was made up entirely of clubs from North West England and the Midlands.

The area in which Whittaker grew up was right at the centre of this football revolution, with nearby Accrington Stanley and Burnley both among the first twelve clubs to take part in the first season of the new Football League.

A passion for football clearly ran in the Whittaker family. One of Spencer’s older brothers, Nathaniel (known as “Nat”), played for Accrington Stanley before moving to London during the 1890s, at which point he switched his focus to refereeing and football administration. He achieved prominence in both roles, refereeing the 1907 FA Cup Final and becoming Secretary of the Southern League, as well as a member of the FA Council.

As for Spencer, he joined local club Oswaldtwistle Rovers as a player, Right: King George V presents FA Cup to Burnley captain Tommy Boyle in 1914

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Below: Oswaldtwistle Rovers in the 1890s

before becoming the club’s secretary and then chairman, all this by the tender age of 32. It seems that he showed much greater ability as a manager and administrator than as a player. Of his performance in one game a newspaper rather unkindly reported that, “The crowd, or at least some of them, paid the doubtful compliment of describing his exhibition as being as good as a pantomime”.

His rise to prominence as chairman at Oswaldtwistle did not go unnoticed by nearby Burnley FC. By the turn of the 20th century the Football League had expanded into two divisions and Burnley, one of the League’s founder members, found themselves languishing near the foot of the Second Division. The club’s fortunes hit rock bottom when in the 1902/03 season Burnley finished bottom of the entire Football League, resulting in them having to apply for re-election.

The then manager, Ernest Mangnall, left the club for Manchester United shortly afterwards in October 1903.

Burnley’s Directors turned to local boy Spen Whittaker to stop the rot. Five years previously Whittaker had applied for the position of secretary/manager at Bristol City. From 100 candidates he had made it to the final two, losing out in the end to the secretary of the Gloucester

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Football Association. The role he was now asked to take on at Burnley was slightly different to the one for which he had applied at Bristol City. Like their counterparts at Bristol, previous incumbents in the role at Burnley had combined the role of manager with that of club secretary, but Whittaker’s appointment coincided with a change of policy. It was decided that he would focus purely on managing the team and the secretarial duties would be fulfilled by one of the club’s directors.

This approach seemed to pay dividends almost immediately. In Whittaker’s first season in charge the club finished fifth in the table, which represented a big improvement on the previous season’s performance.

This turned out to be the club’s best showing during Whittaker’s time as manager. Performances were generally more consistent than they had been previously, but promotion to the promised land of Division One proved elusive over the following five

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seasons. Whittaker was, however, instrumental in bringing to the club players such as Dick Lindley and Willie Watson who would later play in one of the club’s most famous victories at the 1914 FA Cup Final, as well as goalkeeper Jerry Dawson who still holds the club record for most league appearances. Burnley’s Chairman at the time, Harry Windle, would later remark that “the success of football in Burnley dates from 1908/09”.

Sadly, Whittaker wasn’t around to enjoy that future success. Towards the end of the 1909/10 season the club were looking to strengthen the team ahead of an important fixture against Manchester City on Saturday April 16th 1910. The day before the game Whittaker travelled to nearby Accrington Stanley to negotiate the transfer of a promising young defender called Harry Swift. Swift agreed to sign for the club, but by the time the sale was agreed it was already well into the evening and for Swift to play the following day the player’s registration papers would have to be physically lodged in London before the 3pm kick-off.

The manager personally took on the responsibility of ensuring the registration papers were lodged in time. Whittaker set off on the overnight train from Lancashire to London in order to complete the registration. According to newspaper reports, another passenger entered the train compartment in which Whittaker was travelling and after a short conversation both promptly fell asleep. Shortly before arriving at Stafford station, the Burnley manager’s fellow passenger was awoken by a draught and was astonished to discover that the door of the carriage was open and Whittaker was missing.

Railway officials were immediately informed at the train’s next stop of Stafford and a search party was formed. A northbound express train from London was passing through Stafford station at the time and the driver was asked to look out for any sign of the missing passenger. It was he who was the first to discover poor Spen Whittaker lying near the track at a place called Whitmore, halfway between Stafford and Crewe. Whittaker was still alive, but lay unconscious with serious head injuries. He was taken to a hospital in Crewe and it was decided to operate on him, but the medics were unable to save him. He died shortly after midday, with his wife, Betsy, at his side.

An inquest later heard that Whittaker did regain consciousness shortly before he died, but had no recollection of how he had come to fall out of the train. Officials at the inquest concluded that on awaking from sleep Whittaker must have mistaken the outside door for the door leading from the compartment to the corridor. Fast trains were able to reach speeds of up to 70mph on the section of the line between Crewe and Stafford where Whittaker was found, meaning that if he did indeed open the outside door in 34

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Shortly before arriving at Stafford station, the Burnley manager’s fellow passenger was awoken by a draught and was astonished to discover that the door of the carriage was open and Whittaker was missing.

Above: Village of Whitmore near to where Spen Whittaker was found Andy & Hilary/CC BY-SA2.0

error at this point, the resulting draught may have contributed to his being unable to save himself from being flung out of the train.

Remarkably, an article in the Burnley Express a few days after Whittaker’s death reported that, “Within recent years, says a Crewe correspondent, several similar accidents have occurred on the same line, and, remarkable though it seems, they have all happened within a short distance of this particular spot. It is assumed that one reason is that on the journey to and from London during the night passengers often awake when nearing this district, and in their semi-dazed condition mistake the carriage door for the corridor”.

Despite this tragic accident, the fixture against Manchester City at Turf Moor went ahead as planned. For the vast majority of fans attending the game that afternoon the first clue that anything was amiss was when they arrived at the ground to see the flag flying at half-mast. As the game started, the tragic news gradually began to filter around the ground. The Burnley players tried their best to put on a fitting performance in memory of their ill-fated manager and at one point led league leaders, Manchester City, 3-1, before being eventually pegged back to a 3-3 draw.

A testimonial game against Manchester United subsequently raised funds for Whittaker’s widow, www.lancmag.com

Betsy, and their three young daughters. Whittaker, who was aged just 39 at the time of his death, was much mourned. He was described as having been a genial man and highly popular, both in East Lancashire and the footballing community beyond.

In July 1910 Burnley appointed John Haworth as manager, one of over 60 applicants for the position. Like his unfortunate predecessor in the job, he came from the Accrington area and his appointment is said to have been greeted with disappointment by some who had been in favour of looking further afield for a more experienced manager. However, Haworth’s arrival heralded a new era for the club in more ways than one.

Haworth decided to change the club colours from green (which he considered unlucky) to the famous claret and blue kit with which Burnley is now so much associated. The following season the club were promoted back to the First Division and went on to enjoy great success over the next decade, winning the FA Cup in 1914 and the League itself in the 1920/21 season. Tragically, John Haworth subsequently became the second Burnley manager in succession to die whilst in the job. He fell ill with pneumonia in December 1924 and died shortly afterwards at the age of just 48.

Haworth’s place in Burnley folklore as one of the club’s most successful managers is rightfully guaranteed, but Spen Whittaker’s contribution to www.lancmag.com

the club should not be overlooked. He took on the role of manager at a time in 1903 when Burnley had reached rock bottom and was instrumental in laying the foundations for the greater success that followed. If he had not been there to steady the ship back in 1903, it is conceivable that Burnley could have subsequently dropped out of the Football League altogether. Spen Whittaker, who came to such a tragic and untimely end whilst serving his club, deserves to be remembered.

Above: Turf Moor, Football Ground on Burnley Football Club

Above: Burnley FC’s ground Turf Moor today Robert Wade/CC BY-SA2.0

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Fury over cull to wipe out a third of badgers Naturalists are angry that the Government has, again, extended its badger cull in an attempt to eradicate bovine tuberculosis in cattle.

Badger by Darin Smith

Smith, said: “This is a staggering government U-turn and one which will result in thousands of healthy badgers being shot across England this autumn.

“In March — following a review by Professor Godfray — the government promised to move away from lethal control.

However, after seven years of badger culling, the government has failed to act on its own advice and is expanding its culling programme into new regions in what will be the biggest cull yet.

“We are at a critical turning point for our natural world and this latest U-turn should set alarm bells ringing — culling is an outdated policy that seeks to eradicate protected wildlife rather than addressing the real problem which is the main cause of bovine tuberculosis (bTB): cattle-to-cattle infection.

“Recent news that investment in a cattle vaccine is underway is welcome — but it is not enough. Moving the culling into areas where badger vaccinations have been taking place will also undermine this vital and under-funded work.”

The shock decision to destroy more than a third of England’s badgers has rocked the conservation community. The North West does not have as a big a population of badgers as other areas, some of this is due to historic persecution by badger baiters.

And the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside continues to join Wildlife Trusts across the country in opposing the cull which aims to kill more than 70,000 healthy badgers this autumn. That is believed to be a third of England’s population of this iconic mammal.

Campaigns Manager Alan Wright said: “This cruel and misguided cull is getting closer to our borders. There have already been culls in Cheshire and Cumbria and I find it difficult to believe that a cull will take place in Derbyshire, where the local Wildlife Trust has done so much to ensure they have a pioneering and successful inoculation programme for badgers.

“Scientists are overwhelmingly convinced that the badger cull is not the right way to deal with bovine TB, inoculation appears to be the best and cheapest way to deal with it, according to experts. And yet we hear that we could lose 35 per cent of Britain’s badgers this year.”

Culls will take place in Avon, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Somerset, Shropshire, Wiltshire and Warwickshire. They were previously carried out in Avon, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire and Wiltshire.

Alan said: “Badgers have long been targeted by cruel and ruthless people, but recently officialdom has turned against them with a programme that is ineffective and inefficient causing suffering as the animals are killed.

“In Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside we will continue to back an inoculation programme to protect our badgers. We will also support our colleagues around the country who now face heartbreak as these wonderful animals are slaughtered.”

The trust has campaigned against the culling of badgers and advocates the development of a cattle vaccine instead, along with DEFRA-funded badger vaccination and incentives aimed at improving biosecurity on farms and during the movement of cattle.

Alan added: “With the vast majority of the population against this cull, we must all write to our MPs and to Boris Johnson and demand that it ends and funds are channelled into an inoculation programme that will prevent bovine TB in both badgers and cattle.”

Badgers by Darin Smith

The move comes despite the government’s promise just six months ago to support badger vaccination and move away from shooting this protected species. The cull will result in the deaths of badgers which have been vaccinated by volunteers in government-funded programmes.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust leads the country’s most extensive vaccination programme Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s CEO, Dr Jo The Lancashire Wildlife Trust The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 Local Nature Reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 27,000 members, and over 1,200 volunteers.

To become a member of the Trust go to the website at www.lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk.

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HEARTS FOR HOMES THE QUAINT SHOP IN THE LOVELY TOWN OF RAMSBOTTOM The concept of Hearts of Homes is to bring affordable yet charming home décor and gifts to our customers.

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amsbottom gift shop Hearts for Homes celebrates it’s four year anniversary this April as owner and busy mum of three boys’ Kerry Khan reflects on how life has changed since she opened.

When Kerry first launched this beautiful, unique gift emporium back in 2016, little did she know

that within two years she would be outgrowing the original premises on Bolton Street and moving into a shop with three floors right on the corner of Bridge Street.

This prime spot formerly the Bridge Street News is now well established as Hearts for Homes and it’s pretty pink window display keeps the crowds coming

MADE IN THE UK, LARGE SELECTION OF COLOURS...

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in as it opens seven days a week in peak seasons.

Kerry’s passion for upcycling furniture snowballed into a gift and homeware boutique packed with treasures from floor to ceiling including gifts for mum, dad, baby and even mum to be.

From stunning silver jewellery made with real flowers ideal for Mothers Day to elegant scarves

by Shruti. Books, Manchester Bee unique giftware, wedding gifts, homewares from the Just Slate Company. From clocks to cushions, pebble frames made to order, quotes on cards by Claire, The Mudlark local pottery by Lynn and artwork by another Ramsbottom artist Julian Cohen.

“We have an incredibly loyal local customer base but our customers come from as far as Cheshire to shop here, we source all our suppliers individually and we’re proud to showcase local craftspeople and talent. I am delighted that we have already started holding craft workshops on our newly refurbished top floor too. Local artists have offered their services by popular demand including furniture painting and stained glass craft” adds Kerry.

One of the newest additions to the Hearts for Homes range is the environmentally friendly ‘Frenchic’ furniture paint. A firm Pinterest favourite, Frenchic is a chalk and mineral paint, toxin and solvent free with no odour with a creamy and rich coverage.

Designed not to peel or chip, the paint can be used literally anywhere including nursery furniture and in bathrooms.

“Frenchic has been so popular since we started to stock it” says Kerry. We have sold so much, the colour palette is fantastic and prices start at £8 for a small tin”.

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Get out of the city but still enjoy TIRED of city life but still need luxury apartment living regular access? The Courtyard

at Woodford Garden Village, surrounded by green, open space, may tick all the boxes.

I

f city centre living has become tiresome but apartmentliving appeals more than buying a house, Redrow’s luxury apartments may be the solution.

Located in the village of Woodford, just five miles from Stockport and 13 miles from Manchester city centre (trains from nearby Poynton Station reach Manchester Piccadilly in around 26 minutes), The Courtyard offers a lifestyle that would be envied by many.

Amanda Hollins, area sales manager for Redrow NW says: “City centre living appeals to many but, when the time comes to wanting to make the leap from renting to buying, this is where it can become tricky and buyers may find themselves priced out of the city centre market.

“Also, since experiencing lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, access to green spaces and the great outdoors has become more important to many; while working from home more frequently means being close to a city centre office base isn’t essential.

“However, not everyone who moves out of the city centre is looking for a three or four-bedroom house. Some people prefer the ease that comes with apartment living such as reduced upkeep, maximum use of all space available and everything on one level.”

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All 28 apartments at The Courtyard come with indulgent features such as underfloor heating, bi-fold patio doors onto a spacious balcony and other benefits such as a gated entrance and a private garage for each property.

Currently there are 13 two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments available with prices from £364,995.

An added bonus at The Courtyard is that home owners may be able to have a pet* - something which is often prohibited in city or town centre apartment blocks.

“Owning a dog or cat often comes hand in hand with a more rural lifestyle and it’s great that Woodford Garden Village offers that opportunity,” Amanda adds.

The Courtyard is part of the wider Woodford Garden Village that is transforming the old Woodford Aerodrome into a new residential community of circa 950 homes.

It will have its own amenities such as a pub by brewer and hospitality group JW Lees, primary school, shops and extra care housing; plus, a trademark feature of all Redrow’s garden villages, it puts an emphasis on strong placemaking with good quality green space for everyone to enjoy.

And for those worried about missing out on some aspects of city centre living, nearby places such as Wilmslow, Prestbury and Alderley Edge are well known for their

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The Courtyard at Woodford Garden Village

designer shops and café-bar culture, and Handforth, Bramhall and Poynton all offer a good selection of shops and services.

There are plans for a show apartment to be unveiled in 2021; visitors now can take a full virtual tour of the properties through the use of state of the art interactive visual technology. And, by reserving early off-plan they’ll have more opportunity to personalise their new apartment through a range of specification choices and optional upgrades.

To find out more, visit the sales centre at Woodford Garden Village open seven days a week from 10am5.30pm, call 0161 636 0798 or go to www.redrow.co.uk/thecourtyard.

The kitchen, living and dining space inside a Courtyard apartment

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* Pets allowed with leaseholder’s permission.

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A wild spring will lift our spirits After a wet and miserable winter, mainly because of the lockdown, spring now holds hope particularly for wildlife, says The Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Alan Wright.

Starling squabble by Alan Wright

S

pring is in the air and vaccines are in our local clinics, are we finally seeing an end to this horrible pandemic? And will we all appreciate what a wonderful life nature has given us over the past year?

At the Wildlife Trust, we see this as a most important time for nature. Many people will have reaped the benefits of being closer to the wild plants and creatures near to their home.

We have had many reports of birds, hedgehogs, bats, butterflies and bumblebees, popping into our gardens to cheer us up, while we have been observing lockdown.

Many people have been taking advantage of walking around their local countryside and parks, just to get out of the house. Along the way they will have met up with lots of amazing wildlife.

Outstanding nature is not just on the telly, and our recent Nearby Nature survey found that 99 per cent of respondents believe they have benefitted from being close to wildlife. We need to keep that enthusiasm for nature, because all those benefits will go away if we don’t look after nature.

We need to ensure future generations experience the same joys.

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Hedgehog numbers have dropped as hedgerows have disappeared by Peter Smith

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So what have we got to look forward to over the coming months?

While many of our winter visitors, geese and wading birds, will be flying to the Continent, others will return.

Watch out for first swallows and swifts of spring, and appreciate that they have travelled thousands of miles to breed in the North West. Yes, those tiny wings have carried them from Africa, across the Mediterranean, over Spain, France and the English Channel.

Watching swallows hunting insects on overcast afternoons is one of the wonders of nature. They comb meadows for the bugs and then fly in and out of trees, happily whizzing close to our ducking heads.

While these birds travel in from afar, other creatures will be waking up to perform similar insect-driven aerial acrobatics, like pipistrelle bats. Any long avenue of trees is the perfect place for bats to swoop and swirl around in a feeding frenzy.

I was lucky enough to meet some orphan bats at Brockholes, last year.

A polytunnel is used as a nursery until these cute little balls of fur gain their wings.

Hedgehogs will be out and about, and it is important that we now think about our spiky friends when we are working in our garden. You can create areas that are safe for hoglets, but you can also carry out tasks that are

Cheeky sparrows have been a delight during lockdown by Alan Wright

deadly to this iconic British creature.

If you have to use a strimmer, take care to check the areas you are cutting for creatures before you start. Those passionate volunteers at hedgehog hospitals across the region tell me that strimmer injuries have been a major factor in the drop in numbers of these mammals. And this is a terribly painful way to die, with some animals suffering injuries that become infected and fatal.

There are 25 different bumblebees including the common carder bee on thistle

by Alan Wright

Young starling on feeder showing brown feathers of youth and spots of adulthood by Alan Wright

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Fledgling blue tit by Alan Wright

On the other hand, you could look at your hedges and fences and leave holes through which hedgehogs can wander – hedgehog highways, allowing them to move between gardens.

While you are planning your garden, don’t forget to create lovely nectar cafes, where lots of insect-attracting plants will grow. I am so looking forward to hearing the buzz of bees and watching hoverflies staring at me, at my eyeline, in the warmer spring sun.

Then our garden will become a nursery for young blackbirds, sparrows, starlings and blue tits as spring stretches. The thought fills me with absolute delight and I already feel the warming glow even before summer has arrived.

Bluebells are on their way in spring

by Alan Wright

Young swallow on rooftops

by Alan Wright

It’s been tough, we have felt as though our liberties have been curtailed by a virus that might be proving that Nature is not happy with the human race. And yet Nature has been a welcome release from the pandemic.

Wildlife has been the only light in some pretty dark days, so let’s make sure we continue to keep that flame glowing.

Pipistrelle bat by Alan Wright

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 Local Nature Reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 27,000 members, and over 1,200 volunteers.

To become a member of the Trust go to the website at www.lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk.

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Birkenhead Park: the first of its kind in the world

By Margaret Brecknell

Easter Monday in 1847 represented a memorable day in the history of the then rapidly developing industrial town of Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula with the opening of its new docks and municipal park. The subsequent importance of the docks to the town has rightly been welldocumented, but the historical significance of Birkenhead Park should not be overlooked.

Today we all take for granted access to public parks. The events of 2020 reminded us why they play such an important role in our lives, particularly for town and city dwellers. So many people spent more time than usual cooped up at home that access to parks and other green spaces provided a lifeline for those wanting to exercise or to allow young children to let off steam.

Prior to the 1840s, however, municipal parks simply did not exist. The public were sometimes allowed entry to the pleasure gardens and parks which formed part of the large estates owned by private landowners, but this access was given solely at the discretion of the wealthy individuals concerned and could be withdrawn on a whim. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, this had not proved much of an issue, as most of the population lived within easy reach of open countryside. However, as in the early 1800s more and more people moved to the rapidly expanding industrial towns and cities to find work, welfare campaigners began to voice concerns about the impact on urban dwellers of the lack of access to green spaces.

Above: 1847 engraving of the opening of Birkenhead Park

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Birkenhead represents a perfect example of a town which experienced rapid growth during the first half of the 19th century, with a population of around 200 people in 1821 increasing to more than 24,000 at the time of the 1851 census. Until the 1820s, the Wirral Peninsula had remained largely undeveloped, but all that changed when Glasgow businessman, William Laird, opened a new shipbuilding yard there (which would eventually become the world-famous Cammell Laird shipyard).

Laird’s ambitions didn’t end there. He wished to build a new town close to the shipyard and commissioned Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham to draw up plans. Based on the principles used in the development of the “New Town” in Edinburgh, work began in Birkenhead around the area which is now called Hamilton Square.

Rows of elegant Georgian town houses were planned, which were designed to appeal to those seeking an affluent urban lifestyle.

These developments formed the backdrop to the groundbreaking decision taken in 1841 to seek permission to create a park, for which the money would come from public funds. It was proposed that the expense would be recouped through the sale of the land adjoining the new park to those who could afford to build their own homes there.

The enterprising scheme was given the goahead two years later and in August 1843 Joseph Paxton was invited to design the new park.

Today Paxton is best remembered as the creator of the Crystal Palace, the innovative glass and iron structure which housed the 1851 Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park. However, he started working life as the head gardener at Chatsworth House, the Duke of Devonshire’s large stately pile in Derbyshire. In that role he was responsible for transforming the estate’s gardens, as well creating the arboretum, conservatory and spectacular Emperor Fountain which are still admired by visitors to Chatsworth today.

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Paxton’s design for the new Birkenhead Park was informal in style and was intended to create the impression of a naturalistic English landscape rather than a formal garden. The plan incorporated innovative features such as terraces, lakes, hills, rockeries and woodland areas, as well as several stand-out focal points like the Grand Entrance, Swiss Bridge and Roman Boathouse.

Above: Joseph Paxton

Shortly after taking up his role as head of the project, Paxton appointed Edward Kemp, a close associate of his who had worked with him at Chatsworth, as the park’s superintendent. Kemp oversaw the day-to-day implementation of Paxton’s plans.

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By late 1846 the new Birkenhead Park was completed, but its official opening was delayed by nearly six months until the new docks were also ready. Lord Morpeth performed the opening ceremony on 5th April 1847, with a crowd of around 10,000 people gathered at the park’s Grand Entrance to witness the event.

Birkenhead Park’s outstanding design and unique concept captured the imagination of many people, far beyond the local community. In 1850 Frederick Law Olmsted arrived in Liverpool by ship from the USA. Accompanied by two friends, the trio planned to undertake a six-month tour of the British Isles and Europe. Two years later Olmsted published a book based on his travels entitled Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England.

Subsequently Olmsted continued to travel widely, as well as working as a journalist for The New York Times, but the turning point in his life came when he entered a competition with Calvert Vaux to design a new public park planned for New York. Drawing heavily for its inspiration on Paxton’s design for Birkenhead Park, Olmsted and Vaux’s plan stood out from the rest and they were awarded the commission in 1858. The result, Central Park, has become arguably the most famous green urban space on the planet, but few are aware that its development owes so much to the park in Birkenhead.

Above: The Grand Entrance Phil Nash/CC BY-SA 4.0

Below: The Swiss Bridge Gary Beale/CC BY-SA 4.0

During his time in the North West Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park and was fascinated by what he saw. He later wrote that “Five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with this People’s Garden...All this magnificent pleasureground is entirely, unreservedly, and for ever the people’s own. The poorest British peasant is as free to enjoy it in all its parts as the British Queen”.

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Birkenhead Park’s distinctive architectural features have proved popular with visitors ever since it first opened in 1847.

The Grand Entrance at the park’s north-east corner was designed to look like a triumphal arch from classical civilisation. It consists of three arches, flanked by a lodge at either side. A young Liverpool architect called Lewis Hornblower was given the responsibility of designing the Grand Entrance and other lodges dotted around the park. He may well have been assisted by Paxton’s long-time assistant, John Robertson, who is believed to have designed another of the park’s best-known buildings, the Roman Boathouse which is situated by the lake.

The brightly coloured Swiss Bridge is another of the original features of the park which may still be enjoyed today. This iconic structure, the only one of its kind in the UK, was modelled after similar covered wooden bridges in Switzerland and elsewhere on the continent.

Above: Roman Boathouse and Swiss Bridge ReptOn1x/CC BY-SA 2.0

The park is also home to one of the earliest surviving cricket pavilions in the country, which dates from 1849. Birkenhead Park Cricket Club was founded in 1847 and is still playing today, one of several sports clubs to make the park its home.

Birkenhead Park Rugby Club enjoys a similarly long history. The club began playing rugby in the park in 1871, moving to the Upper Park Ground in 1885 where it has remained ever since. The ground famously hosted a match between a North of England side and the famous All Blacks in 1978.

The park is also home to one of the earliest surviving cricket pavilions in the country

In the event, the development of high-class residences around the edge of Birkenhead Park never really materialised on the scale originally envisaged because of a severe economic recession in the late 1840s. When building did recommence, the focus shifted to the need for cheap housing to accommodate the thousands of people who were flooding into the area to work in the new docks. However, the proceeds raised from the

initial sale of building plots are believed to have more than recouped the original costs involved in the park’s construction. These plots were mostly situated around the southern and western perimeters of the park and the homes which were built on them were required to adhere to strict guidelines as regards design and quality. Today many of these properties are regarded as being of architectural note and are Grade II listed.

During the two conflicts which blighted the first part of the 20th century, Birkenhead Park was put to practical use. The Cheshire Regiment used part of the park as a training ground during World War 1 and another part was converted into allotments. During World War II a couple of large air-raid shelters were erected in the park (like Liverpool, Birkenhead was bombed heavily during the war) and the park’s iron railings were removed to help the war effort.

Sadly during the second half of the 20th century the park became much neglected and several of its most iconic features were in danger of being lost forever. However, in more recent years the park’s significance as a landmark of historical and cultural significance has become more widely recognised and it has undergone major restoration work.

Birkenhead Park now boasts a modern visitor centre, café and children’s playground. Its original features have also been lovingly restored, meaning that once again visitors to the park can enjoy all the amenities which this unique attraction has to offer.

Left: The Italian Lodge - ReptOn1x/CC BY-SA 2.0

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Move from Cheshire to Lancashire equals ‘better way of life’ for couple As Lancashire Day (November 27) celebrations get underway one couple share their reasons for choosing to relocate from Cheshire to Lancashire for their next home.

Jeremy Welch and Catriona Sudlow inside their new Redrow home at Tabley Green.

FOR Jeremy Welch and Catriona Sudlow, getting ‘more house for their money’ was one reason behind relocating from Macclesfield in Cheshire to Fulwood in Lancashire.

Having previously lived in Tytherington, Jeremy and Catriona decided that they wanted to upgrade from a threebedroom semi-detached home to a detached property that would give them more space.

With family in Preston, the couple chose to start their new home search close by and, after finding a home that ‘ticked all the boxes’, they are now settling in at Redrow’s Tabley Green in Fulwood.

Jeremy continues: “Following a tough few months on the market, with the uncertainty that Brexit brought, quickly followed by Covid-19 lockdown, the support that the Help to Sell scheme gave us, as lockdown was released led to an influx of viewings, followed by a quick sale.”

Tabley Green features a range of three and four-bedroom homes from Redrow’s ‘Arts and Crafts’ inspired Heritage Collection.

Current prices are from £284,995 for a four-bedroom detached home.

Marketing Account Director, Jeremy, says realising how much more house they could get for their money was the reason they decided to relocate to Fulwood: “Some of the things we wanted in our next home was for it to be detached, to have an open-plan layout downstairs, a room we could use as a study, a double driveway plus an integral garage.

The Shrewsbury has all this and more.”

And the couple wanted to make the move without it impacting too much on their expenses.

“What we wanted was to move into a larger, more suitable home but not increase our monthly expenditure too much.

Our new home is allowing us to enjoy a better way of life in a house that we will be in for a long time,” says Jeremy.

The couple sold their previous home using Redrow’s Help to Sell scheme. After they’d chosen their new home, Redrow appointed a trusted estate agent to value and market their previous home to achieve a quick sale while also contributing towards fees.

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For more information about homes at Tabley Green make an appointment to visit the Lightfoot Lane show homes and sales office, open daily from 10am to 5.30pm; call 01772 507449, or go to www.redrow.co.uk/tableygreen

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Based in the rural village of Goosnargh, Laurel Farm Kitchens has been recognised as one of only a few truly bespoke kitchen manufacturers in the North West receiving a reputation, second to none, on quality and craftsmanship over the past 25 years.

“Our aim, through the creativity of our kitchen designers and their ability to bring out the best in our client’s ideas is to create the most imaginative and workable kitchens from the canvas supplied.”

George Formby senior: a forgotten star

By Margaret Brecknell

T

he name of George Formby (1904-61) was known across the globe during the 1930s and 1940s.

The Lancashire born comedian, actor and ukulele player became the UK’s top-paid entertainer and at the height of his popularity is estimated to have earned the then huge sum of around £100,000 per year (equivalent to about £6m today). Even today his name is synonymous with the ukulele and his best- known songs such as Leaning On A Lamp Post and The Window Cleaner are played regularly.

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It is often overlooked today that the entertainer’s father, George Formby Senior, also enjoyed a successful career in show business and in the early years of the 20th century was known as one of the country’s most popular music hall performers. Formby Senior died 100 years ago this year in February 1921, so this represents the perfect opportunity to consider the life and career of this forgotten star of the early 1900s.

Above: George Formby Snr in stage costume

Right: George Formby Jnr in Australia 1947

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The older George Formby was born as James Booth in Ashton-Under-Lyne on 4th October 1875, the illegitimate son of 18-year-old Sarah Booth. His mother married Frank Lawler, a coal miner, about six months after her son was born.

Lawler was probably James’ father and the young boy took his surname after the marriage. However, James did not grow up in a stable family environment.

Allegedly, both his parents were heavy drinkers and the couple would constantly have arguments, which would often end in violence. Their young son would himself sometimes become the target of their drunken outbursts, whilst at other times he was totally neglected and left to fend for himself. He ended up roaming the streets at all times of day and night in all weathers and often going without food.

Formby’s childhood sounds unbearably grim and unhappy. He himself later recalled that “Without having to think very hard, I can remember as miserable a childhood as ever fell to the lot of a human creature.

Unfortunately, my parents allowed me to go my own way and in a manner I was absolutely uncared for”.

These hard early childhood years also had a serious impact on his health.

Always a weak and sickly child, he developed severe asthma whilst still a boy and would be afflicted with serious chest problems for the rest of his life.

Above: George Formby Jnr entertaining troops during WWII

At the age of 12 Formby began work as an apprentice in an iron foundry, but he didn’t last long there. The long hours and unhealthy working environment only served to worsen his chest condition. It seems too that his heart may have already been set on an alternative career.

From a young age Formby had developed the habit of sneaking into the local music halls as a way of finding shelter from the cold. Inspired by the musical acts he witnessed there, he began to sing himself and with his angelic boy soprano voice found

he could make money by busking on the streets. He soon formed a partnership with another boy and they performed under the stage name of The Brothers Glenray. The act enjoyed some local success until in his late teens Formby’s voice broke and the duo went their separate ways.

At this stage Formby began to develop the music hall act for which he later became famous. The Brothers Glenray’s repertoire had been largely based around sentimental ballads. Now Formby began to write his own songs, which were much more comical in tone.

To begin with, he performed under his real name, but around 1897 he took the stage name George Formby. The name is said to have been suggested by Dennis Clarke, the owner of the Argyle Music Hall in Birkenhead, who gave him one of his first breaks in show business.

From then onwards Formby’s career in show business steadily progressed, but he can in no way be described as an overnight success. In 1897/98 he was engaged as the support act for the popular magician Walford Brodie on a 40-week tour. While performing at the Wigan Empire, Formby met for the first time a young woman called Eliza Hoy, the daughter of the theatre’s cashier. The couple were immediately smitten and married at Wigan Register Office on 11th August 1899.

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Eliza, who in later life Formby would describe as “my dear wife and pal”, played a significant part in her husband’s future success on the stage, but the marriage was not as straightforward as it first appears. Indeed, it is highly questionable whether it should have taken place at all, for marriage records indicate that Formby was already married. It seems that some two years earlier Formby had married a fellow music hall performer called Martha Maria Salter in her hometown of Halifax. Not much is known about the marriage, or, indeed, Martha herself, but no evidence has been found to suggest the couple ever divorced, which would make Formby’s subsequent marriage to Eliza bigamous.

At a time when it was expensive to obtain a divorce, and the practice was still frowned upon by the religious authorities, this kind of arrangement was not as unusual as may be first imagined.

The early years of George and Eliza’s union proved to be a struggle, with Formby still finding it difficult to make much headway in his show business career. As well as making all her husband’s stage costumes, Eliza took in sewing to help make ends meet. During this period the couple also lost their first three children to early deaths.

By the time their first son, George Junior was born in 1904, Formby was beginning to enjoy more professional success. When he performed for the first time in London, he proved an immediate hit 54

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with southern audiences and was introduced to top London agent Ted Granville, who went on to represent him for the rest of his life. He at long last started to attract higher paying jobs such as the lead in a pantomime at Newcastle in 1905, which paid a then extremely healthy £35 per week.

In August 1906 Formby made the first recordings of his songs for the Louis Sterling Cylinder Company in London by means of the still relatively recent invention of the phonograph cylinder. These hollow cylindrical objects were the earliest means by which sound could be recorded and then later be reproduced by playing the cylinders on a phonograph. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Formby took to the new medium easily. He was seemingly able to perform to an invisible audience with confidence, interspersing his song with comic asides to his listener as if he were performing on stage.

Above: Knowsley Hall Venue for 1913 Royal Command Performance SLR Jester/CC BYSA2.0

A highlight of Formby’s career came in 1913 when he performed in front of King George V and Queen Mary at two Royal Command Performances, firstly in July at Knowsley Hall and then in October at the Coliseum in London.

Just as Formby was achieving great success, the weakness in his chest, which had dogged him since a child, began to worsen significantly. He would frequently be subject to coughing fits on stage, to www.lancmag.com

such a degree that he began to incorporate it into his act with expressions such as “It’s not the cough that carries you off – it’s the coffin they carries you off in”. Just before the opening of a major London show at Drury Lane in 1916, Formby was rushed to hospital with a pulmonary haemorrhage and was forced to miss the opening night. Like the true professional he was, he returned to star in later performances and was a big hit with audiences. It is remarkable that he was able to continue performing at all, as it seems likely that that he was now suffering from tuberculosis.

Formby’s increasingly frail health was further damaged when he contracted influenza during the pandemic of 1918. He was now a wealthy man and was advised by doctors to retire from show business, but he kept going. He was seemingly driven by the desire to ensure he and his family would be able to cope financially, should he be compelled to give up work, probably as a consequence of the abject poverty in which he had grown up as a child.

Eliza was always on hand to nurse him through the difficult periods. She accompanied him wherever he performed, waiting in the wings to administer oxygen should he require it.

Below: London Coliseum Venue for second Royal Command Performance in 1913 Mike Peel/CC BYSA4.0

In early 1921 Formby was performing in pantomime at the Newcastle Empire when he collapsed after a show. He returned with Eliza to his home near Warrington, where he died on 8th February 1921 at the age of just 45. On the day of his funeral thousands lined the streets to pay their last respects to one of the biggest stars of the music hall era. One newspaper obituary writer commented that “George Formby was a great comedian, but what made him greater than all comedians was the pathetic fact that he made a fortune joking with death standing over at his elbow”.

A mere six weeks after his death George Formby Junior appeared on stage for the first time, using much of his father’s act. Formby Senior had not wanted his son to follow him into show business and had sent him away from home to work as a stable boy at the age of just seven years old. Eliza had come from a racing family and the couple had planned that upon retirement they would open their own stables, which father and son would run together.

In August 1906 Formby made the first recordings of his songs for the Louis Sterling Cylinder Company in London by means of the still relatively recent invention of the phonograph cylinder.

It is said that Eliza was the driving force behind the sudden change in direction of Formby Junior’s career. She was troubled that only a few weeks after her husband’s death other comedians were already billing themselves as the “new George Formby” and using large parts of his act. Contrary to expectations, George Junior had never seen his father on stage and found it difficult to imitate his act. His own show business career only really started to take off when a couple of years later he started to play the ukulele and began to develop his own more “modern” act.

Such was George Formby’s later success that he made the name his own and his father, if remembered at all, came to be known as “George Formby Senior”. However, the original George Formby deserves to be recalled too, not only as a shining star of the music hall era, but also because of his determination to succeed in his chosen profession against all odds. www.lancmag.com

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One-man comedy by Jonathan Harvey to tour England in February

Andrew Lancel stars in Play to re-open Liverpool’s Swan Song directed by Unity Theatre before touring Noreen Kershaw for LGBT history month Following its critically acclaimed sell-out premiere at Liverpool Theatre Festival in September, Swan Song, a revised comedy by acclaimed playwright Jonathan Harvey, is heading out on tour in February to coincide with LGBT History Month.

Swan Song, a one-man play starring TV and stage actor Andrew Lancel, is directed by BAFTA awardwinning director Noreen Kershaw and produced by Bill Elms.

The play will open at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre for six performances over three nights, this will be the first live performances at the theatre since closing in March. The show then moves on to The Atkinson Southport, Lighthouse Poole, Swan Theatre Worcester, Belgrade Coventry, Dukes Lancaster, City 56

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Varieties Leeds, and Capitol Horsham. All venue will present to socially distanced audiences and more dates are to be confirmed soon.

Swan Song was first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1997, before transferring to Hampstead Theatre with award-winning comedy actress Rebecca Front in the lead role. Jonathan Harvey adapted the 70-minute play specially for Liverpool Theatre Festival for Andrew Lancel to play the solo role of Dave Titswell. Due to critical acclaim, the play will now perform at venues across the UK next year, these new dates replaced the November 2020 dates which were cancelled due to lockdown, now a longer tour is planned for Spring 2021. www.lancmag.com

The news also comes as Andrew Lancel is set to have an appearance in the Royal Variety Performance, which is televised on Tuesday 8 December. Andrew appears as Brian Epstein in Cilla The Musical, he also played Brian in Epstein The Man Who Made The Beatles in 2012, where Andrew Lancel first met Bill Elms who produced the play in Liverpool and London’s West End. Producer and the artistic director of Liverpool Theatre Festival, Bill Elms said: “Swan Song is a funny, clever and inspiring production which opened the inaugural Liverpool Theatre Festival.

Andrew Lancel, Jonathan Harvey, and Noreen Kershaw are an incredible blend of creative talent, and the play went down a storm in Liverpool. It is such a lovely piece that I approached Andrew and the team with the idea to tour. People are excited for the return of live theatre – and we’re excited to give them that experience back after such a long time with a really special production.”

Swan Song is a bittersweet comedy written by Jonathan Harvey. Set in Liverpool, it is Christmas 1997, the world is changing and in the staff room, Gay, forty-something, English teacher Dave Titswell finds that not all change is welcome. He has a crush, but life, love, and work are never straight forward for Dave. Will a school trip to The Lakes change things for the better, or make things decidedly worse? Swan Song will make audiences laugh, but equally pull at the heartstrings. Everyone knows someone like Dave – or could even be a Dave themselves.

Andrew Lancel is no stranger to audiences. Well established on the national theatre scene, Andrew is also widely known for his television roles as DI Neil Manson in The Bill and super-villain Frank

Above:

Andrew Lancel in Swan Song - credit Alan Williams 2 Below:

Andrew Lancel in Swan Song - credit Alan Williams

Foster in Coronation Street. He has twice played Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein on stage to great critical acclaim, first in Epstein – The Man Who Made The Beatles (also produced by Bill Elms) which premiered in Liverpool and went on to play London’s West End, as well as playing Epstein in the national tour of Cilla The Musical, Bill Kenwright’s stage adaptation of the TV series written by Jeff Pope.

Andrew Lancel commented: “The last play I saw before lockdown was Jonathan Harvey’s Our Lady of Blundellsands at The Everyman Liverpool, which I loved – so it’s very cool, and a little ironic, that my first play back is with Jonathan. We have known each other for years and worked together a lot but never on stage, so it’s humbling that he has adapted this play for me. It’s very funny, moving, and I think people will really relate to it today. His characters are literally gifts to play and to watch.

“This play is about reuniting too. Reuniting theatre and audiences with live performance is extra special. To be back with Epstein producer Bill Elms is a buzz, and I’ve worked on some very serious storylines on Corrie with Noreen Kershaw. It feels like coming home for us all in so many ways.”

Award-winning Jonathan Harvey’s credits include Gimme Gimme Gimme; Murder Most Horrid; Coronation Street; Call The Midwife; and Tracey Ullman’s Show. His plays include Beautiful Thing, Corrie, Canary, Hushabye Mountain, Babies, Boom

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Above:

Andrew Lancel in Swan Song credit David Munn

Bang A Bang’ and Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club. He also wrote the 2001 stage musical Closer to Heaven with the Pet Shop Boys and its sequel Muzik. He has won the John Whiting Award, the George Devine Award, two Manchester Evening News Awards, an Evening Standard Award, two British Soap Awards and a Writers Guild of Great Britain Award.

Jonathan added: “Swan Song is a comedy about a teacher who’s trying to hold onto his dignity while the education system crumbles around him – and I’m thrilled Andrew is playing Dave. I’m delighted to also be working with Noreen again, she directed many of my Corrie scripts and my last episode of Call The Midwife. As the original Shirley Valentine, Noreen definitely knows a thing or two about one person shows.”

Noreen Kershaw’s directing credits include Our Girl, Moving On, Scott & Bailey, Emmerdale, Shameless, Heartbeat and Coronation Street. She is also known for acting in Life On Mars, Brookside, and Watching. Noreen also originated the title role of Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre.

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LISTING INFORMATION Andrew Lancel in SWAN SONG

by Jonathan Harvey

UNITY THEATRE Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG Thursday 4 - Saturday 6 February 2021 Performance times: 5pm / 7.45pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk ON SALE NOW ATKINSON THEATRE Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1DB Friday 12 – Saturday 13 February 2021 Performance times: 7.30pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.theatkinson.co.uk ON SALE SOON THE LIGHTHOUSE Kingland Road, Poole, BH15 1UG Saturday 20 February 2021 Performance times: 3pm / 7pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.lighthousepoole.co.uk ON SALE 11 DEC THE SWAN THEATRE The Moors, Worcester, WR1 3ED Sunday 21 February 2021 Performance times: 3pm / 7pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.worcesterlive.co.uk ON SALE NOW

BELGRADE THEATRE Belgrade Square, Coventry, CV1 1GS Wednesday 24 February 2021 Performance times: 2.30pm / 7pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.belgrade.co.uk ON SALE NOW DUKES LANCASTER Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1QE Thursday 25 February 2021 Performance times: 2.30pm / 7.30pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.dukeslancaster.org ON SALE NOW CITY VARIETIES MUSIC HALL Swan Street, Leeds, LS1 6LW Saturday 27 February 2021 Performance times: 2pm / 7.30pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.cityvarieties.co.uk ON SALE NOW THE CAPITOL THEATRE North Street, Horsham, RH12 1RG Sunday 28 February 2021 Performance times: 3pm / 6pm Show duration: 70 minutes (no interval) How to book: www.thecapitolhorsham.co.uk ON SALE NOW

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Around the region Tram Benches Celebrate Blackpool’s Tram Heritage Two new benches inspired by Blackpool’s Heritage Trams have been installed in the town centre.

Artist Andy Hazell came up with the designs for the stainless steel benches after a visit to Blackpool Transport’s Rigby Road depot.

Taking inspiration from Blackpool’s rich tram heritage, Andy created four unique designs for the new benches, and two of these have now been installed in Talbot Square.

Made from stainless steel, the benches depict a Blackpool ‘OMO’ built in the mid1930s and the ‘Brush’ built originally in 1937.

The final two benches will be installed once the new Tram Terminal Interchange has been built at North Station.

The tram benches are the latest addition to Blackpool’s town centre improvement works. Despite being in a national lockdown, the council remain committed to delivering a better Blackpool for all.

The project is part of the ongoing regeneration plans to make the town centre more attractive to shoppers, residents and investors with 100% of the funding coming to Blackpool from a grant through the

Lancashire Enterprise Partnership under its Growth Deal.

Whilst it’s hoped that people will appreciate the new addition to Talbot Road, social distancing in the town remains vitally important and it’s therefore essential that everyone follows the government guidelines.

Many local families will be familiar with Andy’s much-loved Save Our Stories rescue ship that has visited Wordpool Family Day at Stanley Park and many local schools over the past few years.

The artist’s latest works celebrate the remarkable history of the town’s tramway.

Blackpool can proudly boast at having not only the oldest electric tramway in the UK but the only one to have been continually in use for 135 years and counting.

The 11-mile tramway runs from Starr Gate in Blackpool up to Fleetwood Ferry, operating a service every ten minutes during the summer season.

The plans to create an integrated transport network with trams running all the way to Blackpool North Station will provide

PETITION – Call for Government to financially support the creation of the Eden of the North YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED – ALL LANCASHIRE BUSINESSES Eden Project North will be the most significant and long-lasting investment in north Lancashire since the canal system of the 18th century. It is an all-encompassing project that will tie many facets of the community together. It is much more than a tourist attraction as it will be the bridge between the scientific, educational, business, tourism, environmental and third-sector communities.

‘Eden is still coming to Morecambe’ confirmed Si Bellamy, from the Eden Project at a recent online event organised by Lancaster & District Chamber of Commerce and Morecambe BID. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has been, naturally, taking the main headlines, the Eden team have been beavering away on the Morecambe proposal

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to get the plans ready for submission for planning approval.

The Eden team have been doing all they can but now they need you and more importantly your support! Ever since the word Eden was heard locally every man, women and dog have been asking how they can help or get involved.

Well now is your time to help and support in securing this amazing project on Morecambe’s shores.

We are kindly asking businesses show their support by sending a letter to The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer via the Lancaster & District Chamber, who are leading on collating all the responses.

Please can you complete these simple steps:

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direct services from North Station to the north and south of the town.

The tramway extension will support the continued development and regeneration of the Talbot Gateway area, as well as providing benefits to commuters and visitors travelling to and from the town centre.

Cllr Gillian Campbell, Blackpool Council’s Cabinet Member for Tourism and Culture, said: “These unique benches are a wonderful addition to Talbot Road and celebrate our special tram heritage. People will be able to take a seat and watch the latest trams go by as they turn off the Promenade and up Talbot Road.

“This exciting project is all part of the council’s plan to revive the town centre and deliver a better Blackpool for everyone.”

Be the first to hear about new developments in the town. Sign up to news alerts at www.blackpool.gov.uk/BetterBlackpool

1. Download the suggested letter of support HERE (https://lancaster-chamber. org.uk/news/eden-north-letter-of-supportand-petition) 2. Please print onto your company letterhead and sign 3. Have you signed the letter (VERY important step) 4. Include your full address including your postcode 5. Scan a copy of the signed letter to info@lancaster-chamber.org.uk for the attention of the Chamber CEO. 6. Please circulate this Petition to friends, family, suppliers, and clients. It is crucial we get as many letters of support from businesses as possible.

Thank you in advance for your time For more information please email the Chamber at info@lancaster-chamber.org.uk or call 01524 381331

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Help to buy for growing families in Fulwood THERE is help is available in Fulwood for homeowners wishing to upsize their home to meet the needs of a growing family.

The Henley - view from the family area, through to the dining space and kitchen.

The Henley

The Henley - lounge.

A four-bedroom detached Henley is available at Redrow’s Tabley Green under the current Help to Buy scheme, which is open both to first time buyers and those who are sold subject to contract.

and family area that spans across the whole width of the home plus a separate lounge. There’s also a handy utility room with separate access to the garden plus a cloakroom.

It means that a home can be secured with as little as a 5% deposit plus a 20% equity loan that’s interest free for five years and a 75% mortgage from a choice of lenders.

Moving upstairs, there are four good-sized bedrooms, two have an en-suite plus a family bathroom.

The Government-backed scheme is due to change next spring, when regional price caps will be introduced and only first time buyers can apply, so opportunities to use this version of Help to Buy are diminishing.

In order to benefit from the existing scheme, the Henley at Tabley Green must be reserved by the end of November.

Priced at £449,995, the Henley has plenty of space for growing families.

Downstairs, there is a huge kitchen, dining

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This home also comes with upgrades including granite worktops in the kitchen, a dishwasher and tiling in the bathrooms.

Sian Pitt, sales director at Redrow Lancashire said: “When it comes to buying a house the hardest part is saving for the deposit. That’s why Help to Buy is such a huge help.

“The Henley offers so much room and the numerous upgrades really make it a house that will be desired so buyers will have to act quickly to secure it.”

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Help to Buy is due to change in 2021. The current version, which is open to first time buyers and movers, will end on March 31 and a new Help to Buy scheme for first time buyers only will replace it from April 1. Buyers will still be able to borrow up to 20% of the cost of a new-build home; however the amount that can be spent on the home will depend on where in England it is. Those using the current scheme will need to legally complete the process of buying a new home before the end of March.

Redrow has other three and fourbedroom homes available at Tabley Green from £284,995. To find out more visit www.redrow.co.uk/tableygreen or call 01772 507449.

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National award for Career Ready programme

Above: Dan Reeds and also Sarah Whittaker, Career Ready Coordinators and Career Ready student, Daniel Wilson.

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lackpool Sixth has won both a regional and a national award for its Career Ready programme. The programme which has been running at the college for eleven years provides students with an in-depth preparation for the world of work, including one-to-one mentoring, skills masterclasses, and high quality internships in industry. The college’s programme has been selected because of the way it provides a wide range of students with excellent aspiration-raising activities in a geographical area where opportunities and experiences can be relatively limited.

Blackpool Sixth has built an extremely strong network of volunteer business partners without whose support the programme would not run.

These partners are drawn from a range of sectors such as finance, travel and logistics. Some volunteers have been involved for more than a decade and their drive and enthusiasm has helped the programme evolve.

The regional and national awards recognise the overall excellence of the college’s Career Ready programme as well as the drive and ambition which its coordinators and partners have shown in growing and improving it. A particular highlight of the programme is that the college has been able to source placements for students both locally and much further afield such as in Manchester, Guildford, London and Wales. The programme has grown year on year from around ten students to 34 now across many different subject areas and backgrounds.

The programme has been invaluable for the study and career progression of former participants. Many of these students have been able to secure employment with their placement companies, including Santander, Lloyds, Ernst and Young, KPMG, L’Oreal, Citi Bank and Victrex.

One of the programme’s coordinators at Blackpool Sixth Dan Reeds said, “Career Ready gives us the chance to work with young people

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to really provide them with opportunities to show real aspiration and desire to work within the career industry of their choice. It has been an honour to watch them grow into confident young professionals through their work in the masterclasses and internships and interactions with local and national businesses as well as seeing them reach their goals of gaining their chosen apprenticeship or their first choice university.”

Fellow staff coordinator Sarah Whittaker added, “We are delighted to have won these awards on behalf of all involved in the programme. We are always working hard to improve what we offer students so they can develop their skills and overcome any barriers to success. We feel this is very important for our area where students don’t have access to the range of opportunities young people have in more affluent parts of the country.”

Connor Dagger, a current student who aspires to become a project manager at BAE Systems commented, “Career Ready has supported me in improving my presentation and interview skills as well as expanding my network by working with different employers and it has enabled me to take more control over my own career path and making me career ready.”

Effie Sharp, Primary Education Recruitment Specialist at Randstad Education, has been a Career Ready mentor since 2015, winning Mentor of the Year in 2017, said, “As a mentor we see the students grow in confidence, have well informed conversations about their future and be excited to learn what they can achieve.

I am so proud of Blackpool Sixth and proud to be part of the programme.”

Paul Wilcock, director at Ashton Wilcock Chartered Accountants, has been part of the programme since the start. He added, “I have enjoyed working with some extremely wellrounded and keen young people and also watching them develop under the programme.”

Above: Career Ready Coordinator Dan Reeds (front), Assistant Principal (Vocational) Tina Cooper (left) and Head of Business and IT, Sam Brown (right)

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BOOKS Our roundup of this months literary delights

Rethinking Cybercrime: Critical Debates, “Our fear of contagion has become a business opportunity for cybercriminals”

UCLan academics publish new book which delves into all aspects of cybercrime.

Academic staff from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) have provided a disturbing glimpse of a postCOVID world thanks to a new book on cybercrime.

Rethinking Cybercrime: Critical Debates, published by Palgrave Macmillan, has been edited by UCLan’s Dr Tim Owen, Reader in Criminology, and Jess Marshall, Senior Lecturer in Social Science.

Drawing on selected papers from previous cybercrime conferences, the book provides a contemporary ‘snapshot’ of critical debate centred around cybercrime and related issues including cyber-terrorism, online grooming, hacktivism and law.

Commenting on the book and its relevance in a post-covid world Dr Owen said: “A recurring theme being asked by everyone is: ‘When will we be returning to normality?’.

In an effort to predict future trends I would suggest the possible answer to that question is, ‘never’.

“For those of us concerned with cybercrime, predictably malicious and fraudulent websites have sprung up claiming to offer information and advice about the pandemic, scammers are exploiting the desire for a cure for the virus, there have been hacking and ransomware attacks upon hospitals and medical research centres, and Europol are currently dealing with the trafficking of counterfeit Coronavirus medicines.

“It is probably the case that there might be future pandemics on this scale and our increasing reliance upon new technology ensures that cyberspace is 64

and will remain the fastest-growing site for crime and deviance.

“To counter this landscape we require a collaborative approach which views the cyber offender through a flexible, four-fold lens, considering psychological, social, genetic and neurological factors in order to make sense of a new, post-pandemic world in which most organisations are working from home via information technology, and our fears of contagion become business opportunities for cybercriminals.”

Rethinking Cybercrime: Critical Debates is well positioned for advanced lecturers and those working in professions connected to criminology, law, sociology, social policy, computer studies, policing, forensic investigation, public services and philosophy who want to understand cybercrime from different angles and perspectives.

Tim Owen

Copies of the book can be ordered at: www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030558406

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Weddings at TOWNELEY HALL

This picture-perfect venue for your wedding can host 80 – 400 guests in the historic rooms of the Hall or in a glittering marquee on the lawns. From beautiful flowers, superb food, champagne, music, pianists, harpists and master of ceremonies to singers; it’s your special day and we’ll help tailor it to your dreams.

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Clitheroe

By Mark Bateman

Stepping Stones across the River Hodder in the Forest of Bowland near Clitheroe

Clitheroe is a town and civil parish in the borough of the Ribble Valley. It is located thirty-four miles North West of Manchester near to the Forest of Bowland. The name Clitheroe comes from the Anglo Saxon for ‘rocky hill’ and over the years it has also been known as ‘Clyderhow’ and ‘Cletherwoode’.

It is a town that locals say was ‘founded on lime, Latin and Law.’ Before the Norman conquest of 1066 the lands of Blackburnshire were held by Edward The Confessor. The town of Blackburn was the centre, but it covered a large area of what is now East Lancashire and included The Ribble Valley, Pendle, Burnley, Rossendale, and Hyndburn. Bowland was held by Tostig son of Godwin Earl of Wessex.

After the invasion in 1092 Roger De Poitou (a French noble man) was given much of Lancashire, including Blackburnshire, to govern. In 1102 Henry I granted Robert De Lacy second Baron of Pontefract and Lord of Bowland Poitou’s land as punishment for 66

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a rebellion by Poitou. Taken together these lands, along with the Forest of Bowland formed what became known as the ‘honour of Clitheroe.’

An ‘honour’ was an ancient grouping of manors and Royal Forests. The administrative seat, or ‘Caput’ of the honour was the town of Clitheroe itself centred on the Castle. This is where local laws were formulated, and justice carried out and it brought great prestige to the town.

It is believed that some form of fortified building already existed prior to De Lacy’s tenure. However, in the late 12th Century De Lacy carried out considerable improvements and fortifications to the castle including building the keep.

The castle design is a classic Motte and Bailey design consisting of a stone keep (square tower) set on a mound of raised earth called a motte. This is surrounded by a walled courtyard known as a Bailey.

It also contained several other buildings including a gate house, a chapel, a great hall, and a jail. www.lancmag.com

De Lacy died without an heir and his lands passed to his cousin and from her to her Grandson Roger Constable of Cheshire who changed his name to De Lacy. The castle was then garrisoned in the 1190s during the rebellion of Richard I’s brother John.

In the 15th Century many repairs took place, and a new chamber was built in 1425. During the War of the Roses (1455-1487) Edward IV spent a large amount repairing and fortifying the castle as a strategic site. However, after the war it was again allowed to fall into disrepair.

A survey of 1602 showed that the castle was close to ruin and on the verge of collapse in places.

Then in 1644 during the English Civil was Prince Rupert garrisoned the castle and repaired the main gateway. Again, the castle was abandoned, this time after the battle of Marston Moor.

But it was not to stand empty for long. In 1649 the Lancashire militia refused an order to disband and they moved into the castle for a period of time. After this occupation, the government decided to blow a large hole in one of the castle walls, the idea being to render it uninhabitable.

The Castle then changed hands again when it was given to the Duke of Albermarle by Charles II as a reward for helping him regain the crown.

In 1848 a series of expensive repairs were undertaken including re- building the staircase tower, work on the Eastern corner and re-facing much of the interior and exterior with locally produced Chatburn limestone. New buttresses were also built on the South West and South East walls.

However, the castle still retained its importance as the administrative centre for Blackburnshire until the Town Hall was built on Church Street in 1822.

The castle faced an uncertain future until November 1920 when it was bought by the town to become a permanent monument to the two hundred and sixty soldiers from the town who were lost in the First World War. Today the former steward’s house is a grade II listed building and a museum showing many original features, artefacts, and paintings from its long history.

To return to the history of Clitheroe itself, the town grew in economic importance over the years due to its location among fertile farmland and high sheep rearing country.

It was important for other reasons as well. In the late 12th Century De Lacy built a leper hospital. It was still in existence in 1327 but by 1350 there were no lepers recorded as present. Ownership of the hospital transferred to Whalley Abbey and with the dissolution of the monasteries (1536-41) the site felt into decay and ruin.

Trade flourished in the area and in 1292 a local market was established and then during the reign of King John the town was also granted the right to hold a fair.

Following the success and growth of the town in 1558 it became a parliamentary borough administering law from the town.

As with all of the North West towns the area grew with the Industrial Revolution and it became an important cotton producing mill town. In 1799 Low Moor Mill was built which employed 700 local people www.lancmag.com

working over 1,160 looms. Holmes Mill was another big employer in the area. It was built in the 1820’s and expanded each decade until the 50’s. It featured a spinning block and boiler and engine houses.

The Mill has been tastefully converted into a large hospitality centre with a hotel, cinema and beer and food hall. It still maintains many of the original features including a cross- compound horizontal engine.

Although the cotton industry was important it is perhaps for the quarrying and production of limestone that Clitheroe is best known. What started as a smallscale industry expanded rapidly as the demand for new houses grew across the area. Limestone was processed to produce quick lime which was used in the manufacture of plaster and mortar.

Before the development of the railway there are reports of up to one thousand ‘lime gals’ (donkeys laden with lime) per week heading out of the town and to areas as far away as Manchester. But it was the development of what is now known as the Ribble Valley Railway in the mid-19th Century that helped trade links develop and industry grow.

Bellman Park Lime kiln and embankment in Clitheroe was built in 1877 as part of Carter and Rowe’s lime works. They grew to become a significant local employer. Limestone was quarried at nearby Bellman Park quarry and brought in on a tram road. At the site four large kilns were sat in a stone bank within railway tunnels to allow loading of wagons on both sides. The kilns were used for the calcination of lime which turned it into quick lime. This was done by burning the lime in the kiln until it broke down into calcium oxide (quick lime) and Carbon Dioxide.

The resultant quick lime had many uses, including the production of iron and steel, paper and pulp production, treatment of water and chimney gases and in the mining industry. Trading ceased at the site in 1960.

The modern-day economy of Clitheroe had diversified and is not dependent on one industry. For example, chemical giant ICI founded a chemical plant in the area in 1941 which traded until 2002. Ultraframe

Above: Bellman Park Lime works

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Left: Clitheroe Castle

Conservatories started up in the area in 1983 before being sold in 2006. Also started in the area was local animal feed company Dugdale nutrition animal foods which can trace its history all the way back to a John Dugdale who began trading in 1850.

The town centre offers strong retail outlets with all the big names represented in the town. There has been much re-generation of the area since 2014.

Clitheroe also has a strong sporting pedigree. Clitheroe Football Club play in the Northern Premier league division one and are based at Shawbridge stadium.

Cricket has been played at Clitheroe cricket club since 1862. The club has enjoyed much success winning both the league and 20/20 tournament in 2006. For Golf fanatics nearby Pendleton Golf Club founded in the 1930s offers the chance to enjoy a few rounds of golf.

The area also has a strong cycling pedigree including holding the Clitheroe Grand Prix Cycle Race in 2006 and hosting the 2nd stage of the Tour of Britain in 2015.

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The area also enjoys a strong cultural profile with the popular Ribble Valley Jazz and blues festival being hosted in the town for the last eleven years. The festival showcases the best of blues and jazz and brings together renowned artists from all over the world.

If you’re more of a foodie then the annual Clitheroe food festival takes place in August each year. Clitheroe Food Festival features local food and drink producers and local chefs showcasing everything from organic meat and dairy produce made from traditional Lancashire breeds to handmade pies and pastries and fruit and vegetables. The festival has increased in popularity by thousands of visitors over previous years and has been listed in the Top Ten UK Food Festivals by Eventbrite.

As well as this there are historical displays are staged and stalls run by the RSPB and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, who will explain how the purchase of local food and drink produce benefits the countryside.

One surprising fact you may not know about modern www.lancmag.com

Above: Foggy sunset view from Clitheroe Castle into the valley

day Clitheroe is that it may only be a small town with 15,000 inhabitants but in recent years it has developed into somewhat of a gastronomic hotspot after a list of the UK’s top fifty gastropubs was published in 2017 and a cluster of five inns around Clitheroe gave the area 10% of the top 50 gastropubs.

Although gastropubs began in London there is a trend now for these places to be located in more scenic, rural areas these days. Lancashire is a magnificent larder for local food and drink so many of these pubs and restaurants can source their food locally as much as possible.

Clitheroe has also had its fair share of famous people originating from the town. These include comedian Jimmy Clitheroe (1921-73) famous for his radio shows, and Lee Davis the musician.

In the world of business famous town alumni include Peter Hargreaves CBE founder of financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown PLC. There are also several notable sporting stars from the town. These include Michael Bisping who was a professional UFC (mixed martial arts) fighter who in 2016 became the first (and only so far) British fighter to win a UFC title.

Another notable sports star from the town is Samantha Murray a competitor in the English modern Pentathlon. She won silver at the 2012 Olympics and in 2014 won individual, and team, gold medals at the 2014 world championships. www.lancmag.com

Above: Holmes Mill clitheroe

Clitheroe is a town with a strong history which is well worth taking the time to savour and enjoy.

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The E&M team, From left to right Leanne Chadwick (sales) Gemma Shakleton (accounts) Kayleigh Martin (lettings)

E&M Property Solutions

Boosting the property market across East Lancashire and beyond

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fter such a difficult 2020, it is a refreshing change to speak to companies who are bubbling with enthusiasm and success, and E&M Property Solutions in the heart of Burnley is doing exactly that. Whilst many companies sadly struggled in what were exceptional and unprecedented times, the property market saw a boom and the businesses associated with it were actually busier than ever.

This is true of E&M, who were extremely proud to announce they had seen a 40% growth across all of the services they offer in just a six-month period.

Yet they were humble too, knowing that if it were any other industry, or any other type of crisis, they could have seen turnover head in quite the opposite direction. Whilst the sun shone, of course hay was made; it would have been unwise not to invest in the business, but they did a little more simply grow the business, they actively tried to help the local community too. This is a business with heart…

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Where it all began When I was first introduced to Tina Etherington, owner and Managing Director of E&M Property Solutions, she had only recently been in the throes of a nasty bout of the virus which consumed most of 2020. However, you certainly can’t keep a good woman down and after her very fortunate recovery, Tina returned to the helm in no time. And like so many business owners, she was happy to be back and talking about her passion for the company.

Tina herself has a trade background; she started out as a painter, decorator and tiler, which is not something you hear every day! But it soon became apparent how she ended up on this path as she told me, “my dad was a builder, so I spent my childhood on building sites, watching him build houses. I loved it and it was the only thing I really knew in any depth so I followed in his footsteps and got into the industry myself. I started off in the trades and then started www.lancmag.com

growing my very own property portfolio of buy-to-lets.”

As her portfolio grew, Tina tried to find a company who would manage them on her behalf but simply couldn’t find anyone able to provide the level of service she desired. The solution? To set up a property management business herself which is why she set up Etherington Property Management four years ago. Over its first 18 months, the business went from strength to strength, leading Tina to rebrand it to E&M Property Solutions. This allowed an expansion from focusing purely on lettings to also cover sales, HMOs and refurbishments too.

Here’s how…

The evolution came With so many years in the building and property industries, Tina soon showed an aptitude for lettings and renting standard flats and houses became a successful aspect of the business. It worked in tandem with one of their key areas

my dad was a builder, so I spent my childhood on building sites, watching him build houses.

of focus became HMOs, or houses of multiple occupation, where several people not from the same family live in a shared, rented property.

This is a low-cost way of living, perfect for students, and E&M Property Solutions are now the largest provider of student accommodation in Burnley.

Not only do E&MPS rent out their own HMOs, but they do it on behalf of others too as there is such a large market for it in the local area and one which is growing all the time. It’s a lucrative way for investors to make a good return, but it doesn’t come at the expense of the tenant as they live in

comfortable and affordable surroundings. The HMO service they offer is a complete end-to-end one, throughout which they will take care of everything.

From readying the property and bringing it up to acceptable modern standards, they will furnish it, fill it with the right renters and then manage it on an ongoing basis. It’s perfect for those who want to be in the property investment business but who do not want to manage it all on a day-to-day basis. “I aim to provide the very best property management service in the area as I know how badly landlords need it!”

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After dominating the rental market, it wasn’t long before Tina and the team started branching out into other areas, launching a retail agency too.

This has also grown in success and they’ve been responsible for selling a huge number of houses in Burnley and beyond. “This part came as a natural next step when we needed to sell some properties and it just grew from there. Now we sell all kinds of houses and flats, to first-time buyers, families and so on. We also have a list of contacts who are just waiting to buy their next investment property so we tend to have a very quick turnaround when certain opportunities present themselves,” said Tina.

Surely that is the end to the talents of E&M Property Solutions? Interestingly not.

Enhanced services Given the amount of knowledge Tina and the team have about all aspects of property, but most notably the investment side of it, it seemed an obvious choice to start offering formal advice.

This is a personalised service given to people at any stage of the property investment process. So whether you are just looking to start by buying a small house for a family of tenants, or your portfolio is already well-established and you’re in the market to expand into different markets, E&M Property Solutions can help. You’ll get the benefit of all the combined years of experience and that of someone who has run their own (very successful) business for the best part of two decades!

A team who care

You’ll get the benefit of all the combined years of experience and that of someone who has run their own (very successful) business for the best part of two decades!

Tina was absolutely adamant that E&M Property Solutions would not be where it is today without her strong support team consisting of a lettings manager, sales manager and that all-important admin support. It’s through an atmosphere of mutual support that have hit so many of the business goals which has allowed the business to grow. “I absolutely could not have achieved any of this if it wasn’t for the staff I work with” Tina acknowledges. “I try to ensure everyone is happy and they look after me too. They’re just as passionate about everything as I am, so it’s a great place to come to work.”

But it’s not just their own company they care about, the team at E&MPS wanted to help those in need at the worst point in the lockdown of 2020.

Tina told me, “we kept hearing stories of how in demand the NHS workers were, but how they were struggling because they either couldn’t get to work since public transport shut down, or they needed to isolate away from their families. It seemed like the least we could do was offer out all our vacant accommodation for their use.”

As if that weren’t enough on top of everything else, there’s a whole sister company too! Tec North West are the company responsible for refurbishing all the houses within E&MPS’s portfolio, but also provide services to other landlords too. In the past year alone, TEC North West have refurbished over 20 HMOs so it’s been a very busy time! The trade team is made up of highly experienced electricians, plumbers, craftsmen and builders and their attention to detail shines through every time. “Since I used to do this type of work in the past, I know what an asset a reliable and skilled refurb team can be. We set it up originally to work on our own houses but there was so much demand from others needing some assistance it made sense to provide our services to help. It just went from there really”, is what Tina had to say of this natural evolution of the business. “When you consider a 10% yield on a rental property is a conservative estimation and the ROI overall is regularly as high as 30%, property as an investment is absolutely the way to go in my opinion!” And with numbers like that, it’s hard to argue so it’s unsurprising more and more potential investors are seeking Tina’s guidance on what to do next.

E&M Property Solutions - 26 St Matthew Street, Burnley, BB11 4JJ - Telephone: 01282 711560 72

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The NHS staff were encouraged to take up this offer of free housing for as long as they needed it and for Tina and the team, it was a small reward to see the difference it made. “It was just a relief to feel like we were doing something positive in what was one of the strangest and most difficult times any of us had ever experienced. I can’t imagine what it would have been like working on the front line and we were all thankful of the sacrifices these nurses, doctors and support staff were making,” Tina added, “it was just nice to be able to help.”

This innate desire to assist the local community is something which has actually been apparent in Tina’s ethos for much longer; she takes an active role in the Burnley Bondholders association. This is an innovative scheme, led by the private sector but working in partnership with public authorities to bring prosperity to the borough of Burnley.

It’s a consortium of local businesses who are passionate about Burnley and want to raise its profile and essentially boost the economy. It’s been in operation for 10 years and is going from strength to strength as Burnley gradually improves with each passing year.

The future plans So what does the future hold for E&M Property Solutions? There is more growth on the horizon, but no additional services to be added just yet!

Tina wants to focus on doing what they do best and growing both the estate agency side and the lettings and HMOs specifically. They have already started expanding beyond the borders of Burnley, and now also manage properties all across east Lancashire but in Preston too. Tina confessed her aspirations, “as these areas continue to grow for us, it will make sense to open new offices and I have my hopes on at least one, if not two, additions next year. We’d probably open up in Accrington first and then Preston, so we can really put our stamp on those areas. There is a huge rental market in both of them after all!”

One thing she won’t be doing though is expanding in haste. “Our reputation for providing good quality accommodation is what enabled us to grow in the first place, so I refuse to compromise on any of our standard,” Tina added. “Our growth will be manageable so that our tenants and landlords can always rely on us to continue to deliver the best.”

In order to achieve the ambitions, Tina knows she will need to keep modernising the processes and certainly the marketing of the business.

“In the past, pretty much everything we have done has been through word of mouth so it’s a bit out of my comfort zone! But I’ll keep learning and doing what I need to and E&MPS will keep growing and benefitting.”

Website: www.eandmps.com www.lancmag.com

When I remarked on Tina’s success at her comparatively young age, she modestly tried to denounce it. But regardless, it is clear to see that her business will achieve even more greatness in the years to come thanks to her pragmatic and passionate attitude. She most certainly isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and the hard work she clearly puts in is paying off in their reputation and the growth they’ve seen in just a few short years. Long may it continue!

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Around the region Rural Arts receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund people and layers of Government that have made this grant possible.”

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “This funding is a vital boost for the theatres, music venues, museums and cultural organisations that form the soul of our nation. It will protect these special places, save jobs and help the culture sector’s recovery.

A post COVID-19 Heart and Craft session for Over 50s, with participants making ceramic animals.

Rural Arts has been awarded £115,000 as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary announced last week.

Rural Arts is one of just under 2,000 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support.

A total of £333 million of investment has now been announced as part of the first rounds of the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England.

The funding will ensure Rural Arts can continue to deliver safe, in-person creative activities across 3,500 square miles of rural North Yorkshire until at least March 2021.

CEO and Director, Rural Arts, Max May, said: “The support is a vital lifeline. It secures Rural Arts mid-term future after an incredibly difficult seven months, and ensures we can continue to reach as many people as possible through inspiring and inclusive creative opportunities. We’re very grateful to all the

Lancaster Canal flies new green flag Photo shows successful Canal & River Trust team which led on the Lancaster Canal Green Flag application by the Lune Aqueduct: (LtoR) Ben Armytage, Antony Bush, Angela Parkinson Green and Anna Barlow.

The picturesque Lancaster Canal, cared for by the Canal & River Trust waterways and well-being charity, has been awarded a second prestigious Green Flag Award by Keep Britain Tidy, recognising it as a ‘wellmanaged green space’.

This year’s award is for a 10.3 mile length from the canal’s current terminus at Tewitfield, north of Carnforth, to the Lune Aqueduct in Lancaster. This builds on the 19.6 miles from Lune Aqueduct down to Bridge 44 at Bilsborrow, which achieved the environmental gold standard in 2019. The historic Lune Aqueduct was also given a special heritage award this year.

Angela Parkinson Green, Lancaster Canal operations manager at the Canal & River Trust, applied for the award on behalf of the charity. She said: “We were thrilled to receive

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recognition for this stretch of the canal and for the stunning aqueduct which carries the canal over the River Lune. This means that three quarters of the waterway has been assessed as achieving this high environmental standard.

“The Lancaster Canal is one of the country’s most attractive waterways and is a popular spot for walking, cycling, angling and boating. We know that spending time by water is good for health and wellbeing, and we have seen record numbers of people enjoying it as a place to exercise and find a moment of peace during the pandemic.

“We have a brilliant team of staff and volunteers who all work hard to maintain and improve the canal and towpath. And we would love to recruit more volunteers, groups or individuals, who would like to come and

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“These places and projects are cultural beacons the length and breadth of the country. This unprecedented investment in the arts is proof this government is here for culture, with further support to come in the days and weeks ahead so that the culture sector can bounce back strongly.”

Chair, Arts Council England, Sir Nicholas Serota, said: “Theatres, museums, galleries, dance companies and music venues bring joy to people and life to our cities, towns and villages. This life-changing funding will save thousands of cultural spaces loved by local communities and international audiences.

Further funding is still to be announced and we are working hard to support our sector during these challenging times.” join our wonderful towpath task forces or adopt a stretch of canal.”

The Canal & River Trust, which manages 2,000 miles of the nation’s waterways, holds Green Flags for 300 miles of its canals around the country and this year added a further 100 miles to this select group.

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for their management across the United Kingdom and around the world.

Commenting on our success, Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, said: “This year, more than ever, our parks and green spaces have been a lifeline and we know that millions of people have used them to relax, meet friends, exercise or simply escape for a short time.

“It is testament to the incredible dedication and hard work of staff and volunteers that, despite the challenges that went along with record numbers of visitors, the Canal & River Trust has achieved the highest international standards demanded by the Green Flag Award.”

If you would like to volunteer, please email the Lancaster Canal volunteer team leader Anna Barlow on anna.barlow@ canalrivertrust.org.uk. For more general information about the Canal & River Trust, including volunteering and donating, visit canalrivertrust.org.uk

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Half of UK’s motorists struggle to see when driving in dark The clocks changed on Sunday (25th October 2020) so that will see millions more motorists having to drive in the dark, even though over half of UK drivers admit to not being able to see clearly behind the wheel at night.

The main issues with night time driving and vision, according to a new survey, are that things look blurred (68% said objects look slightly out of focus in dim light), night-time glare from artificial lighting (73%) and being dazzled by ongoing headlights (91% of drivers say they are regularly dazzled by oncoming vehicles) - a fact that is backed up by Government data that shows around 300 collisions every year are caused by glare from headlights.

Don’t be in the dark when it comes to night-time vision requirements Dr. Andy Hepworth from Essilor.co.uk, a leader in optical lens technology, explains the simple measures that can be taken to improve night vision, as well as the extra precautions needed when driving in the dark.

Our vision is not adapted to night-time driving environments, and eye sensitivity is different in the daytime than at night. Therefore, driving in the dark, we are exposed to multiple and intense sources of light that create reflections and glare; the impact on vision is difficulty in adapting, reduced peripheral vision, decreased contrast sensitivity, increased response time, difficulties in motion perception and navigation issues.

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Adjust your eyes to the dark before driving

Be visible

Give yourself a few minutes in the car to allow your eyes to adjust to the lower light level before you start driving. Low light levels cause the pupil of the eye to become larger and this can accentuate any focusing errors – no matter how minor – causing blur. Low-light levels can similarly lead to a reduction in the contrast of objects.

Headlights not only help drivers to see better but are an important safety feature to be seen.

Regularly check that all lights are in full working order. It is illegal to drive at night without fullyfunctioning headlights and police officers will stop vehicles that don’t comply with the guidelines.

At night it’s also more important than ever to wear a pair of spectacles or contact lenses with an up-to-date prescription. It’s a legal requirement that your vision meets standards for driving.

While taking steps to be safe from the dazzle of other driver’s headlights, it’s important that all drivers are taking the correct steps in their own vehicles. Adjust car headlights if you’re carrying varying loads and check that they are aligned properly. Headlamp aim forms part of a vehicle’s MOT, but ask your local garage to inspect that they are aligned properly whenever your vehicle goes in for a service. Also, always dip headlights when facing oncoming traffic.

Dip don’t dazzle

Keep your distance It is more difficult to judge distance at night-time so allow extra space between you and the car in front as this gives more time to react to situations ahead of you.

Use anti-glare glasses lenses Specially developed lens coating can reduce glare and reflection by up to 90% compared to a lens that has no anti-reflective treatment.

This can help to remove distractions from glare caused by streetlights, traffic lights and headlights from other cars.

Keep windscreens smear-free While not only making sure the outside of a front and back windscreen is clean and streak free, ensuring washer fluid is good quality and always topped up, keep a microfiber cloth in the glove box to clear any condensation and smears on the inside.

And while you’re at it – give you glasses a wipe over too so they are smear free and clear. Scratched or smudged glasses will reduce image quality.

Regularly check and adjust mirrors Advice on safe night driving includes regularly adjusting rear view mirrors to reduce glare from behind. Some newer vehicles come with selfdimming rear-view mirror functionality, which is worth looking out for to help reduce glare.

Slow down or stop Rule 237 of the Highway Code states that if you’re dazzled by bright sunlight ‘slow down or if necessary stop’. The same applies for being dazzled at night. If your vision is in any way causing concern, pull over in a safe place and take the necessary steps to try and improve vision (clearing a windscreen or adjusting mirrors).

Dr Andy Hepworth adds: “With such short days in the winter – and driving conditions frequently made worse by the British weather – often people have no choice but to drive in the dark or wet weather, which can play havoc on vision.

“Glare caused by natural or artificial light is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges – especially for spectacle wearers – which is why we developed a lens coating and lens design that is anti-reflective and designed for driving. Removing distractions caused by glare from streetlights, traffic lights and headlights from other cars could help to keep drivers safer on UK roads.

“Ensuring your eyesight is up to scratch is also crucial. Most people over the age of about 45 will need some vision correction to see in sharp focus, and everyone should have their eyes checked by an optician at least every two years as your sight can change without it being obvious.”

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Advice by www.essilor. co.uk

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Cagouled Explorers S

chool trips were always accompanied by warm ham sandwiches, orange juice in a little box with a plastic straw, never quite big enough to quench your thirst, and the characteristic smell that can only permeate from thirty children who have spent the day sweating in a Cagoule in the rain. Growing up in Massachusetts and Germany my children never had that smell. Cagoules are a wholly English phenomenon firmly rooted in the school trips and hiking expeditions of the 1970s. Cagoules are just not needed in the US. If it looks like rain or even if a big truck drives by and makes a noise like thunder, suddenly everything is cancelled and the rain date comes into operation. In England, every day is a rain day so Cagoules were an essential part of childhood.

Mine was red, but there was a rainbow of the thin plastic that somehow had the feeling of fabric.

That rainbow came out even before the rain as we all piled off the bus. They were pulled over heads, hoods secured with tightly pulled cords which allowed only half an eye and a nose to be viewed peaking out of the tiny round hole left open at the front. You started to sweat almost immediately and the smell of that sweat was somehow changed by the Cagoule fabric to produce the characteristic odour that would forever recreate the vision of an endless line of children trailing after a teacher in the drizzle.

My favourite school trip did not require a bus or even a packed lunch or juice box, it just required us to see the unseen in our own village of Hoghton. This was my world. It was familiar.

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By Kate Gostick

I knew every inch within a given radius, but very little beyond the invisible circumference.

Every day as I walked to school I passed the mill on Gregson Lane, grain escaping on to the pavement, the scent of starchy agricultural corns and ears overpowering my nostrils. Its towering walls robbed the terraced houses of the little light that occasionally peeped out from the grey rain clouds, but today the Cagoule rainbow conga of children led by their teacher brought a little colour to that greyness. Suddenly, she stopped and we all stood and looked up at the mill’s defensive walls and then at our clipboard questionnaires. What had the mill been before?

Where had the workers lived? When was it built?

What did our little village look like years ago? We had never asked these questions, never thought that it had not always been as it was for us. As we heard the tales of mill girls in shawls and clogs we realised we were not the first children to run in the meadows and play in the streets. Where we ran down the streets for a full day in school, they ran the same path for a couple of hours of learning letters and numbers, squeezed into a tiny moment of a busy working day breathing in cotton dust.

The rainbow snake continued past the mill, past the butchers to the post office with its bright red post box sitting outside. After a brief history lesson of kings and queens ignited by the embossed letters, GR, on to the post box, signalling its existence since before our present Queen Elizabeth, we ran on to the playground.

We clambered over the concrete hill with its underground tunnels that sat in the centre by the roundabout then headed behind the playground where a black and white house with knobbly walls and mullion windows sat. It went unnoticed on my way to school and had sat there so long, long before the butchers or the playground even before the mill, that it just blended into the large

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oak tree that dappled it with shade. The lady who opened her door told us this was the former home of Saint Edmund Arrowsmith one of the forty martyrs hung drawn and quartered for practising their Catholic faith. She ushered us in and up the stairs to a room laid out for mass where we were told how Edmund had been captured nearby in 1628 after saying mass in that very room.

We saw the priest holes where they had hidden and the uneven flags they had passed over as they headed off to their eventual deaths at the gallows in Lancaster. As we left a stone plaque above the door was pointed out to us which had, until now, been as invisible as the ghost of Edmund Arrowsmith.

I knew, from lengthy expeditions with friends, that if you took the track that skirted in front of the house and headed down past the next house, the track would almost immediately became a footpath. It was grassy underfoot and so narrow that the brambles grabbed you as you passed, begging you to stay and fill your cheeks with their juicy fruit. Today, there was no time to stop to feast as we skipped after the teacher escaping the bramble guards that attempted to bar us from further discovery. As we reached a little bridge the echos of our feet signalled the transition from grass to wood and then to the dusty soil of the woodland floor. Soon those echos became the thump, thump of leather on tarmac and the dappled shade of the sycamore trees gave way to the burning heat of the summer sun. This was not a road down which I have ever seen a car pass, although I am sure at times they must have done, but it was the road that passed through open fields, not chaotic flower meadows, but well mown and orderly pasture. An iron cattle grid across the road allowed access to only those who could balance on the bars to continue on the road at the other side which headed to the large Georgian house known as Brindle Lodge. We paused at the crossroads where we usually turned towards the church, but today we turned our eyes to the large house so our teacher could unlock all its mysteries that had been previously overlooked.

It was now an NHS training college, but had been a family home and a hospital for wounded soldiers. I am sure more of its secrets were revealed that day, but I was busy picking flowers knowing that my grandmother was sure to be the next stop. I was not disappointed as I placed the wildflowers lovingly into the pot on the base of the greenish-grey granite headstone on which her name had been recently carved in gold.

The teacher ushered us all over to a gravestone of a local man murdered at sea, but no further explanations were given, then we were shown the unmarked graves of those too poor to leave a lasting reminder before heading along the path behind the graveyard towards the road. We passed the fields of cows that worked hard to www.lancmag.com

produce our school milk and the milking parlour of Wilmar’s farm to the end of the radius of our world, but this was also a teacher who wanted to widen our horizons. Therefore, instead of turning right back down the road towards the mill as we always did when we played here, we crossed over the road and clambered across a style into a field yet to be explored. We stopped at a small dip in the earth where the grass grew a little higher in the centre. We discovered that our sleepy village had been rocked to its foundations on Christmas Eve 1944, and in many cases rocked off its foundations, by the Hitler’s doodlebug which created a forty-foot crater, the dip that now sat in front of us, being all that remained. Thirty hens had received a direct hit and Brindle Mill had most of its windows blown out. Brindle Mill?

Where was that? We had been told that the mill that now housed animal feeds was Gregson’s Mill, but there was no other mill, no Brindle Mill.

We marched in line through the fields guided into unknown territory by a middle-aged woman in a Cagoule that to us had always just been Mrs. Rhodes, but was now was a sherpa leading us on an expedition of discovery. The backs of terraced houses, their gardens marked by stone walls over which flashed the yellows of towering sunflowers, came in to view and grew larger and larger as we approached. Skirting the back of the cottages we passed a longer more industrial red brick building and turned the corner to reveal the end of a road and a large mill standing opposite. This was Brindle Mill lying far outside our circumference of comfort. I cannot remember much about the history of the mill just the smell of freshly produced sawdust that had replaced the original cotton dust when Mike England had moved in and set up his sawmill there. This change of fate that would later become the fuel of the fire which destroyed this historic relic forty years after we discovered it only a few hundred yards past our school fence. We wandered back past Brindle St. Joseph’s School and Bournesfeild, the street which marked the end of our territory and backed onto our school field.

We were back on familiar ground, although now it truly was familiar. That day Mrs. Rhodes made us all a part of our village, the next chapter in its history. We now understood where we had come from, where we fitted into that legacy.

On that day the greyness had come alive with the red of the postbox, the green of the moss on Arrowsmith House and the golden sunflowers towering over mill workers’ cottages’ boundary walls, we did not need an expensive excursion just a Cagoule, a clipboard and a new pair of eyes to alert us to the previously unseen riches right before our noses.

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Healthy Snacking at home With more people staying at home during the working day, due to COVID-19, the temptation to reach into the snack cupboard and graze on less healthy food, such as crisps, biscuits, chocolate, sweets and cake, may be high. Regularly snacking on foods that are high in energy (calories), fat, sugar and salt can increase your risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip,

by Dr Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK

Here’s some simple tips for making healthier snacking choices at home

Read the labels When buying packaged snack foods, check the nutrition label on the pack and aim to choose foods that have: 6g or more of fibre per 100g 5g or less of total sugars per 100g 3g or less of fat per 100g 1.5g or less of saturated fat (saturates) per 100g 0.35g or less of salt per 100g 80

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As the weather gets cooler, you could start your day with a comforting bowl of warm porridge.

Rather than adding sugar, honey, jam or syrup to your porridge, you could try adding fruit, such as berries, chopped apple or sliced banana and a sprinkling of chopped nuts, seeds or cinnamon.

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The Do’s of Snacking

The Don’ts of Snacking

• Remove the temptation to snack on foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt by keeping them out of your home. Empty your cupboards of chocolate, crisps, biscuits, cakes and sugary drinks and replace them with healthier options.

• Include a variety of different snack foods in your diet. Choose a range of healthy foods to snack on, such as portions of fruit, raw vegetable sticks, lowfat dips and spreads, wholemeal toast, unsalted nuts, low-fat yoghurts, 30g portions of reduced fat cheese and wholegrain crackers or oatcakes.

• Choose snacks that contain at least one of your 5 a day. Fill your fruit bowl with your favourite fruits and keep plenty of veg in the fridge.

• Choose a portion of fresh fruit to snack on, such as an apple, banana, orange or a handful of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or grapes.

• Choose vegetable sticks, such as carrot, celery, peppers, cucumber or sugar snap peas with lowfat dips, such as hummous.

• Limit fruit juices to no more than 150ml a day as they can be high in sugar.

• Choose snacks that are high in fibre. Wholegrain foods, such as wholemeal toast and crackers, as well as fruit and vegetables, are high in fibre, which is good for keeping your heart healthy.

Choose packaged snack foods that contain at least 6g of fibre per 100g.

• Make your own popcorn at home, without adding salt or sugary toppings. This can be a healthier snack for all the family and a fun one to involve the kids with.

Avoid grazing

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When you are distracted with work or the TV, or when you are feeling bored, it can be tempting to graze in the absence of hunger. If you regularly graze, try setting specific times when you will allow yourself to eat a healthy snack. For example, you could set an alarm for 10:00am and 3:00pm to enjoy a healthy snack in between your meals.

Try to avoid overdoing it Less healthy snacks, such as crisps, chocolate bars, sweets, biscuits, and cakes.

Avoid cheap supermarket offers on less healthy food options, as they can tempt you into buying (and eating) more than you need.

Occasional treats For an occasional treat, choose foods that are individually wrapped, such as a small chocolate bar or a small packet of crisps, rather than larger sharing packs.

Limit less healthy snacks Try no more than two or three portions each week.

Portion (serving) size is often given at the back of packaging and this information can help you to limit the amount you are eating.

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The Haslingden Hairy man. He Was Peeping Back in the 1970’s Haslingden in Lancashire was a sleepy mill town and not much has changed in the intervening years. Haslingden means ‘Valley of the Hazels’ and it is

Around The Door! a beautiful place to visit. Set in the Rossendale Valley and surrounded by moorlands and rolling hills it is similar to many Lancashire towns here in the North West.

The town is not known for Paranormal events other than the odd Public House spectre. Yet over the years two very strange reports were made by two ladies who lived in the town.

The first event happened in the 1970’s in an ordinary home on the outskirts of the town. One young lady snatching the opportunity to use the house phone when her parents were out for an hour or so in the evening had an experience that would make this an evening she would never forget. As most young folks would do back then given the chance she eagerly set out to ring her friend.

This young lady who was 17 at the time waited until her parents car was completely out of sight and then promptly used the phone keeping an eye on the clock. It was around 7.45pm on a Winter’s evening when an ordinary conversation went silent.

Witness Report: “This experience is something I don’t tell people about.

It’s something I keep to myself. I may sound mad when I explain what happened but when I was about 17 I lived in Haslingden in Lancashire.

My Mum and Dad were out for the evening and I was on the phone which was usual when my parents went out, back then it was the old 82

rotary phone and you felt like you needed “written permission” to run up the bill (I think most people in my generation would remember doing this too).

When this happened I was sitting on the phone cabinet and idly looking around the room chatting away.

like he was checking who was on the phone. I didn’t feel threatened (except of course ‘it wasn’t supposed to be there! and this was not supposed to be happening). Honestly the feeling I got was it seemed more like he was curious to see who it was he could hear talking.

As I was sitting there I looked towards the kitchen/dining room and I saw that there was a person looking in at me through the door. “He” (it felt like a he?) looked like the character Chewbacca from Star Wars. I don’t know how else to describe what I was seeing. His head reached only an inch or two from the top of the door frame and he’d sort of poked his head and upper body round the doorway

We looked at each other for about five seconds. It’s a really long time when it’s happening. I don’t remember anything unusual about his eyes, they were not glowing or red or anything like that. He was a sort of mousy blonde haired “Thing”. We just looked at each other curiously. He was very tall and completely covered in hair from head to foot. Even his face was hairy. Then either he left or I freaked

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out and looked away, I really don’t remember. My friend who was still on the phone was panicking because I’d gone silent mid-sentence. I was too scared to tell her what I’d seen, I didn’t know how to explain what had just happened but I made her stay on the phone with me until my parents came home.

When they got back Dad went into the kitchen but there was nothing in there. I didn’t tell him what happened.

I didn’t tell any of my family and I never saw ‘Him’ again. I’ve no idea what any of this is. How would something that big get into my house?

By the way it was about 7.45pm (Top of the Pops was on!) and it was sometime in October.

The Haslingden Shucks 2006/7 Twice over a period of two years one witness walking with her own dog watched two phantom ‘Shucks’ run along the lane in front of her. She described the ‘Shucks’ as one black hound which was being chased by another Hound. The dogs were not domestic dogs or pets as they were both slightly out of focus and when they ran they were moving around

thirty centimetres above the ground.

These strange ‘phantom dogs’ were seen two years on the trot and they were witnessed by the same lady out walking her own dogs.

There is one further report a little to the south of Haslingden, but close enough that we could consider the possibility the cases are linked in some way.

So what did this young lady see?

Was it a timeslip of some kind, a Supernatural Being, or something of a flesh and blood nature? Does something walk the moorlands going unseen peeping into homes and startling teenage girls? I guess we will never know. I wonder if this young lady is still living in the area? I also wonder if anyone living close by has experienced a similar encounter with this Chewbacca like Being?

There is another strange report from the area which describes two Phantom Dogs, commonly known in Lancashire as Shucks. www.lancmag.com

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Helmshore Heavy Walker, Homeless Man Disturbed In The Night, Autumn 2016 - Witness Report: Alan Hedge A homeless gentleman who had not long left the army was living in the hills around Helmshore, he had set up a decent woodland camp, with a tent, he had plenty of provisions and was not living rough. He had tried staying in the hostels in the bigger towns and found the constant drama and noise too much. He had always walked this land as man and boy so that’s where he headed when he found himself homeless. At first he felt settled. He had his dogs with him and he had not come across another person for a number of weeks, unless he walked into the town for supplies. On a couple of journeys away from his camp set up he was certain someone had been checking out his camp in his absence. There were items that were misplaced, sometimes even missing. It looked as if someone had rummaged through his belongings and put things back together quickly and messily.

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Putting this down to other ‘homeless people’ even though he hadn’t seen any in the area he beefed up his security and kept the dogs close at hand at night. Alan did set the odd strategic ‘trap’ leaving things in a certain layout when he left for the day and inverabley when he returned there were clear signs that things had been moved around. Then Alan felt that he was being watched. Over the coming weeks this would happen more and more. He would hear heavy footsteps around his tent and in the general area of camp throughout the night. The dogs who would normally have barked and made a fuss at this stayed completely silent and moved closer to Alan. In the mornings they no longer ran out as soon as the tent was unzipped. Now they hung back and waited for Alan to go outside first.

Alan said he never saw what watch him as he moved around he would hear it clearly It sounded bulky and heavy like a cow but the shadows cast

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resembled something human, but as this thing crashed around out there it sounded much larger and far heavier than your normal human. Alan put up with this as long as he could, but when bad weather hit he moved closer to Haslingden where he felt safer.

If only he knew about the Chewbacca Hairy man account, he may have chosen a whole new area entirely.

If you have experienced anything like this or know of someone who has, please get in touch via debbiehatswell@gmail.com

Until next time...

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As Some of you may know next year i am taking part in the trek through Peru in support of Trinity Hospice and Brian house. They have supported so many of us when we have needed it the most. So how better can i show my gratitude to them than by pushing myself to the extreme and helping raise much needed funds so they can continue to support others. I will be walking in memory of various family and friends who have shaped my life over the years.

John Denman - My Godfather.

Irene Cahill - My Childhood Friends Mother.

Brian Hall - Keeper of Secrets and Issuer of the Best Cuddles.

Janet Taylor - My Sister’s Godmother.

Gill Towers - Nurse Extraordinaire.

I would like to thank you for any donation you can give they are greatly appreciated and please check my JustGiving page for regular updates and to see what events I have coming up to raise more funds.

Thanks again Dianna

an Janet Taylor m n e D n h o J

Gill Towers

Brian Hall

Please Follow the QR Code my JustGiving or Alternatively Please Email Me for the Direct Link (Dianna.Rothwell@CHShealthcare.co.uk)

W

e launched our overseas challenges with a bang in September 2018 as a group of 20 cyclists set off from London, beginning a five-day cycle to Paris in aid of our dedicated children’s hospice, Brian House. One month later, 25 trekkers completed a five-day walk along the Great Wall of China.

On the back of that success, we planned the trip of a life-time for our supporters – a trek through the untouched Lares region of Peru, over high mountain passes with views of the snow-capped Andes, green valleys and tranquil mountain lakes.

Our trekkers were busy fundraising in preparation of their trip, which was due to take place earlier this year, but suddenly our exciting plans were put on hold. Covid hit and we were forced to stall many of our fundraising events, including our overseas challenge. But this has given us an opportunity – the chance to open up this trip of a lifetime to more people who missed the sign-up window first time around.

We now have a total of 20 people signed up to this adventure, which we are hoping can take place in September next year. As well as giving trekkers an experience they’ll never forget, this challenge is expected to raise a total of £60,000 for Trinity Hospice. Even before Covid hit, that was much-needed income which would help us in our mission to reach every single person who needs us right across the Fylde coast.

Over the last six months we have seen a huge drop in the income we rely on to run our services. Our organised events were postponed, our community supporters were unable to help as they usually would and our shops were closed.

By the end of this year we are expecting a £1.5 million fundraising shortfall. A fundraising challenge like our Peru trek is absolutely vital to us, and we hope as many people as possible sign up for the experience of a lifetime, while helping us to provide our outstanding expert palliative and end-of-life care to all who need us.

For more information about our Peru Trek, visit www.trinityhospice.co.uk/peru.

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New homes across Lancashire How very Redrow We pride ourselves in building quality homes throughout Lancashire

Images typical of Redrow homes. Details correct at time of going to press.

Discover more about the new homes in Lancashire

Visit: redrow.co.uk/lancashire

Redrow strive to create environments that will stand the test of time, where people can appreciate and enjoy their surroundings. We create homes that are designed for the way we live today, yet are rooted in the time-honoured traditions of craftsmanship and care.

Allerton church receives moving in gift from Redrow NEEDING more space is a common reason for moving and after the congregation increased 10-fold in as many years, a South Liverpool church has upsized its premises.

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ornerstone Church Liverpool has relocated from the former Ramilies Road Chapel, on Ramilies Road, to the former

Dovedale Baptist Church, on Dovedale Road, Allerton, to accommodate its growing congregation.

Having raised sufficient capital to purchase the building, Cornerstone appealed to Redrow for help with renovation and received a donation of £1,000 to purchase 225 litres of paint.

Operations director and fundraising coordinator Anna Wood explained: “Before Coronavirus meant we had to temporarily suspend meetings and move to online services, we’d seen a steady increase in attendance. Over the past 10 years we’ve gone from there being around 25 people at weekly meetings to 250 across two morning services, which meant we had to seek out alternative premises. Dovedale Baptist Church closed two years ago and the

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building was ideal for us, but it was in need of some TLC to bring it back to its former glory.

“We want to be active in the community and having a newly decorated, clean space will be vital in us being able to do just this.

Thanks to Redrow we are able to redecorate the back hall space to make it more appealing for all of our activities for local people which include kids’ church meetings and toddler groups” Redrow’s donation to Cornerstone Church Liverpool was via a £10,000 community fund shared between local groups and good causes. The voluntary fund is in addition to Redrow’s statutory obligations linked to the 100-home Allerton Gardens development, off Woolton Road, in Allerton.

Redrow area sales manager Elaine Mounsey said: “Outgrowing your home is a common reason for people wanting to move and

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Ben Blundell and Michael Baggott painting Cornerstone Church Liverpool’s new home with paint sourced with Redrow funding

so the funding request from Cornerstone Church Liverpool struck a chord with us. We were happy to be able to help them give their new home a lick of paint to provide a venue that has much wider potential for use by the local community.”

Cornerstone Church Liverpool is also fundraising for more extensive works to improve their new home, including replacing the roof of the main church building and repairing crumbling stone work and stained glass windows in the Grade II listed building.

If you’re looking for a new home in the Allerton area for your growing family and don’t want to have to worry about repairs and renovations, then find out about Redrow’s brand new homes by calling 0151 391 3737 or visiting www.redrow.co.uk/allerton.

For more information about Cornerstone Church Liverpool see www.cornerstonechurchliverpool.org. www.lancmag.com

LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 91

How ProCleen are cleaning up Lancashire

L

ast year was a particularly strange one, with none of us able to predict the rollercoaster that it was to become. Least of all Lee Matthews of ProCleen Cleaning Services. However, when I spoke to him back in November, he was thrilled that his company had made it to their first birthday. Not only had it survived what had been a challenging time, it had truly thrived. It was clear from first speaking with Lee that he was filled with pride over what had been achieved in that first twelve months (and rightly so), but that he was also looking towards the future too.

Lee set up ProCleen Cleaning Services after learning the window cleaning ropes working for someone else. He soon saw there was a huge opportunity in the Fylde Coast area, from where he hails, and decided to take the plunge and go it alone. That way, he could run the business the way he saw fit and deliver a service which is rather unique in the industry. Customers are at the heart of everything

ProCleen does which is why Lee goes above and beyond to ensure they are happy. It is no doubt one of the reasons it has grown as quickly as it has, but there has been another key factor, Lee believes. “As hard as the lockdown was, the more time people spent at home, the more effort they seemed to start putting into their houses. This meant we saw a huge influx in enquiries as people wanted to be able to see out of their windows since they were stuck inside so much! We serviced as many people as we could, as well as we could, at a competitive price and it seems this is what kept the new customers happy to keep employing us.”

This additional boost saw ProCleen achieve all of its first-year goals well before any candles were lit on the cake! From nothing, they gained 400 households as clients within this first year, and it was from this success that Lee was able to add a range of different services to his offering which are

going from strength to strength.

Based in Blackpool, ProCleen covers the whole of the Fylde Coast, from Fleetwood to Lytham-StAnnes and over to Preston. However, if you are based a little further afield then they will be more than happy to chat to you too.

The power of social media We all know how much of an important role social media can play within daily lives but perhaps don’t appreciate just how much of an effect it can have on the growth of a business. In Lee’s own words he is “pretty friendly and chatty” and he tries to get along with everyone. That meant that by the time of ProCleen’s launch, he already had a wide network of friends ready and waiting on social media. After 92

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Such an open profile showing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos, plus the honest comments from those pleased with the service allow others to see what they will be getting before the work even starts

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all, as Lee says “everyone is a potential customer.

Everyone lives somewhere with windows that need cleaning from time to time, so it was just a case of getting the word out there that I was doing this now.” So Lee set himself up with a business page on Facebook and started spreading the news that his brand new window cleaning business was open. “I couldn’t have predicted how well it went. I started off with a few jobs and those customers were kind enough to tell others about me so it snowballed from there really”, he added.

Now, Lee remains very active on Facebook, showcasing the jobs he is working on or has completed, and uses it as a channel to promote the services he has added to his portfolio. Watching his more personal videos and seeing his daughters and www.lancmag.com

dog brings a certain personality to his business and brand which no doubt endears customers to him a little more. It is certainly working well for him – the first year saw him acquire that target number of 400 households, plus he added the second van he desired and all of this was achieved purely through social media and by word of mouth. Such an open profile showing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos, plus the honest comments from those pleased with the service allow others to see what they will be getting before the work even starts. Lee has even managed to recruit new teammates through it!

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Passion for perfection What sets ProCleen apart from the rest is Lee’s very clear idea of professionalism. You won’t find a dishevelled team showing up on your doorstep unannounced. No, Lee runs a very tight ship. You’ll receive a text the day before they are due and a text once the job is completed with a link to an online invoice. They of course welcome cash but know that to only operate like this wouldn’t suit the majority of customers today.

You have a choice of rotas, whether it be fortnightly or monthly, and they take the same level of care whether the job is big or small. Your team will arrive in branded vans and dressed in their uniform too, and you’ll receive follow up communications to see how happy you are with everything. Like I say, this is a professional operation.

This approach is what has helped ProCleen expand into the commercial world with their services now used by many companies seeking cleaning support. Soon after launch, Lee added the additional service of cleaning uPVC window frames too. He told me, “it made sense really – we were already there cleaning the actual windows so offering to clean all the frames was really popular from the word go. Now, we include it as part of the 94

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standard window cleaning service which is a little different from most window cleaners!”

It wasn’t long before Lee spotted the opportunity for jet washing and gutter cleaning (I suspect he’s a bit of a clean-freak at heart!), and those were added to the list as well. “We originally outsourced the gutter cleaning but soon changed that when I realised that the service wasn’t up to ProCleen’s usual standard”, he told me. “I wasn’t prepared to risk my reputation, so I took it in house and have never looked back.” The internal cleaning services they now provide to commercial workplaces and ex-tenancy properties is also of this exact same standard. With ProCleen, regardless of the service you use, you will find meticulous processes are followed to leave the area cleaner than you thought possible.

The reason behind it all There is usually a driving force that encourages someone to strike out on their own and set up a business. For Lee, there were two. Firstly, he wanted to provide an exceptional service to customers, one they could rely on to be consistent, provided by trusted professionals. Secondly, and more heart-warmingly, Lee did this for his young daughters. He of course wanted to provide them www.lancmag.com

What does the future hold?

ProCleen’s Cleaning Services • Window cleaning • uPVC cleaning • Gutter clearing • Jet washing (most surfaces) • Cleaning of commercial premises with a secure home and give them the absolute best of everything. But it was more than that. Lee wanted to build something so that when they get old enough, they have the option of joining their dad to run the business. He is clear in his view that it would be “only if they really want to of course, there will be no pressure!”. But he is reassured by the idea that they will have a career path there if they choose it.

Not only that, Lee also wanted to educate them along the way. “Right now, they are nine and eight and are learning all sorts at school. But I wanted to ensure they learn a few practical things too, the stuff they don’t teach. I want them to get an understanding of businesses and how they run, handling money and how to charge for services and what to factor in. I also want to teach them about marketing too as that’s important if they ever want a successful company of their own.” His motivation to help his girls makes ProCleen’s backstory all the more endearing as it is clear that Lee isn’t all about profit and personal gain. He really wants to build something that could one day turn into a family business – he is already lining his own dad up to help, post-retirement!

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When I asked Lee if he’ll be adding any more services to the already sizeable list, he told be a firm, “not for a while!”. Such huge growth over the past 12 months has been very well-deserved, but he now knows it is time to focus on the core services and expand them before growing the list further.

The first area to look at is the window cleaning side, where he hopes to increase the number of households from 400 to 800 over the next year or so.

That will require recruiting more staff and getting more vans so they will soon be spotted all over west Lancashire!

What Lee says is really exciting are the commercial opportunities available. He’s had great successes with the companies who already use ProCleen for their commercial cleaning services and he is looking to increase the amount of business contracts he holds. Whether it’s for a one-off clean, a standard weekly clean or a regular deep clean service, ProCleen will be able to provide whatever you need. This expansion will no doubt lead to further spreading of ProCleen’s wings beyond the Fylde Coast borders and he’s more than happy to travel.

Of the future growth Lee says, “Obviously, there are plenty of businesses in this area that could use ProCleen’s services but I will be looking to widen the catchment area across the whole of Lancashire and even the North West when the customers require it. I have certain goals in mind and will work my hardest to make them become a reality to make my family proud.”

With vision, professionalism and motivation such as this, the future certainly looks clean and bright for Lee and ProCleen Cleaning Services!

Telephone: 07983 758000 Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @ProCLEENNW LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 95

MIF SUPPORTS MANCHESTER POET HAFSAH ANEELA BASHIR IN POETIC RESPONSE TO ARTICLE 25 OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Manchester International Festival (MIF) and arts organisations across the UK commission more than 30 poets to write and record poems for Fly The Flag 2020 - a unique collaboration between arts organisations and human rights charities.

MIF has commissioned Manchester-based poet, playwright and performer Hafsah Aneela Bashir to write and record a poem in response to Article 25 – the right to food, shelter, healthcare, social services and security.

Hafsah’s poem, The Flag I Fly For You, premiered at an online poetry reading on Wednesday 9 December with Manchester’s 24-hour Islamic Radio Station, Heritage Radio, and is launched today on World Human Rights Day (10 December 2020) as a video recording alongside 33 commissioned poems by artists across the UK. Visit flytheflag.org.uk.

Other organisations taking part include; Coventry City of Culture 2021, Edinburgh International Festival, Fuel, Emergency Exit Arts, Roundhouse, Sadler’s Wells and Young Vic - commissioning poets such as Keisha Thompson, Inua Ellams, Matt Abbott, Haris Ahmed, Amina Jama, Yomi Sode and Jolade Olusanya. Full collection here.

Hafsah Aneela Bashir said: “It’s important for me to be involved in Fly The Flag because I passionately believe in an individual’s right to be seen, heard and valued fully. To feel safe, free from fear and to live with dignity. As much as we are living in times of great discord, the inherent beauty of our human story is one of strength, survival and unity.

We must do more to recognise each other as the family we all belong to & uphold the same human rights for others that we’d want for ourselves.”

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Launched in 2018 on the 70th anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Fly The Flag is a reminder of the human rights we are all entitled to, in particular raising awareness of the UDHR amongst young people and shining a light where human rights are violated.

Artist and activist Ai Weiwei was commissioned in 2018 to design a flag which was launched in 2019 at Somerset House and displayed by hundreds of arts organisations, schools and charities across the UK. This year the campaign moves online as it focuses on Article 25, the right to food, shelter, healthcare, social services and security. It is essential that the campaign this year not only celebrates the inspiring work taking place in communities but also draws attention to places where our human rights are being threatened.

Fly The Flag 2020 builds on two years of activity, and propels the project towards the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2023.

ARTICLE 25 Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well- being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

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Royal Botanic Garden Expert’s Top Tips for a Green Garden Green-fingered gardening enthusiasts are being given expert tips on how to make their gardens bloom while keeping water usage low.

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erbaceous Supervisor at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) Kirsty Wilson, who is also a BBC Beechgrove presenter, is supporting a drive with Scottish Water to remind homeowners of ways to be more environmentally friendly when it comes to gardening.

Kirsty said that although her ‘garden’ at RBGE is 70 acres, there are plenty of methods that people can adopt in their domestic setting to ensure they are not being wasteful with water.

Ensuring water resources are protected and waste reduced is a vital part of how Scottish Water is supporting sustainability, which is being highlighted during Climate Week.

One of the best tips is to water in the morning, which will allow plants to draw from water throughout the day, avoiding anything draining away overnight.

slowly by giving them less water, which will actually encourage them to drink less. In essence, if you keep the glass half full, your plants will adapt and learn to drink more slowly.

Above: Kirsty Wilson

“If we swap hoses for watering cans, we can save a lot of water – using a watering can slows the flow of water, meaning more water stays in your plant pot rather than running out of the base.”

People with gardens should avoid watering lawns and grass, as the average lawn will bounce back quickly after a burst of rainfall – which is still always likely in Scotland.

Kirsty, who has also worked at Highgrove House for HRH the Prince of Wales, RBGE’s royal patron, added: “You can make your garden more environmentally friendly by installing a water butt – not only is rainwater better for your plans than mains tap water, it reduces pressure on drains during periods of heavy rain.

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“If you don’t have space for a water butt, you can improve how well your soil holds water by adding organic materials like homemade compost, so when it does rain the soil retains more water.

“Water from your household is also ok to use, with care, on your outdoor plants – water from your kitchen, washing machine, baths or showers, is safe to use on most garden plants.”

RBGE is the latest to Join the Wave in supporting Scottish Water’s ‘Your Water Your Life’ campaign, which aims to encourage people to celebrate the country’s precious, natural resource – our Scottish tap water.

According to Kirsty and RBGE, gardens play an important role in preventing surface water from flooding urban areas. Green spaces soak up rain, whereas tarmac and paving can increase the amount of rainwater that runs off into street drains.

RBGE is also pioneering an experimental ‘Raingarden’ which is already proving to be helpful in understanding and planning strategies for coping with unpredictable weather.

Kirsty added: “Longer dry periods followed by heavy downpours are particularly problematic in terms of maintaining plant health and avoiding localised flooding in gardens of all sizes.

“Lawns are simply not effective at soaking up or trapping excess water and the answer does not lie in resorting to concrete or paving. We need to develop different gardening practices. Replacing hard surfaces and grass areas with a mixed selection of herbaceous perennials and shrubs can capture water runoff and increase the wildlife and habitat value of the area. This is a model that can be picked up and adapted to suit the needs of any plot, large or small.”

“As we all strive to reduce the impact of all our activity on the environment and increase biodiversity, using water efficiently, saving it where we can and reducing waste, will really help.”

Brian Lironi, Director of Corporate Affairs at Scottish Water, said: “‘Your Water Your Life’ aims to highlight the importance of water in all of our lives, encouraging us to think about our water usage in a different way.

Kirsty works with scientists and fellow horticulturists, outreach ranges from engaging with students and volunteers to her Beechgrove appearances, leading tours, writing articles, and inspiring citizens of Scotland to make changes for the better.

“Gardens and green spaces played a huge role in our lives during lockdown as a positive place and outlet for many of us to channel our energy. These tips show us how easy it is to keep our gardens green and beautiful while also being mindful of how much water we use. www.lancmag.com

As Herbaceous Supervisor at RBGE, Kirsty is part of a globally important plant research and conservation horticulture institute, working at home and around the world to combat the impact of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis.

Find out more at: https://www.yourwateryourlife.co.uk/ LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 99

BOOKS Our roundup of this months literary delights

I am The Queen Bee, How I overcame self-sabotage to #FLYANYWAY and how you can too

by Dani Wallace Lancs entrepreneur & mum of 3 has flown up the charts as she shares her survival story in her autobiographical book to help others fly anyway

Entrepreneurial mum of 3, Dani Wallace, 36 from Preston, who has overcome homelessness, domestic violence and years of self-sabotage is celebrating, having become a global bestselling author in the international book charts, after the release of her new book ‘I am The Queen Bee, How I overcame self-sabotage to #FLYANYWAY and how you can too’ became a bestseller within hours of its release flying to number one on the Amazon book charts in eighteen categories and number one spots including; 1 in Business & Finance Reference, 1 in International Business & Finance and 1 in Personalities… overtaking authors of the 5am Club and Miracle Mornings, the creator of Nike and John Cleese to name a few..!

Dani is a singer who’d travelled the world with her gift at 17, she went on to become a motivational speaker and speaker coach and also the fearless leader of the I Am The Queen Bee Movement https://www.iamthequeenbee.co.uk/ helping women across the world Show Up, Wise Up and Rise Up so that they can step up into their birth right of success. Within her inspirational book, Dani shares how she has broken generational cycles of self-sabotage and living on the breadline to becoming the creator of her own destiny and leader of a movement that has seen thousands of people all over the world stepping up into their own versions of success.

Having launched her ‘I am The Queen Bee Movement’ just over a year ago she is now a six-figure business owner, whose business has grown in Covid, thanks to being able to work online. Dani now runs sell out live events, a global online community, has a YouTube Channel and mentors women delivering her message that we can #FlyAnyway via the I Am The Queen Bee Movement, working with women from all backgrounds from small business startups to celebrities such as; Atomic Kitten Natasha Hamilton. Dani, a former senior leadership trainer in the corporate space for over a decade, is on a mission to spread the message that whatever your background, whatever troubles you have faced, whatever level you are at, bees don’t care what humans think is impossible, they FLY ANYWAY. Hit between the eyes one day with her purpose, after watching the ‘Bee Movie’ with her kids, Dani heard this message: “According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. It’s wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible” - and ever since she has been on a mission to help others who shouldn’t be able to fly, to fly anyway.

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Self-sabotage is the main theme of the book, this is when we actively or passively take steps to prevent ourselves from reaching our goals. This behaviour can affect nearly every aspect of life be it a relationship, a career goal, or a personal goal.

Dani said; “This book has been burning inside me for a few years now. It has been on my mind for the longest time that if I can help just one person to choose to fly anyway, regardless of where they come from or what they have previously thought they were capable of, I’ll be happy. I wanted to create something for all of you out there who have felt this. You may be feeling scared about taking the plunge and making a significant life change. You may want to start your own business. You may wish to leave a job you have felt stuck in for a long time. You may wish to take back control of your shit after giving away your power to someone or something, and it’s time for you to rise up.

“One of the main themes we will cover in this book is how I came to grips with the things that were previously holding me back, how I made them mine and then how I went on to turn the knowledge I gained during the battle into a superpower. Into a survival guide for those that come across me. I’m a speaker and speaker coach by trade these days and I have written this book like a series of talks.

Short topics, stories and learnings that, when you squish ‘em all together, form a veritable arsenal of awesome. And this is where I want to begin our journey. If we are all to start stepping into being our own version of Queenliness, or Kingliness, or Royalness (all are welcome, encouraged and loved here), then we have to get comfortable with the fact that, just like everything else in business and life, it is within us to create our own rules.” www.lancmag.com

Dani I’m doing this for me

With the immediate overnight success the book has already had, it’s clear to see that the book is needed and it has already been well received by many across the globe.

To purchase a copy of the book please visit Amazon https://amzn.to/34CIdHK The book has been published by the award winning team at Authors &Co, who work to showcase and celebrate empowering stories of women. Founder of Authors&Co Abigail Horne said: “This is an absolute gem of a book! If you have ever gotten in your own way when it comes to getting the things you want in life, then you need to stop what you are doing and read this book! Using her inimitable combination of straight-talking, humour and genuine love for her readers, I Am The Queen Bee is an uplifting and informative book that is guaranteed to have you fired up and equipped with all the tools you need so that you, too, can FLY ANYWAY! Dani we are all so proud to know you at Authors & Co!”

Following the launch of her book, Dani is all set to launch a charity - The Fly Anyway Foundation which she is creating to support women who have been trapped in domestic abuse situations - but who are ready to turn their lives around. To find out more please visit https://www.iamthequeenbee.co.uk/

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LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 101

Macclesfield

By Mark Bateman

Above: Clarence Mill - an old silk mill - on the banks of the Macclesfield Canal

Macclesfield is a market town located in Cheshire.

It lies on the river Bolin on the edge of the Cheshire plains with the Macclesfield forest to its East and is sixteen miles South of Manchester.

Its name comes from the old English ‘maccel’ and ‘field’ meaning maccel’s open country.

The town played an especially important part in the development of the silk weaving industry in the area and this is probably how it came to be known by the nickname ‘silk town’. Interestingly it has another nickname which is ‘Treacle Town’. Local lore has it that a horse drawn wagon overturned on the way to market giving the poor a sweet treat as they scooped the gooey treacle from the road.

Macclesfield can trace its history back to before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Prior to this time, it was held by Edwin Earl of Mercia. In 1070 the town was sacked by the Normans who built a castle there. The Normans then granted Macclesfield a borough charter and then a charter for a market, a fair and a judicial court.

The Medieval town was built on a hilltop surrounding the parish church of All Saints which was built in 1278. By 1357 this had expanded to include a hall for the Mayor’s court.

During the medieval era, the town was still 102

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relatively small and poor, and it remained a simple market town with a population in the hundreds until the end of the 15th Century.

Central to the Town’s life and economy was the Market.

The borough held a weekly market and two annual fairs. These were Barnaby Fair held on St Barnabus’ Day on the 11th of June and on the feast of All Souls on the 2nd November. Barnaby Fair has now been re-launched as Barnaby Festival. And in homage to the town’s second nickname a ‘Treacle Market’ is held on the last Sunday of each month show casing locally produced food, handmade clothing, and goods.

In the 14th Century Macclesfield was the centre of the ‘Hundreds of Macclesfield’ (administrative areas). The Earl of Chester’s manor consisted of a large manor house featuring a King’s Chamber, a Queen’s Hall, and a stud farm for the use of the Country’s ruler Edward the Black Prince. The manor was situated in a large deer park. The Earl helped establish the Royal Forest of Macclesfield which was a huge hunting reserve stretching from the Pennines in the East to High Peak near Whaley Bridge and south to the Staffordshire Moorlands.

These days the park is much reduced in size although www.lancmag.com

it does contain two reservoirs, Trentabank and Ridgegate which supply the town with its drinking water. The site is now owned and administered by United Utilities.

The Woodland here is classed as a site of biological interest and part of it is a nature reserve run by Cheshire wildlife park.

The park is popular with the town’s inhabitants and is a great place for relaxing.

It is frequently used for walking, biking, fishing, and bird watching with the heronry being of particular interest.

The Earl’s manor is not the only important historical building in the town. Macclesfield Castle was built by John De Macclesfield in 1398. It was a huge construction that was later ‘crenelated’ (fortified). In 1422 John De Macclesfield died and the estates passed to his illegitimate children. By 1444 Humphrey Stafford, the 1st Duke of Buckingham purchased the site which for a while became known as ‘Buckingham Castle’.

From the Duke it passed to the Stanley family known as the ‘Earls of Derby’ in 1485.

Unfortunately, the upkeep was neglected and by the late 16th Century it had fallen into disrepair and was barely used. By the 20th Century all that remained was the gateway which was dismantled in 1932 and the site was re- purposed for cottages and shops.

However, its history was not completely lost when in 1985 a section of stone from the castle was discovered when the site was excavated. The Courtyard of the town hall now contains stones originally from the porch of the castle helping its history live on.

The town itself continued to grow. By the

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Left: Historical Macclesfield Silk Buttons

Below: Macclesfield town hall and council offices

Tudor era (1486-1603) manufacturing was growing in the area. This included the production of harnesses, gloves, buttons, ribbons, and tape.

The growth of coal mining in the area encouraged the population to grown and by 1664 it had reached over 2,500 and Macclesfield was the third largest town in the County behind Cheshire and Nantwich.

Industry continued to grow in the area.

In 1750 there was a copper ore smelting operation set up in the area processing ore

from mines at Alderley Edge and Ecton in Staffordshire. In 1767 the business switched to producing copper and brass.

The industry closed after owner Charles Roe’s death in 1781 but its legacy is reflected in some of the town’s street names.

But the industry Macclesfield is bet known for is the silk industry. From 1649 Macclesfield is recorded as producing silk buttons. During the time of the industrial revolution production moved to the first silk mill built by Charles Roe in 1743. At first it

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All Saints Church

was powered by water, supplied by water wheels and then later by steam power.

The silk industry expanded rapidly in the area and by 1832 there were over seventy silk mills operating in the area employing over 10,000 people. However, in 1851 a crash occurred in the industry and many of the town’s skilled labour force emigrated to find work in the United States at the Silk Town of Paterson New Jersey.

The Silk industry recovered in the area and remained active into the 1980s and the industry is celebrated and recorded in four of the town’s museums which we shall return to later.

The growth of good communication networks was important in the development of Macclesfield’s silk industry. Between 1826- 1831 the Macclesfield Canal was built linking the town to Marple in the North and Kidsgrove to the South. The canal was surveyed by the world- famous Thomas Telford and constructed by William Crossley junior.

It opened in 1831 and is 26.1 miles long with 12 locks at Bosley which alters the water level by 1188 feet. Much of the canal flows through rural areas in a series of embankments and aqueducts where it crosses river valleys. It flows through a series of iron ‘Roving’ bridges known locally as ‘Snake’ bridges. These are specially designed bridges which allow a horse pulling a canal 104

Paradise Mill

boat to cross to the other side of the canal.

Although a great success on opening, like many canals it was quickly surpassed by the railways. The development of steam engines and the growth of coal fields meant that rail quickly became a more efficient, and larger scale, way to transport manufacturing materials and finished products. The London and North Western Railway opened a station at Beech Lane in 1849 which was then replaced by Hibel Road Station.

Another famous industry in the area is Hovis Bakers which opened a factory there in 1886. It was situated in Publicity Works Mill on the canal close to the Buxton Road. It was originally seen as a

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way to provide cheap and nutritious food for the mill workers. The original bread was said to very dense and dry, unlike the range of tasty loaves they now bake.

The industry in the town continued to move forwards at a pace and after the Second World war two pharmaceutical companies set up business in the area. Geigy (part of Novertis) and the pharmaceutical division of ICI now known as Astra Zeneca.

Traditional industries continued to be represented in the area and until the 1980s the town held a nationally renowned horse, sheep, and cattle market.

The legacy of Macclesfield’s great industries www.lancmag.com

Swing bridge over the canal

can still be seen today in Macclesfield’s four museums. The first of these is the Silk Museum which hosts a collection of silk artwork, silk weaving machines and silk historical artifacts. It originally opened in 1877 as the Macclesfield school of art which trained designers for work in the silk trade.

Paradise Mill museum is located in the sites of the former silk mill built in 1862. It has been converted into a working museum with twenty-six Jacquard looms. It is an impressive museum showing just what conditions were like in an original silk mill.

In 2013 the ‘button Project’ held at Macclesfield’s Heritage Centre celebrated button making in the town. Artists from all over the world sent over 300 beautiful hand-made buttons to the exhibition at Macclesfield. The project attracted unique buttons made from large range of materials including precious metals, glass, felt and recycled materials. The buttons were made by a range of people from professionals to keen amateurs and were displayed at the Heritage Centre alongside the silk costume collection.

The West Park museum was built by Marianne Brocklehurst (1832-98) who was an English traveller and collector of Egyptian antiquities. She came from a local wealthy silk- producing family and as well as housing her collection of Egyptian artifacts it also has sections focusing on local history and fine art. www.lancmag.com

The Old Sunday School closed in September 1973 and is a grade 2 listed building because of its historical significance. It is now a museum with a Victorian school room and cinema.

Macclesfield also has a strong cultural identity. The Northern Chamber Orchestra is the oldest professional chamber orchestra in the North West and has its home at the town’s heritage centre. They hold eight concerts a year which attract famous soloists from all over the world.

Amateur Dramatics is also well – represented in the town by the Amateur Dramatic society which has existed since 1947 when it started performing in its own theatre on Lord Street. The Macclesfield Majestic Theatre group also produced musicals there from 1971. Although no longer located at Lord Street the society continues to flourish.

Several members of the society have gone on to great professional success including Marshall Lancaster who starred in Coronation Street and Holby City although his most well-known role is probably that of D.C. Chris Skelton in, ‘Life on Mars’ and ‘A shes to Ashes.’ Jonathan Morris also first started in the society and is best known as Adrian from Carla Lane’s ‘Bread.’

As well as strong dramatic links Macclesfield has a strong musical alumnus with Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris of the band ‘Joy Division’ hailing from the area. Other bands

to hail from the area are the infamous ‘Macc Lads’ and ‘Marion’ an English Britpop band.

Macclesfield is strongly represented on the Sports front as well. Although the town’s football club folded in 2020 it is still has a thriving youth scene including Macclesfield Juniors, Macclesfield Saints, Moss Rose, and Tytherington Juniors. The Town’s rugby Union club is well supported and plays in National league one.

The cycling club the ‘Macclesfield Wheelers’ covers all cycling activities from pleasure riding to racing. The world-famous track cyclist Reg Harris from Bury lived in the town and produced his Reg Harris bikes there in the 1960s. The Club also includes the MaccBUG which id the Macclesfield Borough Bicycle Users Group who campaign for better cycling provisions in the area.

Athletics is also strongly represented in the area with the Macclesfield Harriers Athletic club which has over 500 members and offers a range of activities for runners of all abilities covering everything from road running to track and field, fell and cross country. The town also hosts its own part of the popular Park Run series with a free 5K run every Saturday in South Park.

Macclesfield remains a town well aware of its own fascinating heritage but it also very much a modern town moving forwards to embrace the future and the challenges it holds.

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Anne leaves a natural legacy for future generations

When Anne Selby arrived at The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside, it was based in a ramshackle shed in Cuerden Valley Park

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ver the past 29 years Anne has presided over the creation of a charity that stretches across the whole North West region and includes 37 nature reserves.

Millions of people will have visited the wonderful wildlife havens at Brockholes, Mere Sands Wood, Heysham Nature Reserve, Wigan Flashes, Freshfield Dune Heath, Salthill Quarry and Moston Fairway.

And vitally important wildernesses have been turned into homes for rare plants and creatures and are now storing carbon, on the frontline against Climate Change.

Anne retired today (Friday 11) and will pass the baton onto Dr Tom Burditt, a North Lancastrian, who has excellent experience working for both the Wildlife Trust and National Trust.

Anne said: “The Trust has been a huge part of my life for so long and it is hard to imagine life without it. I know many of the friendships made will endure and I am confident that Tom will be able to pick up the baton and take us on to greater things. It is an exciting time to be taking over. We could be on the cusp of seeing real changes to how nature is seen within society.

“It has been a brilliant journey. It has been hard work, in equal parts frustrating and exhilarating but I would not have missed it for the world. It has been a privilege to lead such a force for good in our area.”

The Trust has certainly been a force for the good under Anne’s leadership, growing to be the county and region’s most important conservation body.

Anne joined the Trust in 1992 as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Conservation, after some years as a principle planning officer in local government. She had a strong voluntary sector background, especially in the City Farm movement.

She said: “I arrived at a ramshackle shed in Cuerden Valley Park, which was our HQ at the time. Two years into the job and my predecessor moved on. I applied for the job and was successful.”

At the time, the Trust had about 15 staff, around 3,000 members, a turnover of around £300,000 and “a pretty precarious financial situation”.

Today the Trust has 190 staff, a group turnover of around £8million and 30,000 members.

Anne said: “The real question is, did we make a difference for wildlife? We manage more land for nature, we engage with more people, we undertake masses of environmental

Anne Selby at Brockholes

education in schools and have certainly saved and reintroduced species that had been lost to the North West.”

Anne is particularly proud of the work that has made Mere Sands Wood, in Rufford, into everyone’s favourite secret nature reserve, the work, supported Bolton Council to save Red Moss and the building of a dream at Brockholes.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Chairman Steve Garland said: “I’m sure I’’m not alone in finding it hard to imagine Lancashire Wildlife Trust without Anne around. She’s been such a powerhouse of enthusiasm, fount of knowledge and tidal wave of advocacy for us; although I’m certain she’ll still be rooting for us from the outside.”

A mother of twins, Anne comes from a dairy farming family, and has spent some time over the last couple of years helping to run the family farm in Yorkshire.

Her departure will be felt throughout the 46 Wildlife Trusts nationally, she is hugely respected at the national office, serves on the board of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and chaired the strategic development committee.

Anne recently featured in the book “100 Women 100 Stories” (Gulnaz Brennad), an inspirational narrative of a few to empower all women with accounts of courage, achievement, sacrifice and compassion.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust is grateful to its members for their continued support and kind thoughts during the pandemic. If you would like to join this movement for nature and help to save your local wild places go to the membership pages at www.lancswt.org.uk.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 Local Nature Reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 27,000 members, and over 1,200 volunteers.

To become a member of the Trust go to the website at www.lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk.

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LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 107

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hroughout most of 2020, the majority of us were confined to our homes more than we would have ever thought possible in the past. For some, it was a challenge that will not be welcomed again in the near future. For others, it was a real opportunity to enjoy more time in the homestead. This concentration of time spent at home allowed people to really appreciate their home and consider what changes they wanted to make to cultivate their perfect living space. It’s why the DIY and interior design industries saw a rather large boom, with items selling out at an alarming rate! The goal, of course, is to create an environment in which everyone wants to be, a happy home – after all, it’s where the heart is!

If you were one of those who developed a passion for home improvements, you may have already started on your projects. But for those yet to really dive in, or indeed those who have taken advantage of the stamp duty holiday and have moved, we’ve put together some suggestions when considering major changes to your home. And what better time to start making these changes than at the start of a brand new year? Take a look at our advice before you go full throttle on yours: Money, money, money Making changes will cost money, of that there is no doubt, so you need to plan your budget. If 108

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A home with heart

you’re planning on fundamental changes it might be worth considering how they will affect the value of your home before you go ahead. For example, if you would like to refresh your kitchen, this can be a huge expense, especially if you opt for all the bells and whistles! Whilst the heart of the home is said to be the kitchen, spending a significant sum of money might not be wise if you are unlikely to recoup the outlay when you come to sell. Unless that isn’t your objective. Perhaps you’re planning on staying put in your ‘forever home’ for the foreseeable and so a sizeable investment would see its return in the enjoyment you get out of it. Just make sure you consider all these elements. For example, if you are aiming for a superficial improvement only, you could have your cupboard doors painted, change the flooring and accessories. This may well result in enough of a significant change to keep you satisfied without costing a fortune that you won’t see again.

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On the other hand, if it is new furniture you wish to purchase, it is a better idea to go as expensive as you can afford. Not only is it portable, so could move to your next property with you, better quality should be far more durable. So whether you stay or go, you’ll be able to get many years of use out of your pieces with them still looking great well into the future. Let’s not forget, the right sort of pieces can be restored to their former glory too, particularly antiques, by local experts such as Peter Hall & Son. Furniture can be passed through the generations when it is of appropriate quality which is why restoration services exist. If you aren’t fortunate enough to have any of these already in your family, it could be a wise investment for the future so is certainly worth investigating.

More about furniture restoration Furniture restoration services tend to have two key focuses; conservation and restoration.

Conservation safeguards the furniture, ensuring its integrity is properly preserved without altering its appearance.

Restoration is a form of conservation but can involve changing the furniture’s appearance to restore it back to how it used to look. It also includes changes that will ensure it can conduct the function for which it was originally destined (reinforcing a chair, for example, so it can be used as a seat again).

Choose wisely and you can return your pieces to their former glory with some expert help.

What do you really need?

If you’re looking to complete some significant renovations or want to have a more ‘usable’ living environment, whilst it is useful to seek external inspiration, it is important not to be dazzled by style over substance. Stunning rooms you see on the internet might look great in theory, but white sofas and lots of glassware, for example, might not be the most practical if you have young children toddling about! Considering you and your family’s lifestyle is of critical importance in ensuring you create somewhere that suits your needs. Factors you may want to think about are how open plan you want kitchen and dining spaces to be, if you need a quiet office space (this one has been particularly pertinent recently) and how many bedrooms do you actually need set up as working bedrooms all the time.

ensure your physical health is catered for.

That can be instrumental in a happier existence as health problems not only cause worry, pain can also really detract from the pleasures in life. You can also add other items such as a sofa bed which would make it very easy to turn back into a spare room as and when required. For the majority of the time, however, it becomes a highly functional space that will foster productivity and a better work life balance. It will afford the ability to hide away and work in peace when needed, but also gives the ability to shut the door and engage in family life when the working day is over, leaving work far behind.

If you do have spare bedrooms that are rarely used, but work from the dining room table regularly, it could be much better for the harmony of the home to change one into an office-cumbedroom. In the first instance, equip it with the appropriate ergonomic chair and desk furniture to www.lancmag.com

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If you’re the type of family who enjoys sitting down to eat every night but don’t necessarily want to sit at a formal dining table, it is worth considering adding in a breakfast bar or perhaps opening up the kitchen and dining room.

Additional space leftover could even become home to a sofa area. This would allow other members of the family to relax in the same area when cooking is being done to allow for greater interaction and more time spent together.

There are many ways to improve the layout of your home and the usage of its rooms that might serve you as a family better. Your home needs to reflect its occupants not only in terms of style but also in terms of layout.

So it is important to consider exactly how it is you would prefer to live before making any big changes.

your home needs to reflect its occupants not only in terms of style but also in terms of layout.

Small changes that make a big difference Not everyone will be in a position to make fundamental changes to their home and indeed, it might be the case that the space is already used to its maximum in a layout which works extremely well for the residents. But that doesn’t necessarily mean there can be no further improvements made!

If you’re looking for smaller or more subtle ways to titivate your house then there are plenty of things you can do.

Photographs of your loved ones are a very quick way to make any area much more personable and warmer. If you don’t wish to adorn surfaces with photo frames, have you considered putting shelves or the more modern cages up? These are a great place to display framed pictures. A photo wall is also a stylish addition and can allow you to unleash a little creativity.

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Quirky, contrasting frames can sit side by side in the same area which can be dedicated to showing the faces of the ones you care about most in the world.

House plants have been a popular addition to homes over the years and with good reason.

They have been proven to reduce stress and fatigue and boost concentration, productivity and creativity. They also help to cleanse the air within your home by absorbing any toxins, supplying more oxygen and increasing humidity. And let’s not forget – they look great too!

So a comparatively easy way to improve the look and ambience of your home is to bring more of the outdoors indoors and add some more plants to the spaces.

You can even create areas with a collection of them in varying heights and species to create an interesting and slightly different look.

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Having a home which reflects the seasons outside can also bring a different level of warmth to the space. If you have darker soft furnishings and accessories that you bought in winter, for example cushions, throws and ornaments in the lounge, you could have another set in brighter colours for the spring and summer seasons. A quick swap at key points of the year could change the whole tone of your rooms in an instant and make it feel more welcoming. You could even go so far as to have specific decorations for key times (and not just for Christmas!) such as Easter or autumnal ones around Halloween.

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An English country garden When considering changes to the home, it’s quite easy to overlook any outdoor space and focus on interiors. But one thing that nice weather and being confined to our homes taught us was to make the most of everywhere and spend as much time outside as possible.

Your improvements could be as

straightforward as a tidy up and some new accessories – think colourful cushions and throws for seating, brightly coloured crockery for dining outside or even some fairy lights strung between trees. More radical overhauls could include a complete landscaping project with different areas to serve different needs, new plant-life and in some cases, the addition of large items such as hot tubs or outdoor buildings. Again, before launching into any kind of significant (and expensive) changes, it is important to consider how much you’ll use them, exactly what your goal is and whether you will get your money back when you come to sell if you need to.

No longer are you restricted to a musty old shed, but instead you can have a stylish log cabin that can even double as another reception room

trend for setting up a bar with working pumps and so on – you’ll never need to leave home again with all those features!

Hot tubs, fire pits, sun loungers, pizza ovens, vegetable patches; the list is almost endless for how you can adapt your garden to get more out of it in the coming months and even years. You can even ensure it is habitable in the winter with the right shelter and heat source so you’ll be able to use it even on the darkest of days.

All you need is a little inspiration and you’ll create a whole new world to enjoy.

Our homes truly are our castles – something we have all learnt in the recent unprecedented times – and more than ever before we have come to appreciate exactly what we have. But that doesn’t mean to say there can’t be improvements made, sometimes even significant ones, they just need to be carefully thought out to maximise any investment.

Take some time and have fun planning the changes in your home in 2021!

An outdoor building could be what you make of it. No longer are you restricted to a musty old shed, but instead you can have a stylish log cabin that can even double as another reception room. You could have an office or cinema room out in your garden or a more traditional summer house. There has even been a www.lancmag.com

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Peter Hall & Son Where creativity meets elegance

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eter Hall & Son are a family business in the Lake District renowned for their high quality and expertise in their craft. A team of furniture makers, designers, woodturners and antique restorers who take immense pride in producing hand-made manufacturing to an exceptional quality.

“We are a collection of artisans who believe furniture and home interiors represent the individual and their self expression. We create living art for you and your home, which can be enjoyed day after day.” - Will Hall, Lead Designer.

Living art - The embodiment of visual creation and functional living which is appreciated for its beauty and emotional power.

For almost 50 years they have kept their original ethos for championing the skill and art of making wooden furniture by hand. The use of wood is tactile in itself, but the huge amount of time spent on finishing gives an unprecedented smoothness, which is a signature to the Peter Hall & Son brand. They use wood for all their pieces not just as a sustainable material but because of the great pleasure that is taken in sourcing wood that tells a story.

“Where we can this is sourced locally and transformed into bespoke and unique items.

Designs that endure the test of time and last for generations to come.”

- Jeremy Hall, Director Currently in their third generation of the Hall family, you can clearly see that Peter Hall & Son is a heritage brand. The original designs by Peter Hall are still prevalent in their furniture range.

Classic designs that certainly last the test of time.

Peter Hall’s son Jeremy Hall joined his father’s business in 1979. Jeremy had decided that he wanted to be a maker of ‘special’ furniture from the age of 16 but also specialises in antique furniture restoration. Over the decades Jeremy has produced his own furniture designs.

These were more experimental but deep rooted in traditional craftsmanship.

Since 2013 Jeremy’s son Will Hall has joined the business. Will is keen to take the business forward whilst building on the past.

His specialism resides in furniture and product design, which creates a design led approach that challenges the skills of his expert team to produce some of the most beautiful transitional pieces.

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Will Hall’s designs are inspired by nature and highly influenced by the soft curved forms which are so abundant in nature. It is, no doubt, one of the advantages of growing up and working somewhere as beautiful as the Lake District, which demands to be awe-inspiring.

“The rarity of our skill set and quality of our work means that our clients come to us from right across the UK and abroad. We work closely with our clients and every design comes from understanding the needs and aspirations of each individual, guided by our experience.” - Will Hall, Lead Designer.

A perfect example of this is The Heron Lamp. It is one of our favourite pieces that has a long and curved Heron-like form.

It is an honest and contemporary floor standing lamp with qualities that will fit beautifully into your home.

“I am always inspired by the forms and textures of nature. With the Heron Lamp, I wanted to convey the elegance of a heron in water with its long tapering neck and unwavering bill.”

- Will Hall, Lead Designer. www.lancmag.com

Bespoke Furniture Peter Hall & Son produce furniture that is bespoke. Bespoke is being used here in it’s true use as an adjective to mean ‘Made for a particular person.’ It is a diluted word in commerce. Often attached to all manner of customisation and addons. This is not the case at Peter Hall & Son, they truly believe in creating bespoke living art for the individual commissioning it.

“The process of creating a bespoke piece of furniture often starts with a moment of inspiration.

This idea can be very simple. It may be an idea you have for something to fill a particular space.

It may be a shape or style you like and want to incorporate into your design. Most clients come to us with an idea and we take it from there.”

There is a language to furniture that can say alot about you as a person. It is worth considering this when you select the furniture and accessories that make up your home. You are the curator of your home collection. Peter Hall & Son furniture and home accessories that are designed to represent you as an individual and what brings you pleasure, The impact these pieces have on how a space feels can evoke emotion and change experiences of day to day living.

“With bespoke furniture in particular, designing for an individual person and their space is often not dissimilar to creating art. It is on one hand sculptural and beautifully evocative but where it differs and, most importantly, it is absolutely functional.”

The attention to detail and the consideration over every element of the design and making process is exceptional. Some details are initially imperceptible on their own but make a big difference to the feel of a piece. Like a work of art, over time, one will notice more of the details.

Everything is Unique Not every item is bespoke, of course. Peter Hall & Son have built up a range of beautiful furniture and home accessories, which is available to everyone. The majority of their furniture items are made-to-order. Customers have the opportunity to choose the kind of wood, dimensions and lots of other wonderful details such as marquetry and inlays.

Peter Hall & Son have a wonderful collection of stock items, which are all made in small batches.

The wood is hand picked and each one is made by hand. This produces very similar items but the differences in each piece of wood and the handmade nature of production keeps each item utterly unique. www.lancmag.com

Furniture and Home Accessories examples.

The Reflection Table is a great example of excellent craftsmanship. The way the curves appear to balance on top of one another is a clever and enjoyable design.

A striking combination of sculptural art and functionality. The base design is full of drama and yet does not get in the way when you are seated at the table. The glass top is perfect for being able to see those repeating organic curved forms.

An extremely sturdy table Ideal for four to six chairs.

Above: Reflection Table

The Elterwater dining chair is a contemporary adaptation of our bestselling Ryland chair. The concept behind this design is Elterwater itself.

The curved rail and smooth lines cascade and flow like water down the back and tapered legs. The high-quality finish makes this chair extremely tactile and comfortable including the curved back that is supportive of the spine. Overall it is a striking dining chair with lots of detail, which you will notice the more you look at it.

Available in different kinds of wood and with or without an upholstered seat. Also available as a dining chair.

Below: The Elterwater Carver Dining Chair

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We think you’ll love We have chosen a selection of Peter Hall & Son furniture and accessories, which represents their true vision of living art.

All these pieces showcase excellent craftsmanship, innovative design and use wood with some very interesting stories.

The Heron Lamp The Heron Lamp Oak is one of our bestselling products with a long and curved Heron-like form.

It is an honest and contemporary floor standing lamp with qualities that will fit beautifully into your curated home.

“I am always inspired by the forms and textures of nature. With the Heron Lamp, I wanted to convey the elegance of a heron in water with its long tapering neck and unwavering bill.” Will Hall, Lead Designer.

The cable is celebrated and made a feature of, running neatly up the back of the neck and hooping through the bill-like top of the lamp.

This lamp solves the problem of long otherwise unattractive cables you often find with lighting by making a beautiful feature of them. Handmade to order in a number of different woods and simply waxed for a natural finish. Choose from grey woven cable or marsala red for a pop of colour to suit your individual style.

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The Gin Table The Oak Gin Table was designed for exactly the reason it was named after.

Originally commissioned by a customer of ours who wanted a small table to stand next to the settee for a glass of gin to be placed.

An ergonomic and practical design with sculptural curves in the legs.

The legs create an exciting threedimensional shape and are held together with a complicated lap joint, which gives the appearance of seamless lines whilst offering great stability.

Made from solid timber. We use quarter sawn wood for the tabletop, which features unique markings called medullary rays.

Caused by sap moving through the wood perpendicular to the rings leaving silver or gold ribbons adding character, beauty and uniqueness.

Also available in Walnut.

Contrast in design Another signature style at Peter Hall & Son is our use of contrasting woods. We love the variety of tones and hues you get from wood. We never dye or paint our products. Everything is finished to a very high standard, which brings out the brilliance of colour in all of the kinds of wood we use.

By combining different and contrasting colours you can complement your personal style and discover your own unique combination.

The Bow-fronted chest of drawers is a stunning combination of smooth curved drawers encased in an expertly crafted frame with splayed legs.

This example is made from almost black Bog Oak and warm Oak. The contrasting tones create a work of art, which showcases the wood at it’s best. The drawers are bow fronted with bog oak handles and a sophisticated inlay which frames each drawer perfectly.

This item in Bog Oak is a one-off combination and is currently available to buy.

What is Bog Oak? Approximately dated from 5000 BC, the bog oak used for this extraordinary piece of furniture is truly special. Oak that has been buried in peat bogs sometimes is preserved from rotting by the acidic and anaerobic conditions of the bog. The wood becomes petrified, almost fossilised through this very slow process which can take thousands of years. Older wood, such as the wood they have used here, is almost completely black yet possesses rich variations in hue characteristic of ‘live’ wood. This very rare bog oak is locally sourced from Garstang and has been featured beautifully with natural oak.

Left: Bow Fronted Chest

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The Serpentine Sideboard The serpentine sideboard is an amazing piece of craftsmanship with some very beautiful features.

This example is made from light oak with splayed legs and inlaid wood handles.

The cupboard panels and drawer fronts are made with burr oak veneer, which adds lots of interest to the texture of this piece. The draw fronts are inlaid with dark, contrasting rosewood stringing and the cupboard panels are fixed with rosewood beading which also runs through the handles.

Finally, the sideboard is coated in Danish oil for a high-quality finish.

This item can be custom made if you want something more befitting your space and style.

At Peter Hall & Son we are also well known for our beautiful woodturning items Bud Vases

The Bud Vases are inspired by the rudimentary inflorescence of a blossoming bud. The contrasting wooden stripe reflects the physiology and structure of a bud as it begins to split open and burst into flower.

Each vase is turned by hand and boasts five variations of natural wood colours. Some of these use tropical woods, which are limited editions.

Such as the dark Rosewood, pinkish-orange Bubinga and the bright red Padauk designs.

All of our tropical woods, such as Padauk, Purpleheart and Rosewood, are sustainably sourced. These beautiful coloured woods are much sought after in furniture making as they are unlike anything we grow in the UK. At Peter Hall & Son we pride ourselves on being sustainable and ensure every little piece of wood is used.

During the furniture making process there is always waste leftover.

With these pieces, we create sculptural home accessories for our customers rather than create more firewood.

The Bottle Vase - image above, with three sizes available - is a creative and contemporary design.

These stunning hand-turned bottle vases bring elegance to any home. Each bottle vase has a silky smooth finish and looks equally as striking alone or as part of a set. Arrange a singular dried or faux flower into the vase for a decorative touch.

Choose from a selection of natural woods.

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If you haven’t already become a baking marvel during last years lockdown’s, then keep going, there is time. Especially with our iconic Rolling Pins that are Bottle Vases both beautiful and functional.

A good rolling pin is absolutely fundamental for baking. Designed in the French style, without handles, this beautiful, simple and easy to use rolling pin is very manoeuvrable. Without handles, you naturally place your hands towards the centre of the rolling pin.

The pressure you apply is more controlled, even and intimate.

The large surface area means you can roll out doughs faster and more efficiently Every rolling pin is hand-turned by eye. Each one sculpted like a work of art - the consideration of every detail and how it gives the piece balance and flow. The beauty of wood lies in its colour and grain pattern. This makes each rolling pin utterly unique.

Rolling Pins

There is plenty to look forward to from Peter Hall & Son for the year 2021. They are constantly designing, creating and expanding their collections with planned releases for the new year.

Stay in touch and keep up to date on instagram and facebook @peterhallandson.

Sign up to their newsletter via the website. www.peter-hall.co.uk www.lancmag.com

We belie ve that fur niture is the most fundamental aspect of creating a home that reeects your personalit y and st y le.

W ith reened detail. unique design and precise Br itish cr af tsmanship, our fur niture is the joy of ar t and function combined.

Living Ar t. ""e embodiment of visual creation and functional living."

Wor kshops & HQ Danes Road, S tavele y, Kendal, Cumbr ia LA8 9P L 01539 821633

www.peter-hal l.co.uk

Bout ique 25 Crescent Road, W inder mere, Cumbr ia. LA23 1BJ 015394 88731 e. inf o@peter-hal l.co.uk

Suri Krishnamma – RTS Winner for ‘The Way Out’

Suri Krishnamma and his camera team recently won the Royal Television Society craft and design award for his film, The Way Out. Here he talks to The Lancashire magazine about the production.

Above: Suri Krishnamma with the RTS award – Photo: Lorraine Bhattachary

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Many congratulations on the award, you and your team must be thrilled to receive such an accolade?

Suri: Yes – truly thrilled, and hugely flattered. Making this film was a labour of love and we really only expected it to get a late-night viewing on BBC4 then be forgotten. So, for the Royal Television Society to recognise it in this way is a very unexpected honour.

So what’s the film about, what’s the story?

Suri: It’s a kind of surreal, theatrical adventure in which a young person escapes into a seemingly empty building at night and meets a mysterious guide who offers them an alternative way out.

In one continuous shot, we follow the Guide and Outsider through the building, as the Guide urges the Outsider to explore deeper, to seek meanings in what they see. There follows a succession of unexpected performances by diverse artists appearing in a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, including a young poet, Caleb Femi, a free form dancer, Botis Seva and operatic singer Le Gateau Chocolat among others, each one communicating a life-lesson about the challenges they have faced in life and sought to overcome.

for this. Previous work includes Why it’s Kicking Off Everywhere, written by the former Channel 4 economics editor, Paul Mason - about how we manged to go from the optimism of the Arab Spring to the election of Donald Trump. They also produced Touretteshero: Me, My Mouth and I, which is a film exploring neuro-diversity through the work of Samuel Beckett by Jess Thom, who is a wheelchair user with Tourette’s Syndrome.

And you wrote and directed this new film, The Way Out, which was to be the last in the Performance Live strand?

Suri: Yes, I directed it and co-wrote it. The writing process included two other writers, Nick Mark Harding and Omid Djalili. I got the ball rolling with a detailed treatment, then Nick wrote a first draft.

After that, I did some revisions – then later Omid Djalili, who plays The Guide, came on board and put his own spin on his dialogue, crucially adding some lighter moments. So, the writing was a team effort – and all along this was supported by the producers, Andrew and Thea, who made their comments and we developed it from there.

Below: Botis Seva – Photo: Battersea Arts Centre

How did you become involved in the project?

Suri: I received an email that asked if I’d be interested in having a discussion about shooting a film in oneshot in the Battersea Arts Centre. That was it - sent by the two producers – Thea Jones and Andrew Fettis. It was an easy question to answer – it’s been an ambition of mine to shoot a film in one shot ever since I started out making films as a student. I’ve always had that mindset. When I approach scenes, generally, my starting point is always, ‘how would I shoot this in one’ and then only add other shots, or put mental cuts in, if the one-shot can’t deliver the scene. It’s just the way I see things. Other directors think in cuts, but I don’t. I think it comes from the idea that if you can edit in camera it’s a purer form of visual storytelling; if you don’t cut, you don’t cheat the audience – they see it all in continuous time – as if they were witnesses to the events themselves.

Can you tell us a little bit about Performance Live?

Suri: Performance Live is a strand of artist-led programmes, bringing some of the most innovative artists to prime-time television, reflecting different voices representing the breadth of current performance in the UK. Battersea Arts Centre partnered with Arts Council England and BBC Arts www.lancmag.com

Tell me more about how the project developed?

Suri: We discussed what kind of story we would be telling. At this point there was the idea to do something like the Russian one-shot film, Russian Ark, which is all set in the Hermitage building in St Petersburg. I’d seen this film before and could see what they had in mind – albeit on a slightly lower budget! But I also thought that, visually, we could do better than that, because we had access to LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 119

different camera and grip technology. I started the ideas process by virtually living in the Battersea Arts Centre for more than two weeks. I sat in every space I could find – the main lobby, corridors, theatre spaces, even the rafters to gather inspiration, to feel as if I was one of the building’s art installations! I’m sure there was more than one occasion I got looked at that way, so permanent was my presence!

I knew the story would involve a guide of some kind and also knew it had to showcase a number of performance artists, but that was about all we had.

It struck me too that it needed a magical element, and so I began to draw on fairy stories and other magical tales for inspiration. The two that came home most vividly were The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. So, I felt this could be a story where the central character was a Dorothy-type figure who, finding herself having ‘fallen into’ the building she tries to find a way out and goes on a journey, during which she ‘gathers’ other characters who are themselves lost in some way.

We decided to focus more on the idea of having a Guide leading an Outsider – someone fleeing from some kind of danger, and be taken on a journey through the building while they search for another exit. During this journey, they would meet a series of performance artists and learn things about life while passing through their performances. We put together a list of life lessons that might be delivered 120

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Above: Omid Djalili and Bláthín Mac Gabhann – Photo: Battersea Arts Centre

by our artists. Over time, we discussed these, and the work developed on from there. Then Soraya Gilanni our amazing Production Designer began her work to transform the spaces into something quite magical. Although it is a stunning building in its natural state, Soraya and her team created something that went way beyond our original imaginations. This work was added to by her team, including Lorraine Bhattachary who sourced much of the added material, as well as designed the costumes.

How did Omid Djalili become involved in the project?

Suri: Right from the outset, we felt that the part of the Outsider, played by Bláithin Mac Gabhann, would be found through a traditional audition process but that the part of the Guide should be comfortable with live performances – either through known theatre work or as a stand-up. We were conscious that we would almost certainly be casting an actor of colour, or someone from a diverse background, due to the inclusive nature of the project and of Battersea Arts Centre’s core values. So we sent him the script. He seemed to ‘get’ what we were doing intuitively, he’s a wonderful man with a great spirit and a joy to work with, capable of picking up on ideas quickly and running with them. So he was a terrific addition to the team. www.lancmag.com

Battersea Arts Centre is a fantastic building with such a history. Did you always intend to use this building?

Suri: The building was part of the proposal right from the beginning as the project was a collaboration between it and the BBC and Arts Council. It was a Town Hall originally and played an important role in the birth of the suffragette and labour movements in the early 20th Century. Since 1974 it has been home to the arts centre, specialising in theatre productions, but showcasing a broad range of artists. Tragedy struck in 2015 when a fire broke out and a huge part of the building was destroyed.

I spoke to a lot of people who were there at the time and they were truly devastated, but thankfully much of the building was saved and through painstaking work it was able to reopen. Much of the fire damage is still visible in the corridors and other spaces, kept there by the Arts Centre as a reminder. Few people leave the building after their first visit without feeling something of its history, its significance, feeling changed in some way. It’s a very, very special place.

You shot the film in one continuous, unbroken shot. Was it really one shot or were there hidden cuts?

Suri: No hidden cuts – it really was one unbroken shot!

What was your inspiration to do such a technically challenging film in one shot?

Jones at the Arts Centre. It wasn’t just the choice of artists that was important, but where they would perform in the building and the order they’d appear on the Outsider’s journey. Ultimately, the artists were chosen for their work, and how they expressed challenges they’d faced in life – the life lessons I mentioned earlier.

How long did you rehearse for before filming?

Suri: The whole internal building rehearsal was over a two week period, with three actual nights of shooting. But the acts themselves rehearsed before this time in their own spaces, before coming to visit the Arts Centre to check measurements and do their own rehearsals in situ.

There were so many elements that could have gone wrong? It must have been nerve wracking?

Suri: It was – but I was also quite confident inside.

And that’s because I had great confidence in the performers, the camera team, in fact the whole of the production. I knew the performers would deliver, because they were all used to live events – and the acts themselves only needed to deliver during their individual slots – after which we wouldn’t need to see them again. And the two main artists, Omid and Blaíthín, were excellent at remembering the script but also at improvising where they needed to (which, in the end, was hardly at all).

Below: Suri Krishnamma and crew.

Photo: Battersea Arts Centre

Suri: In many ways my inspiration was my own past work, in the sense that I have shot so many scenes in one shot before that I had it in the back of my mind I’d like to attempt it for a whole film.

I was introduced to the Movi system and the camera team at Motion 24. These included the highly skilled operators, James Davis and Craig Porter. By using their techniques, we were able to attach and detach the camera from one piece of equipment to another without cutting, and without any visible bumps. By attaching the camera to ‘goalposts’, back to hand-held, back to goal-posts, then onto a crane, back to hand-held, onto a dolly, through a window and back to hand-held, back onto a dolly, then off the dolly to the final hand-held sequence, we had complete control over where the camera was and what it was looking at, at anyone one time – and the range of equipment allowed for a flourishing look, with adventurous and unexpected camera rises and moves.

How did you decide which acts to include in the piece?

Suri: The process for selecting artists was led by Thea www.lancmag.com

Did you have a backup plan if the filming in one shot failed?

Suri: It would have been insane not to have had a backup plan, but to be honest I hardly considered it. I did have, in my head, a number of places that I would be able to insert invisible cuts into, but I was determined I wouldn’t use them.

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There were moments that it felt we’d never get there. Sometimes a take went wrong because a music cue was missed, and we had to cut short another because a fire alarm went off during the take. So as we approached the last possible attempt, some nerves were beginning to fray because if one single element goes wrong, we’d have to accept it.

As it turned out, it was achieved on the last possible attempt!

Would you ever make another one shot film!?

Suri: I’d like to, I’m not sure what it will be, but a whole movie, one shot, using multiple grip equipment, possibly involving travel but maybe not in continuous time, so although the shot never stops, the content changes from one time period to another.

Is there a hidden message in there for these strange Covid times we’re living in?

here in the UK, would be affected. In many ways, it was Brexit that was a more dominant underlying theme – which if you think about it you can see reflected in the story – the Outsider running into a seemingly hostile building searching for a way out – then learning the building isn’t hostile at all but filled with a warm, welcoming, diverse and inspiring group of artists. But if you look at the film and then imagine it was made with a nod to Covid, it also feels like it fits - the Outsider is running away from something, entering the building and being afraid of getting too close to anyone, especially the Guide.

Throughout their whole journey, there’s rarely a distance of less than two metres between them and anyone else. And each artist, with the exception of the band at the end, are individuals but even there the watching crowd appear to be social-distancing!

You can view ‘The Way Out’ on BBC iPlayer.

Suri: Yes, I think there is. When we planned and shot the film in January and early February, we were aware of something odd happening in China, a new virus. But obviously we had no idea it would become a global pandemic and to what extent we,

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Below: Le Gateau Chocolat – Photo: Battersea Arts Centre

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The Ballet Family by Mabel Esther Allan - Girls Gone By Publishers

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Remembering north-west children’s author, Mabel Esther Allan

By Margaret Brecknell

L

ike so many other mid-20th century children’s authors, Mabel Esther Allan’s books are today not as well-known as they once were. Yet Allan wrote over 150 books under her own name and three different pen names, which brought pleasure to thousands of children.

Mabel Esther Allan was born on 11th February 1915 in Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula and lived in the area around Cheshire and the Wirral for all her life. She took little interest in her formal education at St Hilary’s School, probably not helped by the fact that she struggled with poor eyesight.

However, from an early age she loved to write short stories and later recalled that by the age of eight she had decided she wanted to be an author.

After leaving school, Allan combined writing with teaching folk dancing and had some initial success as an author with the publication of some of her short stories for children. In 1939 her full-length children’s story, Grim Glen Castle, was accepted for publication, only for it to be shelved because of the outbreak of World War II. During the war Allan served as a land girl in the Women’s Land Army, as well as teaching at a school in Liverpool.

Following the end of the war Allan sent her manuscript for Grim Glen Castle to another publisher, Warne & Co, and at long last in 1948 the story was published under the title The Glen Castle Mystery. It seems that the publishers did not consult with the author before changing the title. The story is set in a remote Scottish castle, which has been left to the family by a distant relative. The plot is typical of children’s adventure books of the time including a mountain rescue, secret passages and a lost child (imagine the Famous Five in Scotland).

By the time The Glen Castle Mystery was published, Allan had already written her second children’s novel called The Adventurous Summer and it had been accepted for publication by Museum Press. This story is mainly set in the Cotswolds and features the exploits of The Adventure Club, formed by a group of children who find themselves in the area for the summer for a variety of reasons. Two of the members, Sorrel and Nicholas Richmond, have been sent to stay with relatives in the Cotswolds because their parents are touring America with

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the orchestra in which they play. Another member, Shandy Mortimer, is staying with a family friend whilst her mother pursues an acting career in London. Shandy too has ambitions of appearing on stage, but daren’t tell her mother who she fears will disapprove. This character is a good early example of Allan’s interest in the theatre and the arts, which she would later use to great effect in her popular series about a young ballerina called Drina.

From here onwards Allan’s writing career took off in earnest. In 1949 her first school story Cilia of Chilterns’ Edge was published. The school to which the title character, Cilia, is sent is quite forward thinking in its attitude, with few rules and the absence of organised activities such as school sports. Instead, the pupils are encouraged to think for themselves.

Allan became known for her dislike of traditional

Above: St Hilary’s Church Wallasey Jorge Franganillo/CC BY-SA3.0

During the war Allan served as a land girl in the Women’s Land Army, as well as teaching at a school in Liverpool schools (possibly reflecting her own less than ideal experience in formal schooling) and the educational establishments in her books tend to reflect her own attitudes to education. She supported the groundbreaking work of Scottish educationalist AS Neill, who believed in democratic, pupil-centred schooling. Her fictional schools are usually run on progressive lines, with pupils participating in the running of the school, often making their own rules and deliberating on the LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 125

fate of anyone who is found to have broken them.

In 1957 Ballet For Drina, the first in her series of Drina books, was published under the pen name of Jean Estoril. She went on to write a further ten books in this series, which proved by far the most popular of her work and made her one of the UK’s best-selling children’s authors during the 1960s and 1970s. The Drina books tell the story of an ambitious young dancer from her early days at ballet school through to international stardom as a ballerina, with the inevitable difficulties she faces along the way. For any young reader who took ballet classes themselves (as many young girls did in those days including the writer of this article), the Drina series proved to be essential reading and the appeal of the stories was further enhanced by some of the glamorous locations in which they were set. Allan loved to travel and liked to use some of her favourite destinations as settings for her books possessing the ability as a writer to evoke the atmosphere of a place in a few short sentences.

Thus, in the course of the series Drina visited Italy, Paris, Switzerland, Madeira and New York, all of which appeared very exotic locations to this young northern reader who at the time had never travelled further than Wales and the Isle of Man. Not all of Allan’s books were set in such far-flung places. Her Wood Street Gang and Pine Street series were both set in Liverpool and she frequently used other settings in her native Merseyside as locations for her books. One of her later series, the Crumble Lane Adventures, was set in a Lancashire town overlooking the moors. Another of her later books, the semi-autobiographical A Strange Enchantment, was based on Allan’s own experiences as a land girl in Cheshire during World War II.

Right: Ann’s Alpine Adventure by Mabel Esther Allan Girls Gone By Publishers

As well as possessing an eye for descriptive detail when it came to her settings, Allan’s books almost always included interesting young characters facing a

challenge, whose stories are portrayed in a thoughtprovoking and realistic manner by the author.

Allan continued writing right up to the end of the 1980s, publishing books in her own name as well as under several pen names. She was adept at writing for different age groups, producing stories for young readers right up to older teenagers.

Left: Scottish educationalist AS Neill Zoe Redhead/CC BY-SA2.5

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During the mid-1980s Allan privately published her autobiography, To Be An Author, in the form of two booklets. It is written with great honesty and includes some forthright views on her treatment by publishers in the early days, as well as a more general commentary on her writing career. www.lancmag.com

Mabel Esther Allan died on 14th May 1998 at the age of 83, leaving behind an impressive collection of work. Sadly, today most of her books are no long in print, although in recent years Girls Gone By, a publishing firm set up by two like-minded afficionados of children’s literature, has republished some of them along with the work of many other sought-after children’s writers of that era. For anyone who wants to indulge in a bit of nostalgia and revisit life as it was half a century or so ago, the books of Mabel Esther Allan are well worth a read.

For Mabel Esther Allan titles published by Girls Gone By Publishers, visit www.ggbp.co.uk. www.lancmag.com

Allan’s books almost always included interesting young characters facing a challenge

Right: Land Army poster

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Switch to Sweet Potatoes Sweet potatoes make a tasty alternative to white potatoes and they are very versatile. Unlike white potatoes, sweet potatoes count towards your 5 a day and they are packed with vitamins and fibre to keep you healthy. Sweet potatoes can be mashed, baked, roasted and boiled in the same way as white potatoes. We provide some tips to help you include sweet potatoes in your meals.

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Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip,

by Dr Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK

www.lancmag.com

For a healthy lunch, why not swap your regular baked potato for a baked sweet potato (without butter). Choose a healthy filling, such as vegetarian chilli, tuna, baked beans or cottage cheese and serve with a healthy salad.

Try switching from regular mashed potato to mashed sweet potato.

Alternatively, you could make your mash with 50% white potatoes and 50% sweet potatoes. Instead of adding cream, butter or salt, try adding a splash of milk or low-fat crème fraiche and a pinch of nutmeg before mashing. Mashed sweet potato makes a great topping for shepherd’s pie or fish pie, or you can serve it alongside a roast dinner.

Ditch your deep-fat fryer and switch from chips to sweet potato wedges, baked in the oven. Cut your sweet potatoes into wedges (keep the skins on for extra fibre), toss them in a small amount of oil and add some dried herbs and/or spices, such as Cajun spice mix, cumin or paprika. Roast in the oven for 1520 minutes. Serve with a dollop of reduced calorie crème fraiche.

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Hi, I’m Paul, Your Resident Health Coach...

Paul is a successful and multi-award nominated health coach working for PT Health Coaching, based in Darwen. With over 15 years experience in the field of health, fitness and wellbeing, Paul takes a holistic approach to helping people make positive lifestyle changes.

It’s Time to Talk Mental Health On February the 4th, Time to Change, a social movement working to change the way we all think and act about mental health problems, hosts it’s annual ‘Time To Talk’ campaign, encouraging people to participate in positive discussions around mental health.

2020 has left many of us feeling isolated, stuck, desperate or missing something in our lives. The impact of mental ill health is profound:

• • • • • • •

1 in 4 people experience mental health issues each year.

792 million people are affected by mental health issues worldwide.

At any given time, 1 in 6 working-age adults have symptoms associated with mental ill health.

Mental illness is the second-largest source of burden of disease in England. Mental illnesses are more common, long-lasting and impactful than other health conditions.

Mental ill health is responsible for 72 million working days lost and costs £34.9 billion each year.

The total cost of mental ill health in England is estimated at £105 billion per year.

People with a long-term mental health condition lose their jobs every year at around double the rate of those without a mental health condition.

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Why has a global pandemic impacted on our mental health?

People may have suffered a bereavement, are experiencing isolation due to the restrictions, have endured a loss of income and may feel a general fear of catching the virus. These can all trigger mental health conditions or exacerbate existing ones. Many people may be facing increased levels of alcohol and drug use, insomnia, and anxiety too.

Why is social interaction important?

Even as far back in time as the palaeolithic era, humans gathered in small groups. Due to the constraints of available natural resources, these early communities were not large, but they included enough members to facilitate some degree of security, from outside dangers such as wild animals and to support one another when it came to foraging and hunting food and creating a warm shelter. They were safer and more likely to survive, with the support of others. www.lancmag.com

Fast forward to modern day humans. We all benefit from being able to live with others or speak to other people regularly. Whether you are an introvert or extravert, human interaction is still crucial to survival:

• • • • •

Social isolation significantly increases a person’s risk of premature death from all causes, a risk that may rival those of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity.

Social isolation is associated with about a 50% percent increased risk of dementia.

Poor social relationships (characterised by social isolation or loneliness) are associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke.

Loneliness is associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.

Loneliness among heart failure patients is associated with a nearly 4 times increased risk of death, 68% increased risk of hospitalisation, and 57% increased risk of emergency department visits.

So, it’s quite clear that human interaction is crucial to not only our mental health, but our physical health as well.

The government sanctions have meant that many of us in the Lancashire and the North West have suffered the hardest when it comes to social distancing measures. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. With a new vaccine now being administered, 2021 is looking much more positive, for many. But there are still things we can do everyday to ensure we get enough interaction with others:

•

•

•

Go for a daily walk. A daily walk gets you outdoors, where we are designed to be. Every walk is an opportunity to say ‘hello’ to another person. It is also a good chance to arrange for a family member, friend, or work colleague to join you. Try to mix up where you go and with who. Getting a different perspective on your situation and having an open and honest discussion about how you have coped over the last year will do you the world of good.

Video calls. We are all a bit ‘Zoomed out’ right?

I understand that technology isn’t an ideal way of communication, however, it’s more beneficial than none at all. I have hosted group calls with friends, where we have done quizzes, played games or even just chatted. You can even be inventive and have a meal with someone at the other side of the camera!

Phone calls. A quick call to a different person each day is a great way to check in and break up your day.

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•

Letters, notes, cards. Little tokens such as writing a letter or a card or sending a message can really brighten up someone’s day. Although it may feel like one way, the satisfaction of a kind gesture to another person, will help lift your spirits.

•

In the workplace, consider meeting outdoors for 1 to 1’s or a socially distanced meet in the office if restrictions allow it.

Managers report feeling they get more from their staff when they meet them in person and staff report feeling more valued.

A really important point here is, if you are struggling, ask for help. We don’t seem to find it difficult to ask for help when it comes to physical things, like moving a piece of heavy furniture or looking over a piece of work with a colleague. It should be the same with your mental health too.

More and more people are beginning to feel able to open up and that’s important. The more we discuss our issues, the better placed we will be to deal with them. It takes a stronger person to ask for help, not a weaker one.

Remember the old motto of “it’s good to talk”…. It really is.

For anyone alone or struggling, you can ring the Samaritans at any time, for free on 116 123

Paul

Paul is a Health and wellbeing coach and consultant for individuals and organisations and is Lancashire Magazine’s resident Health Coach. To find out more or to get some support contact him on: Tel: 07495 89298 Email: paul@pthealthcoaching.com

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Alder Hey children’s charity offer their ‘if Ihad just one wish’ thoughts at Southport Pleasureland’s winter opening on Saturday (December 12)

A group of Alder Hey Children’s Charity child ambassadors will help launch Southport Pleasureland’s Christmas experience on Saturday, by each filming their ‘if I had just one wish’ for Christmas.

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Their visit will not only see them and their families enjoy VIP treatment, as well as big wishes for family and friends, it marks the first day of a new partnership with Alder Hey Children’s Charity as the park’s Charity of the Year for 2021.

The park, the region’s ‘Happy HQ’, says its Winter experience, which opens this Saturday (December 12) will ‘bring home Christmas’ surrounded by Covid-19 protection best practice - starting on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th December. The park will

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then open daily from Saturday 19th December until January 3rd 2021 (with the exception of Christmas Day). Gates will open at 11am, with all the rides and fun starting from 12 o’clock midday.

Book online www. southportpleasureland. com/winter-opening/.

And it’s looking a lot like Christmas at the park, with everything from people’s favourite rides to a trip around Santa’s workshop.

Daniel Bell, Katie Countanche and Ben Parry are the first of the charity’s ambassadors to offer their special ‘one’ Christmas wish. The

countdown to Christmas at Pleasureland starts with Daniel Bell’s wish.

Daniel’s one wish? A generous and unselfish wish – for a trolley with gaming equipment for the hospital so that young patients can lose themselves in play and transport themselves through imagined worlds.

Pleasureland will release the charity’s ambassadors wishes on the run up to Christmas – to offer a little inspiration and a lot of hope and joy from these amazing children.

Watch Daniel’s Video at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=51qtmjehL0Q&featur e=youtu.be

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For the first few years of Daniel Bell’s life, he was like any other toddler, happy and full of energy at home in Ormskirk, but doctors soon discovered Daniel had a brain tumour the size of a fist.

was like the bottom had fallen out of my world, our lives changed in a split second. We were told he needed to go to Alder Hey right away and we were blue-lighted to Liverpool,” says Rosalind.

As he turned three, mum Rosalind and dad Colin, noticed a change in Daniel’s behaviour. He wasn’t the same happy go lucky little boy. Rosalind explains: “His personality literally changed. He was grumpy had lots of tantrums, was sick and went back to sleeping in the day too, which was the total opposite of what he was previously.”

Once at Alder Hey, Daniel was taken straight to theatre where Neurosurgeon Ms Sasha Burns drained fluid on his brain during a 3 hour life-saving operation and the next day Daniel’s tumour was removed during a 9 hour operation

by Mr Conor Mallucci.

Thankfully Rosalind recognised some of the symptoms of a brain tumour. Daniel was taken to Ormskirk A&E which quickly realised the severity of the situation and Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

He was rushed straight to Alder Hey which is a centre of excellence for brain conditions. “It

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“Mr Mallucci told us that Daniel had a cystic tumour which was the size of an adult’s fist and there was a possibility of Daniel losing motor and mobility skills as the result of the procedure,” explained Rosalind.

The operation was a success, helped by the use of Alder Hey’s 3-T MRI scanner, a pioneering machine which allows surgeons to scan the brain in theatre which was funded by Alder Hey

Children’s Charity. Alder Hey is the first hospital in Europe to have this kit.

Pleasureland CEO, Norman Wallis, said: “We are thrilled to have Alder Hey Children’s Charity as our charity of the year for 2021. The charity does brilliant work and is focused on helping families stay whole and happy – and we couldn’t wish for a better fit with our own goals – to deliver happy experiences to families. It’s a privilege to welcome some of the charity’s ambassadors and their families at our Winter Wonderland experience on opening day. I’ve watched the ‘just one wish’ video series and it is heart-warming how generous and thoughtful these incredible children are – thinking of others in their wishes. We want to make wishes come true and we want to help everyone have a Happy Christmas – we will do our utmost to support Alder Hey Children’s Charity during what, we hope, will be a much better year.

Anyone who would like to support the charity should visit the donations’ page

https://donate. alderheycharity.org/ public/; Pleasureland’s own donations’ programme will start from January.”

Daniel is now a healthy and very active little boy and also a budding actor. He has performed in Little Shop of Horrors with his local Performing Arts Club and he loves to raise money for Alder Hey Children’s Charity. As a result of his fundraising, Daniel was named a Fundraising Ambassador for Alder Hey Children’s Charity, which made everyone in the Bell family very proud.

Below: Daniel at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and happy, healthy and modelling with TV presenter Scarlett Moffatt in 2018

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Meet the critic!

As a new series for the Lancashire and North West Magazine, Barrister-turned-food-writer Richard Sagar takes us through some of the finest culinary venues our historic county and surrounding areas have to offer. Keep an eye out for Richard’s reviews in each edition as he quite literally eats his way through the North West!

The Game Cock – Austwick, situated on the meeting point of the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales

T

he village of Austwick, situated on the meeting point of the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales, is everything an English village should be. Perfectly maintained village green, quaint cottages, and with the Game Cock, a proper village Inn. In prime hiking country, as you descend into the village this welcoming hostelry

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greets you like an old friend, drawing you in for an embracing pint and a well-earned meal. Albeit that I didn’t quite manage the hike before, I was nonetheless a victim of the Game Cock’s convivial charm and couldn’t resist choosing here as the venue for my most recent review.

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In prime hiking country, as you descend into the village this welcoming hostelry greets you like an old friend

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Despite a number of the appetising starters taking my fancy, I simply had to order the creamy garlic mushrooms

On entering the pub, I found myself in a quite lovely bar area – flush with local hand pulled ales, draft lagers and ciders. There was a homely feel to the room, with an array of dining rooms tailing off throughout the historic building. I was seated at an alcove table with beautiful views over the village green – a lovely setting to study the French themed menu, whilst enjoying the home-baked bread roll the delightful waitress has furnished me with.

Despite a number of the appetising starters taking my fancy, I simply had to order the creamy garlic mushrooms – knowing the chef and owner to be French I was hoping to be taken back to those luscious flavours of summer holidays in Provence, which is exactly what I was reminded of when my starter arrived. A bowl of rich, cream and garlic naughtiness with firm textured mushrooms throughout. Served simply with a side salad of mixed leaves, tomatoes, carrots and pine nuts along with another crusty home-baked bread roll. As simple as it sounds, this was all that was needed to enjoy the perfectly blended flavours – the rich creamy sauce cut by the addition of fresh parsley just before serving and paired with a cold glass of maison de vigneron blanc it truly reconjured those holiday memories. www.lancmag.com

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After finishing this beautiful first course, I noticed a small tent to the front of the pub – well stocked with homemade produce – breads and sweets – an Aladdin’s cave of culinary delights. When I asked the waitress what this was for, she told me about the efforts the pub had gone to throughout the recent Coronavirus-induced lockdown to still support the villagers.

They had baked bread and beautiful plates throughout the lockdown and distributed them amongst the villagers – what a stroke of luck for the locals to have such high class produce on their doorstep during an otherwise dark time.

True to form, for my main course I went for the locally sourced sirloin steak (reared just 3 miles down the road) which arrived adorned with magnificently large and crispy onion rings, perfectly cooked chips and another refreshing side salad.

Interestingly, the steak was served with a Café de Paris butter – which playfully melted over the seared meat as I took in the sight.

As I cut into the steak, I had nothing but admiration for the chef’s cooking of it, which was simply perfect. There is definitely some truth in the idea that some of the best steaks are cooked by French chefs if this was anything to go by. The meat was flavoursome, with a fantastic texture and having been 136

well rested. The flavours of the melted butter complemented the earthy beef fabulously – as did the glass of French grenache noir which was quite delightful.

For pudding, there was a good selection to choose from – all of which were homemade on site. These ranged from French tarts to Eton Mess and crème brulee, but I eventually settled for one of my favourites – sticky toffee pudding and custard. I decided this isn’t for the customer with a smaller appetite as a large wedge of the pudding arrived – served with a separate jug of delicate vanilla custard and elegantly arranged fruit. The pudding was coated in a sumptuous toffee sauce which coated and infiltrated it perfectly – an absolute treat of a sweet!

The afternoon I spent at the Game Cock was definitely one to remember, and it is most certainly somewhere I will visit again when in the area.

To find a country pub in such a beautiful location with such a high class French chef-owner is something one doesn’t fall across often – and with food of this quality it is somewhere I look forward to falling across again in the near future!

The Game Cock Inn The Green, Austwick, Lancaster, LA2 8BB - 015242 51226

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www.lancmag.com

SAIREN Night Flight cocktail An indulgent cherry, plum and violet martini with a beautiful purple hue, for an elegant toast this Valentine’s Day

Ingredients: 50ml SAIREN Dark Stone 10ml Crème de Violette 20ml Lemon juice 10ml Sugarcane syrup 1 egg white

Method: Shake hard without ice, followed by a quick shake with ice. Fine strain into a coupette and garnish with an orchid flower

Recipe supplied by sairenrum.com www.lancmag.com

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Tips for a healthier Christmas Christmas is a time when we can be tempted to overindulge, but it is possible to enjoy the festive period without it impacting on our health and waistline. Wherever you are spending Christmas this year, we can help you make it a healthy and happy one.

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip,

by Dr Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK

Don’t let food become the main focus this Christmas. Instead of spending days in the kitchen baking cakes, biscuits and puddings, why not invest your time in preparing fun games to play on Christmas day, decorating the house, getting in touch with people who are spending Christmas alone or planning a Christmas Day walk.

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www.lancmag.com

Instead of buying gifts that are high in calories, such as chocolates, jams, sweets, biscuits and alcohol, choose non-edible gifts instead.

How about buying the kids things that will get them active, such as a football, skipping rope, skateboard, bike, hula hoop or trampoline.

It can be difficult to avoid the consumerism that has taken over Christmas and you can easily buy too much food and drink for the festive season.

Having too much can encourage overindulgence and lead to unnecessary waste. Try to be realistic about how much people will eat and drink and avoid overdoing it when you are shopping and cooking. This will also help you to save on your shopping bill!

Watch your alcohol consumption at Christmas. It is fine to enjoy a drink, but try not to have too much.

Alcoholic drinks can be high in calories, which can lead to weight-gain. During the Christmas period, it can be tempting to start drinking earlier in the day, which can result in you drinking more. Try to plan in advance how much you will drink and try to stay off the alcohol until later in the day. You can get support with your drinking by visiting the Drinkaware website: www.drinkaware.co.uk/tools/self-assessment

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Try not to spend too long sitting in front of the TV this Christmas. Wrap up warm and head out for a brisk walk to burn off some calories and get your heart rate up. Why not get out in the fresh air with any new outdoor gifts, such as a football, frisbee or bike.

Look after your mental health this Christmas.

Christmas can be a time of stress, anxiety and loneliness for many people. This year, people may struggle more with mental health problems due to the pandemic. Mind provides information and support for people experiencing mental health issues www.mind.org.uk/

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Managing Mucous, Using Herbs to Speed Recovery After Infection Well, here we are, right in the middle of cold and flu season. With frequent concerns over antibiotic use, I’m getting approached more and more by people wanting to take control over their own health and turning to herbal medicine to help them overcome winter infections.

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ntibiotics certainly have their place and in many cases are invaluable. An infection that we can treat easily today might have killed a person, before the miracle of antibiotics was discovered. The year 2020 taught us all too well how dangerous a virus can be. Bacteria and viruses are different, which is why your doctor wont prescribe antibiotics and you can’t get a vaccine for bacterial infections. Their different natures require different approaches. One thing they both share however, is their ability to change, adapt and evolve. This is one of the reasons we are facing an emergence of antibiotic resistant bugs and infections, calling for greater research into ways of managing bacterial infections, research that evolves as quickly as the bacteria can. By prescribing and using antibiotics only when necessary, we can prolong the usefulness of our current medicines, while modern science invests in searching for more.

Antibiotics are not the only tools we have against infection, especially not for the milder, lingering coughs, colds and bugs that plague us over the colder months. There are many things a person can use to protect and support their immune system. Herbs like echinacea have been shown to improve how the body fights infection, which is when many people choose to use it at this time of year, in the hopes it will stop an infection taking root.

Today though, I’d like to talk about what you can do for yourself once you’ve already caught a bug with a focus on one specific symptom and why it’s so important to address it.

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Mucous. The word even sounds horrible.

Whether it’s in your nose, throat or lungs, it’s an awful symptom that can linger long after any initial infection has worn off. I often speak to people that insist they’ve had a chest infection for months. While this is possible, it’s much more likely that they’ve had multiple infections but after each one has been eliminated, the mucous on the lungs has persisted, leaving them run down and exhausted until the next one comes along.

Why is it that antibiotics can kill of an infection but fail to deal with mucous? The reason is that mucous is made by our body, not the bacteria infecting us. Our mucous membranes in the nose and chest become inflamed, an immune response

There are many things a person can use to protect and support their immune system.

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that helps us eliminate the infecting bacteria. This inflammation causes mucous production. Mucous is our weapon of war against infection, helping us kill off and cough up dead bacteria that our body (or antibiotics) are killing off.

In some cases, once the infection has cleared, the mucous lingers. This can irritate the lungs or nasal passages leading to further mucous production, thus entering you into a perpetual mucus forming cycle. This is where herbal medicine can be really useful. Certain herbs can have mucous thinning actions, making it easier for the body to get rid of. Many of these are used in cooking, including garlic, onions, ginger and chilli.

You can put the fresh herbs in hot water to sip through the day or add them to soups, stews, chilli’s and any other culinary dish that takes your fancy.

If you are looking for something stronger, more of a potent medicine that packs a bit more of a medicinal punch, my medicinal herbs of choice include Ivy, Licorice and Thyme. In the shop beneath my clinic, there is a formula created by a herbalist much older than I, a remedy that has existed long before I entered the herbal medicine field. I’m a big believer in the old remedies. New things come and go, falling in and out of fashion, but ones that stand the test of time, those I put my trust in. The remedy is simply named IvyThyme and it is specific to shifting mucous.

The herbs in IvyThyme help to thin mucous, just like chilli or garlic would but they also act as expectorants, meaning they give the lungs a helping hand to haul the mucous off the chest. It starts to work almost immediately, clearing the lungs so the tissues can heal. Once the tissues

have healed the cycle is broken and you can start building yourself back up to full health again.

Thyme is a wonderful lung herb that is powerfully antimicrobial, so if there is any bacteria left causing problems, it can help you fight against it, as well as helping to protect you from the next bug that comes along. Perhaps the best thing about IvyThyme though is that it seems to help relax the airways, meaning that you only cough when bringing up mucous, putting an end to those continuous unproductive coughs that leave you sore and exhausted.

Above: Herbal echinacea tea

If the story of repeated infections and constant coughing sounds familiar, then next time you’re fighting off a cough, turn your attention to the mucous. Antibiotics will kill bacteria and immune herbs like echinacea will help you fight it off yourself, but if the worst culprit is mucous, tackle it directly for a faster, more comfortable recovery.

Nicola Parker MNIMH has a herbal medicine clinic located on the picturesque coast Morecambe Bay where she offers face to face and virtual appointments. For more information on the topics she writes about or to book an appointment, contact her clinic on 01524 413733 or via email at helpmebehealthy@gmail.com.

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The haunted halls of Lancashire W

by Lucy Bullough

hilst Lancashire has been established as a county for some 800 years, this still actually makes it the baby of the bunch when compared to the founding dates of other counties across our nation. But 800 years is still a long time in anyone’s book, and it is certainly long enough to generate myths, legends and the odd ghost story.

Our fair county of Lancashire is home to several places which are said to be haunted and with our rich history, it is certainly easy enough to believe. That’s if you do

believe in ghosts, spirits, spectres, poltergeists and the like. For the more cynical amongst us, these stories can be dismissed as figments of the imagination, folklore and generally a load of auld codswallop. Yet, how can so many people be wrong? How can so many see exactly the same images, in exactly the same place and there not be at least a little truth to it? If you are a serious doubter, we challenge you to read these stories, visit the halls and make up your own mind as to whether you think there’s any truth to them...

Chingle Hall Geograph-3355009-by-Rude-Health

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Chingle Hall

Situated on the outskirts of Preston city centre, near a desirable village setting of Goosnargh, sits one of the most haunted halls in all of Lancashire. Allegedly. Singleton Hall, as it was originally named, was built in 1260 by Adam De Singleton whose family had owned the land since 1066. To start off on the spookiness, the building itself is laid out in the shape of a cross... but there’s more. It was originally surrounded by a moat and accessed by a wooden drawbridge which was later replaced by a brick bridge in the 1500s. The structure supporting the building was made from Norwegian Oak beams which were thought to have come from a Viking longboat which had been wrecked in the area; highly probable given that Goosnargh was one of the areas in which they settled. Furthermore, secrecy was built into the property by the Catholic Singletons with the inclusion of a chapel and two ‘priest holes’. One was in the chimneybreast to hide the priest who would have been giving the illegal Papist masses (an act punishable by death in the 16th century) and the other was in the floor to secrete the accessories such a service would require.

Over the years and as with many houses, ownership, and even its name, changed and it passed through different families. It underwent an extension in 1680 and it is even thought that Oliver Cromwell visited it at the time of the Battle of Preston in 1648. But whether you believe he spied on the Royalists beneath him after having climbed up one of the chimneys is at your own discretion.

Regardless of who has owned it over its lifetime, there have been some strange goings on which have led Chingle Hall to be given this name of one of the most haunted houses in Lancashire. The odd occurrences include one of the Papist mass hides being suddenly revealed hundreds of years after it was last used, as late as 1970. The owner of the house at the time was Mrs Howarth, who saw smoke pouring out of the ceiling of the chapel. Fearing the worst, she called the fire brigade. It was only upon their investigation that the chimney hide was uncovered – it had remained a secret for all these years. The source of the smoke was a log which was mysteriously burning from the inside out…but who set it on fire? Of course, it could have been a random occurrence of spontaneous combustion. Or it could have been other forces at work.

No story of a haunted hall is complete without a story of insanity, where the afflicted was locked away until their untimely death, and Chingle Hall will not disappoint you.

There is a room where ‘mad’ Lady Eleanor de Singleton was kept until she passed into the next realm. She was said to be aged somewhere between 16 and 18 years, and her death came as the result of a difficult childbirth, her pregnancy borne out of abuse from her keepers. Some say she was murdered but however she met her untimely end, the room she resided in apparently smells of lavender and the Afghan hound who was her alleged companion.

Mrs Howarth also told tales of other strange events www.lancmag.com

Left: Oliver Cromwell

that she had witnessed back in her time as owner, and witnessed regularly. This was the story of the monk, or was it two monks? The first would be dressed in a standard brown cowl and once the front door was heard opening and closing, this figure would walk through the lounge calmly and quietly. Mrs Howarth’s dogs would jump up in excitement and wag their tails, all the while accompanying him to the stairs where he continues about his business.

However, on the occasions the unsolicited visitor was dressed in black, the dogs would not move, preferring instead to cow their heads. The brown-clad monk is thought to be the figure of John Wall, who was born in the hall in 1620. At the age of 21, he left for France in order to become a Franciscan priest and when he returned to England, he was found guilty of being a Catholic priest and was hanged, drawn and quartered for this so-called crime. He was buried in Worcester, close to where he was convicted. But there are stories which suggest nuns returned his head to Chingle Hall, burying it somewhere on the grounds and ever since, he has been making his presence known.

Other stories include tales of visitors having their clothes pulled, beams setting on fire but extinguishing themselves, and apparently a mischievous poltergeist moves items in the kitchen too. After having been open to visitors for years, Chingle Hall is currently privately owned and privately kept so only the owners know if any strange goings on still occur.

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Rufford Old Hall

This beautiful building is actually only part of the original structure, as only the Great Hall remains from the original building which was constructed in 1530. It has had additions over the years; a Jacobean-style brick wing was added at a right angle to the Great Hall in 1661 and then another wing was added in the 1820s too.

The various amendments this stunning Tudor building has had only serve to enrich its story, which tells the tale of wealth, romance and Hesketh family for whom it was built.

It is even believed that Shakespeare himself stayed there for a short period in his youth or at least performed there whilst staying with Alexander Hoghton at Lea Hall, near Preston. If you pay a visit to Rufford Old Hall, they will tell you what evidence they have and you can decide for yourself if you think our greatest playwright did pay a visit.

Rufford Old Hall is today a National Trust property and is designated as a Grade I listed building by English Heritage, whilst the cottage, coach house and stables in the grounds are designated as Grade II. In terms of appointments, the Hall is beautifully finished with unique accessories including a wooden screen carved from bog oak. This striking, free-standing piece is actually the only known surviving example of its kind from the early part of the 16th century. A painting of Thomas Hesketh, the Second MP for Preston, hangs over the staircase. It also boasts an impressive collection of arms, armour and 17th-century

Above: Historic Elizabethan mansion of Rufford Old Hall and garden.

Left: Armour, Great hall, Old Rufford Hall

Below: Exterior front view of the National Trust’s Rufford Old Hall

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oak furniture which was donated to the National Trust by Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 1st Baron Hesketh.

But what about the ghosts? A hall as old as this with so much history should surely have some spooky stories too and it does not disappoint. There are as many as three spirits said to reside here, long after their passing, the first of whom is Elizabeth Hesketh, the ‘Gray Lady’, of the original family who owned it. Her tragic soul is captured in anguish as a result of her extreme heartbreak that occurred when her husband was called up to fight. She became ill but vowed not to die until she had the chance to say goodbye, although this was never to be the case and she passed away soon after his departure. Her spirit is thought to still be trying to bid him farewell.

The second ghostly presence is more grandiose than even the Hesketh family, for it is said the spirit of Queen Elizabeth I has made Rufford Old Hall her final resting place. No one knows why she would choose this location in particular, but she is said to be seen only ever in the dining room. When approached by the bolder visitors, she vanishes... could it be a ploy to protect her meal?!

The final ghost is that of a gentleman sporting Elizabethan costume and he is seen near the large fireplace within the Great Hall. It wasn’t until quite recently that a secret priest hide was uncovered here, but are the two related?

It’s unknown, as is the identity of the man himself. Sadly, it does not seem to be Elizabeth Hesketh’s husband which is why she never gets the peace she seeks.

www.lancmag.com

Samlesbury Hall

Another hall close to the city of Preston, Salmesbury Hall sits just six miles east of it. Built back in 1325, it was the main residence of the Southworth family for hundreds of years and was thought to have replaced a previous building destroyed by the Scots in the Great Raid of 1322. It’s had many identities since it was constructed by Gilbert de Southworth, including being home to a girls’ boarding school and even a pub. Today it is registered as charitable trust called Salmesbury Hall Trust and is a Grade I listed manor house of the medieval era, attracting as many as 50,000 visitors each year.

The history, stunning architecture and grounds are what draws many, but there are those amongst us who cannot resist the allure of a ghost story or two. When a building has a ghastly past such as the one seen by Salmesbury Hall, one of murder, executions and suicide, it is no wonder the trust has seen fit to host ghost tours year-round.

If you take one of these tours, you might be lucky (or unlucky?) enough to spot one of the spectres said to reside there. This could be the ‘White Lady’, Dorothy Southworth, who sometimes escapes the grounds and ventures out onto the road nearby, much to the surprise of motorists who are driving there. She died of a broken heart when her elopement with the unworthy neighbour was foiled and her brothers murdered the betrothed couple.

When visiting with long hair, watch out for the resident ladies’ man who likes to stroke it whenever he can.

Above: The grand baronial hall at Samlesbury Hall

Left: A different view of The grand baronial hall at Samlesbury Hall

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You won’t see him of course, but the sensation will be unmistakeable. He is said to have killed himself after his high living plunged him into debt but he clearly isn’t ready to give up his lifestyle just yet! Also see if you can spot the perennial blood stain that was created when a Catholic priest was executed by soldiers during the Reformation; it is said to reappear time after time.

As residents of Lancashire, we should perhaps be alarmed that so many of our famous halls are described as ‘one of the most haunted houses in England’ but in reality, this lends an air of excitement.

The fact that we have so much of the unknown on our doorstep can make for a more interesting Hallowe’en (or average Sunday) and we can excite and delight others by sharing the spooky stories which are found all over. Here, we have focused on just three of the locations said to be haunted but there are many more besides.

If you have a passing interest in the paranormal, or fancy trying to convert a sceptic, we urge you to visit these notorious places. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be one of the few to spot the spectres in their final resting place.

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Wellbeing Lancashire launching campaign to make Lancashire the kindest county in 2021 As Director of Wellbeing Lancashire, I feel it is important to keep you all informed of the progress we are making, the campaigns we are running and the events we have planned.

Lee Chambers

I

Who is Wellbeing Lancashire?

t has been a challenging twelve months, and certainly not what we were expecting a year ago in February 2020. Seeing these challenges first hand in my work with organisations and individuals, a group of wellbeing providers and facilitators came together under Boost Lancashire’s Ask For Help campaign.

This meeting of minds soon morphed into a collective aiming to make a true difference to health and happiness in the county, both through the challenges of the pandemic and looking out to the future. Wellbeing Lancashire was formed to create a framework that gives a foundation for wellbeing providers across the county to work together, share

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best practice and make a lasting impact.

In this mission, Wellbeing Lancashire is not alone. We have support from both of Lancashire’s universities, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and from local government. We are also assisted by a number of third sector organisations, an NHS trust and a number of local business and business organisations. Together we can shape the future of Lancashire’s wellbeing landscape to make health and wellbeing a priority for the county.

Wellbeing Lancashire is based at the Wellbeing Farm, an amazing venue in Edgeworth, Bolton, and also uses the wonderful space at the Health Innovation Campus at Lancaster University. www.lancmag.com

Of his support of Wellbeing Lancashire, Steve Fogg commented, “There is an inescapable link between our health and the economy. In Lancashire the inequality of health has created a gap with the rest of the UK that must be levelled. I believe that what Wellbeing Lancashire are looking to achieve; and their collaborative ethos is engaging and will help provide a platform to fuel our local economy’s recovery.”

What have Wellbeing Lancashire done so far?

Wellbeing Lancashire held its first roundtable event in September 2020, to help shape the mission and ensure they were not replicating any great work that was already taking place. The attendees included leaders from Lancashire’s influential public and private organisations, and it was identified that an aligned wellbeing strategy for the county would benefit all individuals, communities and businesses.

From this roundtable came their membership launch event, designed to encourage Lancashire’s best wellbeing providers to come together under one umbrella to deliver the highest quality wellbeing as part of a wider strategy. This highlighted the benefits of membership as well as outlining the vision for the future as Lancashire headed toward the City of Culture bid in 2025.

Wellbeing Lancashire are partnered with the NHS Connect My Community scheme, delivering talks within the community on a number of wellbeing issues, from suicide and eating disorders, to male mental health and community health. They also create a Wellbeing Calendar every month, as well as living well guides for people to download.

In addition to this, they have also launched a wellbeing strategy and delivery service for organisations, who can use their budget to access services from all of Wellbeing Lancashire’s members as part of a wellbeing package, which is designed with your business and wellbeing challenges in mind. All practitioners and facilitators are accredited, qualified and insured, meaning no

additional compliance, and we remove the need to search and book venues, trainers and delivery. It is a valuable and simple way to get bespoke wellbeing for your business that is made and measured for you and your employees.

Wellbeing Lancashire has also become a cornerstone employer as part of the careers service, with many of the members assisting the local careers service and schools in Lancashire with both the wellbeing of staff and students, as well as potential future career pathways in the field of health and wellness.

What are Wellbeing Lancashire’s future plans?

Wellbeing Lancashire has set an ambitious mission of making Lancashire the kindest county.

But what does making Lancashire the kindest county actually mean?

A recent Coronavirus and the Social Impacts on Great Britain survey, found that most people think we will be united and kind following our recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic (57% and 67% respectively), but only 22% thought we would be an equal society (source: Office for National Statistics, May 2020). Wellbeing Lancashire will build on this kindness trend with a calendar of events that will support the mission ‘to make Lancashire the kindest county’ and also ‘to make 2021 the kindest year yet’.

The Wellbeing Lancashire Kindest mission was launched back in November with a behaviour and value attached to each letter of the acronym.

Kindness – this principle underpins everything and since Coronavirus, attitudes to kindness have increased since the pandemic hit. Findings show that the average monthly searches for ‘acts of kindness’ are 4400 in 2020, compared with 2900 in 2019. Meanwhile, the search term ‘random acts of kindness’ has more than tripled since last year.

We want individuals, communities and organisations to attempt to make Lancashire an even better place by promoting good deeds and pledging acts of kindness.

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Individual – essential to life is self-care and looking after your own health is critical. We want health improvement to be an essential component of our mission.

Non-judgemental – we want to erase judgemental attitudes in the county towards sexual preference, religion, ageism, sexism, race and disability.

Doing the right thing – we want to create a county where integrity is a core value by all.

Empathic – Empathy allows people to build social connections with others. By understanding what people are thinking and feeling, people can respond appropriately in social situations. Research has shown that having social connections is important for both physical and psychological well-being.

have a calendar of events, including roundtable discussions of pertinent topics, a wellbeing market and wellbeing champion training events.

Our wellbeing has never been so important, and Wellbeing Lancashire is on a mission to bring wellbeing that works to all corners of Lancashire.

Societal – the whole mission for Wellbeing Lancashire is to create a kinder and more empathetic society where people value, support and get involved in their local communities and neighbourhoods.

To find out more about Wellbeing Lancashire, events you can take part in, and how we can help you, visit https://wellbeinglancashire.org.uk or email team@wellbeinglancashire.org.uk.

Trusted - this is the value which underpins all the above factors and is at the heart of Lancashire becoming the kindest county. It’s about erasing silo working amongst organisations, where people stop falling through the gaps and everyone works together for a more integrated approach.

Wellbeing Lancashire has engaged individuals, communities and businesses with its KINDEST mission. It underpins all the work and projects they are currently undertaking. They currently 148

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Above: wellbeinglancashireroundtable

Lee Chambers MSc MBPsS is our resident psychologist and founder of Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing. As a director of Wellbeing Lancashire, he will be keeping us updated with the work they are doing across the region. Have a question or topic you would like Lee to cover in a future issue?

Email him on info@leechambers.org and he will include you where possible.

www.lancmag.com

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www.watkinjoneshomes.com Prices correct at time of going to press. Images are of typical Watkin Jones interiors and are for illustrative purposes only.

Buyers set sights on Clitheroe homes post-lockdown HOMES at Redrow’s Oak Leigh Gardens are meeting buyers’ changing requirements with 70% more sales during the last six months than the same period last year.

Oak Leigh Gardens

When the initial national lockdown eased earlier this year, the development, on Whalley Road, saw an influx of prospective buyers in search of a home that would give them everything they need.

Sian Pitt, sales director for Redrow Lancashire said: “The pent-up demand for homes meant that we had lots of interest at developments across Lancashire however Oak Leigh Gardens has seen a huge surge in the number of sales between May and November when comparing it to the same period in 2019.

“In a survey we conducted with buyer’s post-lockdown, we asked whether they were reassessing how they wanted to use space in their home and what features they wanted in their next home.

“The results showed that, across the North West, the most important factors to buyers were for their homes to have larger kitchens and private outdoor space.”

Oak Leigh Gardens has fantastic choice for buyers thanks to two distinct new homes

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collections that include a number of three and four-bedroom homes. All homes also come with their own private gardens and open-plan kitchen and dining areas.

“Oak Leigh Gardens ticks all the boxes when it comes to what buyers want from their homes and the development quite literally has something for everyone so I think this has been one of the main attractions for buyers,” adds Sian.

While the Heritage Collection offers traditional Arts and Crafts inspired architecture with period style features, the Harwood range provides streamlined, smart exteriors, finished in stone, for those who prefer a more contemporary look.

Both collections offer up to the minute interiors designed for modern lifestyles.

Nestled between Pendle Hill and the Forest of Bowland, in the sought-after Ribble Valley, Oak Leigh Gardens’ rural location has also proved to be an attractive selling point, especially as it’s so well connected.

Sian continues: “Our survey also showed

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that being close to green open space is an important community feature for buyers and Oak Leigh Gardens is surrounded by this including being less than 10 minutes away from the start of the Pendle Hill Circular Walk.”

Situated just off the main A59 Preston Road, the homes are close to the M6; Clitheroe is less than three miles away and places like Blackburn, Burnley, Preston and even Manchester are all easily reached.

Closer to home, there’s an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ rated primary school just a short walk away, and two ‘outstanding’ rated senior schools within a couple of miles.

To find your dream home at Oak Leigh Gardens visit www.redrow. co.uk/oakleigh or call 01254 865167 to arrange an appointment with Redrow’s sales team. www.lancmag.com

A catch up with Peter Rutt Our monthly coloumn by Peter Rutt.

P

art 1 of 3. Regular readers will know I love weird and wacky stories, even if they are not true.

So imagine my pleasure when I came across the sensation of alleged time slips in Liverpool.

Various people claim they slipped back in time, usually to the 1950’s or 1960’s. One claimed he slipped back to early 1900’s. He said as he walked down Bold Street the sky went very dark and what had been that year in the decade of the 1990’s changed to early 1900’s judging by the fashion he spied. Also the shops were old fashioned. Gone were the modern day stores as were modern day cars, replaced by horse drawn carriages. There was air there was sound and if he felt more confident f I asked you what environmental he would have interacted with a person. sustainability meant, would you Imagine whipping out your smartphone have a good logical to show someone fromanswer? the earlyThere 1900’s! is apparently a movement has Or go a step further and takethat photos been increasing in the background or film what you see. What would your who phonepredict record?great change. They say an agenda after an agreement There is the story of a man who in 1992 at the United Nations walked near to Bold Street and he brought to theafore andwas these alleges as this he turned corner, two words apparently have been faced with a dead end. An old wall bandied local councils that wasn’tabout therein theour previous day had now to buy rural land.

Whereby suddenly appeared. Like the previous housing projects mentioned to man he said the skyare became suddenly be created on this land, Agenda darker prior to this obstacle being there.

21 they are called, say the land He as even touched the construction and is being bought for environmental it was solid. Confused, he headed back sustainability.

In other words we as a the way he came. species are destroying our planet.

Most of the stories centre on a So we have to be stopped or controlled period of 1993-1997 apart from the or group They say the oneeven in theboth. next The paragraph. may core message is a six pronged well be Urban Tales and tall onesattack at on to reduce the world that.mankind But it is thought provoking.

But population byparticular at least half

by Ithe there are three stories will centre2050. on. Really? year This one occurred in 2006 These sixallegedly things they say are when a lad calledout Sean he moving people of admitted rural locations shoplifted item and of to thebe into cities,anfreeing upran theout land shop pursued by agovernment.

Security Guard.

As owned by local These Sean got to a corner (and the sky went cities are to become super cities dark) he turned and carried on running or mega cities where eventually but when he looked back he noticed everybody will live apparently and

I

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depend upon the state. Another snippet they say is you will not be able to decide where you live because large swathes of land will be out of bounds. Therefore we will be forced to live in these mega cities allowing the environment to flourish without us destroying it. Really?

Genetically Modified (GM) food to be the only food source that contains a strain that diminishes the male sperm count to almost nothing and women become sterile too so all his pursuer washave nowhere to benaturally seen. couples can’t children Relieved, he stopped and took in or via other ways. Oh come onhis now! surroundings. Everybody was wearing Viruses wipe out large swathes of clothes from the 1960’s and cars were the world population.

Covid they old fashioned from this era.

Starting say is just the start of it. to worry he brought out his modern Radiation another killer.noAnd it mobile phone,isbut it displayed goes on about how bad willthebestore for signal. As he walked back it past the next generation etc. he robbed he noticed it wasn’t the one he African entered earlier.

As hewas looked ahead migration apparently he could see the modern world. planned and governments areWhen fully he tookofa look behindofhim was still aware the need theitinflux therelease 1960’s. more Frightened his experience to land by in Africa. he caught a (modern) bus to get away.

The description told by the secret The Security Guard that chased him traffickers (because it is free now) asserted that he was only a few paces to those on the boats is they are behind the thief but as he got to that fleeing oppression.

More people corner, the lad had vanished.

He was congregated in a smaller space. bemused by this.

Conspiracy theory?

Personally, I think people are fed up with this virus and any other that crops up in the future. We still have influenza, that never went away but we learned to live with it. Other diseases have come and they are still there somewhere, like plague.

The Agenda 21 people risk credibility if they are wrong. As a reader, would you allow that to happen to you and your loved ones?

Of course not.

The other two stories appear in I didedition read and plenty of it to May’s and aview plausible answer and came to the conclusion that the the conundrum. But going back to an populous en masse will not allow earlier point, which is of interaction, these people erode their I pondered onto this.

If you talkway to of life irrevocably.

Some may say someone from a long ago era andthe virus has them already done that. Butcourse as influence to take a different atospecies we are more resilient than one they historically did take, would that. that have ramifications on the here and now? if you want collecttoanlive item YesAlso we don’t in from a the 1950’s, does it travel with you back controlled state in a strict regime to the present day? but it appears this group think we will. I disagree. New World order is now old hat but environmental sustainability are the cosy new buzz words apparently. Yes change is inevitable but only if it is beneficial and fair to all.

LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 151

Welcome to The Avenues an exclusive brand new development by Watkin Jones Homes

T

his winter sees the first sales release for The Avenues, providing a range of 2,3,4 and 5 bedroomed homes off Sandy Gate Lane, Broughton. The development will appeal to first time buyers, professionals and families with wide, tree lined streets, flanked by stunning family homes making The Avenues a wonderful place to call home.

A truly unique development, The Avenues combines sustainability and a respect for the natural surroundings at the core of its design. The range of properties are designed to be sympathetic with its rural location, combining traditional detailing and materials with the benefits of modern construction techniques.

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Special consideration has been given to green open spaces, helping to provide a more peaceful and tranquil environment for homeowners to enjoy and wildlife to benefit.

The landscaping will form a cohesive relationship with the surroundings, including the retention and improvement of ponds, hedges and trees. There is also a large public open space to allow the community to come together and enjoy collectively.

The development comprises of a range of properties - from affordable starter homes for those looking to get onto the property ladder, to three and four bedroom family homes for those looking to move up, through to our luxury five bedroomed executive homes - The Avenues really does provide something for everyone.

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www.lancmag.com

Internal images are typical of a Watkin Jones home www.lancmag.com

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The Guild Wheel, Preston’s cycling hub runs around the perimeter of the site and new cycle paths will form part of the scheme and link into the existing routes.

The site is also only a few minutes away from Broughton roundabout, providing easy access to the M55 and M6.

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Two stunning show homes are scheduled to open in late Spring 2021

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Whilst new to the Preston area, Watkin Jones Homes are no newcomer to the property development market. The company are part of the Watkin Jones Group, one of the UK’s leading construction and development companies, building homes acclaimed for their quality, style and innovation.

Their residential property

portfolio, ranging from executive and family homes to contemporary apartments is designed to reflect modern lifestyles.

Two stunning show homes are scheduled to open in late Spring 2021. The Rostherne and The Prestbury are two of our four bedroomed detached family homes, www.lancmag.com

each will be finished to the highest standard and designed to provide the practical space perfect for modern family lifestyles.

Phase one of The Avenues is now released for sale with reservations already taken. Early bird reservations also assist you in securing www.lancmag.com

later plots – please speak with the Sales Advisor for full details.

The Marketing Suite on site, is now open and visits to the site are available, but strictly by appointment only and in-line with current Covid 19 guidelines.

For more information about The Avenues or to book an appointment please speak to our Sales Advisor, Pauline, by telephoning 07917 206813, visiting our website or email avenues@watkinjones.com.

LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 155

Denise Mullen is a journalist, writer and entrepreneur. She is chair of www.ladiesofacertainageassassinsclub.com: ‘Life in the Crosshairs’, an online gentlemen’s club for ladies - which also welcomes gentlemen. The Club, which is free to join and launches later this year, is for discerning 40+s who love a spot of wit and repartee and find themselves just a little bit bored with Instagram fakery and Facebook fluff.

That moment when (rummaging in crammed rucksack) he announces – ‘I’ve forgotten to pack any clothes’

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e’d arrived at Poshly Towers for our annual trip to the Lake District with my mother in law. Himself is hefting the bags from the car, I’m sent in to register.

We have reservations at this beautiful historic inn, there’s an autumnal fire roaring in the grate and warm welcome shimmering across a beaten copper bar and impressive collection of single malts. The smiling receptionist tells me, with huge delight, that we – and my 90-year-old mother in law - have adjoining rooms. It’s a little treat they’ve managed to pull out of the bag for us and the receptionist is, well ‘thrilled’ is the only word that comes to mind.

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A bit of brisk bargaining at reception is well underway by the time my husband appears with his mother’s huge case in one hand – we’re staying one night - and our big hairy hound on a lead on the other. By this stage my whispered pleadings with the receptionist are turning into hisses.

Reception man cannot see the problem.

I cannot see the upside. There are no more rooms at the inn.

Husband reappears from a second trip to the car, this time with his tiny rucksack and my little wheelie overnight case. He has bought me around seven ‘practical’ black rucksacks over the years which I loathe and I get the same lecture www.lancmag.com

every time about how much better things are organised in something you put your arms through to move around.

He’s a mountaineer, so consequently when he comes to any luxury hotel he travels light. Inside his baggage, something the size of a light evening clutch bag – but with many zipped pouches - will be: 1.

Hairy socks

2.

Some unfathomable multi-tool knife thing

3.

Spare fleece

4.

Spare gloves

5.

Carabiners (clippy things for climbers’ ropes)

6.

A bivouac bag (sort of bin liner for sleeping in on mountains) irrespective of the hotel bed linen’s compelling Egyptian thread-count

7.

Tooth-brushing accoutrement

8.

Hopefully some dress shoes

9.

Hopefully a clean shirt (and undies)

10. Hopefully some trousers without 400 pockets 11. Hopefully some socks that will fit inside the dress shoes 12. Possibly an emergency camping stove My mum in law is by now being escorted through the hotel to her room by number one son to freshen up before a small G&T – lemon, no ice – before dinner.

I give reception man my final shot. Is there anything at all? Bridal suite, twin bedded room? No. We have the last dog-friendly room. I slouch off somewhat defeated to inform the husband of the brilliant news about the accommodation.

Now - I adore my mother in law. On this occasion what I adored more was knowing she would go to bed before we did – and would remove both hearing aids.

One soldiers on I think to myself as he and I and the dog make a start on a pre-freshen up G&T – just because we feel like it. The dog has a couple of little nibbly biscuits specially reserved for canine guests. She has hers under the table.

She’ll freshen up later too. www.lancmag.com

The senior in our party calls down to be escorted to the bar. We set her up with her drink and she gives her son a cursory glance. ‘I hope you’ve brought a nice shirt’ she says.

‘I’m not a child you know, I can pack a shirt’ he says sniffily.

We leave her with a copy of The Telegraph and nip upstairs to change. The dog has one of her ‘eveningware’ bandanas for her collar. I’m in black jeans and a spangly top. My husband is still rummaging through the tiny purse he’s packed everything into.

If only we could draw a veil over what happened next. He digs into his bag and announces, ‘I’ve forgotten to pack any clothes’, pulling out a pair of flip flops.

So what the hell IS in there? And what is he going to wear for the Poshly Towers a-la-carte?

Then he adds ‘And I’ve got a really big hole in this teeshirt,’ unzipping his fleece to show a ragged hole over his furry belly.

He appears to have been shot, or at the least, have inherited the teeshirt from a shooting victim.

I do a quick search to see if there’s a sewing kit in the room. No. Then I try to see if we can score a teeshirt with the name of the hotel on it. Hotels do sometimes have something like that if they’ve got a microbrewery on site, and this one does (they’ve sold out).

He flatly refuses to wear my black top. It is a little low cut and does have long tails, but they could be tucked out of harm’s way.

And I’d be ok in what I’ve travelled in. It’s still a ‘no’.

Last resort. I colour in the pink skin directly behind the hole with black eyeliner.

Wasn’t my proudest moment.

I instruct him not to raise his arms on any account. He is in flip flops (otherwise it’s mountain boots), many-pocketed trousers that zip into shorts and possibly speedos as you progress up the zip ‘ladder’. Then there’s the teeshirt. His mother is horrified. She turns on me. ‘YOU’, she says ‘What were you thinking?’

Whatever I had been thinking I’m now fully engaged with wondering if I brought make up remover. That Egyptian cotton may never recover if he decides to sleep on his belly.

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The life of Di A monthly column by Di Wade, the author of ‘A Year In Verse’

Not sure if Covid is making me doolally, or just properly appreciative of what’s around me. However, I found myself getting wildly excited about a marigold and snapdragon in the garden t’other day. They weren’t even doing owt fancy either, (Saturday or not, there was no American-smoothing about the place to the tune of a 4 from Craig), they were just alive when I’d expected everything in the garden to be dead at this time of year – which seemed enough.

But then the past month alone, I seem to have had a significantly heightened consciousness of everything, good, bad, and downright ridiculous: With Halloween came an email from a friend awaiting vital cancer treatment.

She’d just received four letters, three advising her to report for a scan to a particular hospital at a particular time, (and why’d she need three, there were nowt wrong with her brain), and the fourth advising her to report somewhere completely different on a different day entirely: All of which confusion she was going to have to sort out for herself, just what you needed when you were scared witless with your emotions in bits.

Was still fuming on her behalf when another friend texted to report STILL waiting for Boris to deliver his latest statement - which she now reckoned was owing to his being off carving his pumpkin somewhere – which caused me promptly to burst out laughing, and receive a timely reminder of the power of humour.

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Next, I was stunned to find myself in the middle of a card and gift storm.

Well it WAS my birthday – only when you’re about 199, (stopped counting years ago), and there’s kind of a global pandemic going on, you don’t tend to expect much. Turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong in this however. My parents sent me flowers, wine and chocolate, a friend all the way in Cambridgeshire, and knowing my weird penchant for such things, had sent an ornament resembling Fleetwood Lighthouse, which lit up like a constantly changing Christmas tree and friends from all over town arrived unseen and left gifts outside my house: It was a bit like the visit of Santa – only without the sleigh, or all that mucking about up the chimney. Altogether extraordinary day. One friend had left balloons, which I thought I’d fully retrieved - till my dad later arrived with a couple more, which had apparently been making a bid for freedom out of the front gate.

Next up, I was fairly riveted by the ATP Tour Finals at the O2. I always enjoy this event, (well let’s face it, I enjoy most things involving high quality sport), but I’ve never known so many tight matches at this season-ending tournament. The only dent to my elation came when I found myself having to listen to one match online as 5-live Sports Extra was covering the rugby league, (which was fine), and 5-live itself preferred to prattle on about football for three hours, (which definitely wasn’t). One could often be forgiven for thinking football

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was the only sport we played over here, (and sports presenters DO increasingly like to talk – with knobs on), but when the inanest football prattle was deemed more compelling than live action involving the world’s top eight tennis players competing on our own soil, one felt justified in being thoroughly incensed.

Along the way, I found myself incredulous at an apparent furore over a soap storyline. I don’t watch the soaps, but it seemed some Emmerdale character was less than wild at the prospect of giving birth to a disabled child. And why should she be?

Personally, I took my kiss-me-quick off to the writers for not coating the subject in saccharine, and having it that disability was all loveliness, lovability, something everyone must want to embrace, and a bunch of ills conquered by love. More to the point however, it was a story, not real, not gospel, made up – and since when had all works of fiction to resemble Enid Blyton? Truly, when had we become such snowflakes?

But speaking of snowflakes, now, on a midnight clear, on 10 December, my hall’s long since decked, (to within an inch of its life), and I’m bloodymindedly holding out for the mother of all winter wonderlands. Well only a few weeks back, autumn was awesome, so why not, in this year of raging extremes – wherein a stonking great fairy-tale ending seems only appropriate?

Happy New Year! www.lancmag.com

Land Rover Young Off Roader Young Off-Roader is the new junior Land Rover Experience programme for 11 to 17 year olds.

Now it's the kids' turn to get into the driving seat! They will learn to drive off-road on our specially designed driving assault course, and have fun tackling slopes, negotiating obstacles and driving through deep water.They will be driving a brand new, dual-controlled Range Rover Evoque, with tuition from a specialist Land Rover instructor. They'll learn a lot, increase their knowledge and confidence, impress their friends and have fun!

On arrival at the Experience Centre the junior drivers will meet their instructor, receive a short briefing followed by an introduction to the Range Rover Evoque. Once behind the wheel, the junior drivers will be taught how to control the car in a safe and professional manner before heading onto the course to be guided around our terrain and obstacles. These include mud-ruts, side-slopes, a parking challenge and deep water driving.

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“We’ve had situations where customers have bought a suite in the morning and had it in their home by the afternoon,”

Come and shop in peace at Vine Mill Furniture’s showroom Accrington’s Vine Mill furniture gives the big retailers a run for their money with its huge collection, top discounts and relaxed shopping experience.

C

ome and experience this unique way of shopping, you wont be disappointed. Mark Gerrard sales manager at Vine Mill, said “Several customers have commented on their relief at having only a couple of sales staff on our floor to advise them.

“When they’ve gone to other stores there have been seven or eight people on the floor, which can make them feel uneasy.”

And so far, this ‘no pressure’ approach to customer service has proved successful for the family-run company. Instead of an intimidating sales presence, when you pop into the Brookside Street store, in Accrington, you’ll find a friendly and relaxed service and will be left alone to browse the extensive collection.

The grand showroom is 40,000 sq ft, across two floors, displaying a great selection of sofas, three-piece suites, beds, and much more. The stunning furniture shop is also home to some unique pieces that will add that special something to your house.

The store regularly stocks unusual pieces, from glasswork to woodwork, all inspired by the owners trips abroad.

“We’re not like the standard stores you see on retail parks,” said Mark. “There’s lots of unusual pieces and carved antiquities mixed in with the more contemporary displays and this is what really sets us apart.”

The company can also offer a bespoke range through their company Chesterfield Britannia. Surely one of the most 160

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recognisable, classic and luxurious pieces of furniture that anyone can purchase is the Chesterfield suite. This is also a fabulous opportunity if you are struggling to find a suite to fit in to a small space or you even require a suite for a much larger area, as each suite can be made to your exact measurements. In store you can view up to fifty different Chesterfield suites. Plus with a choice of almost a thousand different leathers to choose from, the choice is endless and you can literally customise your suite to suit your choice, size and taste. Where else can you find such a customised opportunity, certainly not on the High Street or at the large retail parks, where large sales team follow your every move? Vine Mill Furniture is proud of their sister company Chesterfield Britannia as they know they can offer something you will not find anywhere else.

Bedrooms are also catered for at Vine Mill Furniture, with a wide selection of wardrobes, bedside cabinets and dressing tables to update any bedroom and provide a luxurious French elegant style to your boudoir. The range includes various styles of wardrobes too, whether you want a combination wardrobe or a number of various styles, Vine Mill Furniture have it all waiting for you to peruse at your leisure. However there is plenty more that you will find in Vine Mill Furniture who also sells numerous bespoke beds for you to choose from.

That’s not all, As a wholesaler to the big retailers Vine Mill www.lancmag.com

Furniture can pass on these discounted prices to its customersmeaning buyers can save an impressive 30 to 40 percent off the retail price. They also offer a 24-hour delivery service, what more could you ask for.

“We’ve had situations where customers have bought a suite in the morning and had it in their home by the afternoon,” explained Mark.

“Whatever you see in store, Vine Mill will deliver within 24 hours.”

Check out the collections at Vine Mill Furniture, Brookside Street, Oswaldtwistle, BB5 3PX. For more information visit www.vinemillfurniture.co.uk or call 01254 399906.

Facebook and Feebo 5 Star Rating.

Flexible payment plans to suit all budgets, available on home buy packages.

When you have paid for each item ... your order will be delivered in 24hrs.

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Classic Bohemian

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SHEIN signs Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and Stefflon Don for debut global virtual run-way show Global online fashion retailer SHEIN announced the brand’s first ever virtual catwalk show, featuring a stellar line up of performances from Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora, Stefflon Don and Shy’m.

The #WalkYourWonderful show, streamed via SHEIN APP and showcased the brand’s top 5 Autumn/Winter 2020 collection which was packed with retro prints, Renaissance fabrics and boho shapes. The event will also debuted SHEIN’s latest and hotly anticipated Premium range which launched earlier this year to critical acclaim.

Classic Bohemian

Urban

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As well as performances from the music industry’s most talked about acts, SHEIN was joined by fashion influencers from all over the world, who was challenged with showcasing their own ‘walk’ wearing their favorite SHEIN pieces. UK influencers participated #WalkYourWonderful virtual fashion show included Lauren Pope, Georgia Toffolo Yewande Biala, Malin Andersson, Demi Jones Jourdan Riane and Amy Neville, In a bid to celebrate inclusivity and diversity, and empower women from across the world, SHEIN fans were encouraged to join in the fun by posting their own walk to social media using # WalkYourWonderful Following the show, the new collection will be available to buy on the SHEIN website, with £1 from every item sold being donated to the event’s charity partners Dress for Success and Pink Ribbon.

The #WalkYourWonderful runway show launched on Saturday 19th September 2020 at 18:00 U.K time, exclusively on the SHEIN App About Shein Launched in 2008, SHEIN delivers affordable and fashion forward women’s, men’s, and Amy Neville

Jourdan Riane

children’s clothing beauty and homeware to over 22 0 countries around the world.

With a mission for everyone to enjoy the beauty of fashion, SHEIN stays on top of the latest worldwide fashion trends whilst maintaining high company values, excellent production standards and industry leading working conditions.

A proud part of the community, SHEIN has raised over £220,000 for Cancer Research UK since June 2019, sponsored Graduate Fashion Week in 2019 and this year donated 150,000 protective masks to Royal Mail staff and various UK care homes clinics to support the COVID 19 response.

About Dress for Success Dress for Success is a global not-for-profit organisation that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and personal development tools. www.dressforsuccess.org About Pink Ribbon The Pink Ribbon Foundation is a grant making trust with a mission to fund projects and provide financial support to UK charities which relieve the needs of people who are suffering from, have been affected by breast ca ncer, or who work to advance the understanding of breast cancer and its early detection and treatment. www.pinkribbonfoundation.org.uk

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Georgia Toffolo

Malin Andersson

Demi Jones

Retro Vogue

SHEIN Premium SHOT IN SHANGHAI

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Lockdown no Hurdle for Skincare “Milkman” of Morecambe

W

ith hindsight, setting up a new business just before an international pandemic might not have been the greatest timing. But for Bolton le Sands barber turned skincare entrepreneur Ben D’Alton, it’s been a real local success story across twelve months of hard work.

Inspired by wife Fiona’s reactive eczema, Ben started cooking up natural hair and skincare products in his home kitchen for her. After a few burnt-pan disasters, they came up with a range of skin-friendly, all-natural cleansing and moisturising bars.

When customers at the barbers started requesting more shampoo bars than haircuts, Ben realised there was a real demand for additivefree, natural products, sustainably sourced and in minimal packaging.

“I’ve always believed that quality, eco-friendly products should be a choice that everyone has, not just those that may have the means of being able to afford it” explains a clearly passionate Ben. “Local people should have access to quality, sustainable products that don’t cost the earth, either for their pocket, or their environment.”

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scheme for his household cleaning products and added a range of accessories, including bamboo earbuds and sustainable toothbrushes.

Still handmade, production has had to move from the family kitchen to a customised unit in Heysham, to the relief of Fiona! In second lockdown, Ben is again focussing on positive solutions for local people, trialling click and collect from the unit, and a doorstep delivery exchange system for their refillable glass bottles.

The Solid Shampoo Bar

Named ‘Shoreline Skincare’ to reflect their handmade Morecambe Bay ethos, Ben’s next surprise was reaching the finals of the prestigious Natural Health Beauty Awards, which will be judged early next year.

“During lockdown, closing the barbers was, of course, really scary.

But I put my motivation into finding out what our customers needed in our skincare product range instead” In a whirlwind twelve months, Ben has expanded the range from the original popular shampoo and bodywash bar to seven skin-kind products, created a nowaste, no-plastic glass bottle refill and return

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Ben D’Alton at work

“Local people should have access to quality, sustainable products that don’t cost the earth, either for their pocket, or their environment.”

“It’s proven good hygiene and self-care promotes mental health and wellbeing, vital for us all during lockdown and coming out the other side. In an incredible year, I’ve loved the challenge of finding inventive ways to develop and deliver a little comfort and calm to local people. If that means becoming the skincare ‘milkman’ of Morecambe, bring it on!”

Ben D’Alton’s Shoreline Skincare are natural skincare solutions handmade and available by post, or collection from Unit 1, Major Industrial Estate, Middleton Road, Heysham, LA3 3NT. www.shorelineskincare.co.uk

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Sometimes, It’s Like The Pieces Of A Jigsaw A ‘Regional’ approach was adopted to tackle the Covid-19 second wave.

Lancashire’s businesses and residents struggled on having been placed under ‘Tier 3 Restrictions’. The numbers rose. Peaked. Then began to fall.

Lancashire wasn’t the only region suffering from the second wave and those others were experiencing the same pattern; numbers rise, peak then they began to fall. This was happening in the north of England.

Then, despite the falling numbers and the obvious success of the Regional approach, England was placed into a second Lockdown. The numbers were increasing in the midlands and south of the country.

My question was “what happened to the ‘Regional’ approach?”. I was angry at what I felt was the unfairness.

Lancaster’s figures were particularly good compared to most of the other towns in the county. My business closed for a second time.

So, four weeks of what, lay ahead for me. The weather this time is rubbish. Dark, overcast, and, for the most part, wet.

Many businesses were talking ‘Click & Collect’. I don’t sell online. I don’t sell online because I love the personal interaction; the advising; the altering. I don’t want to sell online. I guess that makes me a bad businessman because I’d probably make more money if I sold online. Maybe even rich.

Yet, I love what I do because of the way I do. ‘Call & Collect’.

How would that work ? Load images on the Facebook page.

Get a business mobile phone. A personal shopping service.

Customers call, tell me what they are after, and whilst talking to them, I’ll send them images of the products. Then they can either collect OR I can deliver. Ticks most of the boxes for me!

So that’s what I did. It kept me busy and I have done a reasonable number of sales. Nothing like I would normally, but I accepted that I would take nothing, so something was better than nothing. My purpose was restored.

Now, that was the idea I had in the first couple of days for my business. I have great relationships with many of the cities businesses. They were all sharing the same worries about the effect this Lockdown was going to have on Christmas trade.

Trade they heavily rely on to get them through the quiet months of January and February.

Whilst scrolling through my personal Facebook feed, I stopped on one of my friends’ daily humorous posts. I can’t tell you what the post said, but two words sort of jumped out at me – totally and local. It’s strange how random pieces of a puzzle can come together.

Lockdown. Businesses closed. Business owners worried.

Christmas trade. AMAZON! Rewind a few months. My good friend Bruno Buccelli, yes you will have read about him in a previous edition, is a fountain of idea’s. We’ve sat in Buccelli’s and talked about what we would like to do in the City, many times. Each time, the new idea’s and directions fit seamlessly to the previous, but we waited.

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A post from a Member

Buccelli’s, where conversations are had.

A platter to talk over.

Fast forward back to AMAZON ! The word “AMAZON” to your millions of independent retailers is a dirty word. But they also use it as an umbrella term for the online retailers. Four weeks Lockdown is creating major concerns for the independent businesses. Will everyone turn to online?

Our High Streets have been under threat for a number of years. Last year most businesses felt the impact of the uncertainties around ‘Brexit’. This year most business sectors have been hit hard already. The Hospitality, Leisure and the Beauty sectors were closed three weeks longer than nonessential Retail.

Seeing Buccelli’s on the Group, he ordered a takeaway

Thought process: Totally. Local. Totally Local. Lancaster.

Totally Local Lancaster. That has a bounce to it. Slips off the tongue rather well – in my head at least. Totally Local Lancaster, what ? AMAZON. Internet. Social Media.

Facebook. Facebook Group. ‘Totally Local Lancaster’ Facebook Group. Great, but problem. How do I set up a Facebook Group.

I call Bruno my chief collaborator, and run the idea by him. I call Victoria Muir, an Events and Marketing friend, and run the idea by her. They both liked it. Well actually, they loved it. At 7pm on Monday the 9th November, ‘Totally Local Lancaster’ fb Group went live.

We worked feverishly to share businesses fb posts and invited our friends to Join. We messaged the business owners directly with the message, Share, Share, Share. Adding messages to them as we did so. We encouraged the Members to Share their favourite businesses on to the Group. Asked them to Invite their friends.

Businesses were quick to engage

It Snowballed. One thousand, one hundred and eighty nine members in one week. The businesses embraced it, sharing and commenting on each others posts. The members were engaging with the posts. Some of the businesses were starting to get some business because of it.

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All of a sudden, there appeared to be a completely different outlook amongst many of them. A belief, in them, that people would come back and support them. A realisation that they weren’t on their own, not that that pays the bills, and that if we all pulled together, promoted what Lancaster is and has, that we would get through it.

What has astonished me, is how many have said that they didn’t know a certain business(es) were here, some who have said it are business owners !?

Because we set this up, as the name implies, solely for Lancaster businesses, we had been declining posts promoting businesses from outside Lancaster; namely Morecambe, Heysham and Carnforth. Geographically, they are along the Morecambe Bay coast.

The thought process for this was rather more instantaneous, Bruno this time, said “Totally Local Morecambe Bay”. I contacted a number of people in Morecambe, but no one had the appetite for it. We felt awful, because businesses are struggling everywhere, and we were refusing to let people post on our Group.

We spoke about it and decided to do it ourselves, in the hope that, when up and running, there would be a few people that would take it over and we could step back. 7.20pm on the 18th November, ‘Totally Local Morecambe Bay’ went live.

Having a vibrant city centre has a huge positive impact on the location as a whole. In Lancaster’s case, it helps attract students to study in its two fine Universities. It helps attract further investment and jobs, and together, it all helps drive up the standard of living making it a better place to live, work and visit.

Now then, Michelle Gallagher, of JDG Sales and Letting Agents, has been doing some brilliant videos over the past couple of years, not only for the properties that JDG are marketing, but also promoting the district.

On the evening of the 26th November, having never previously met Michelle, I got brave and messaged her. Within two minutes she replied.

She loved what we were doing and immediately agreed to do videos to promote the businesses individually.

On the 30th, Michelle uploaded an introductory video encouraging businesses to put themselves forward. Having Michelle onboard has elevated what we are doing to another level. Each of the initial video’s that have now been uploaded, have been watched by thousands of people. Michelle’s list is getting longer and longer.

As I sit here writing (14.12.20), it is exactly five weeks since launching ‘Totally Local Lancaster’, it has just gained its 3,000th member; there have been over 1,000 posts; over 21,000 reactions and over 2,600 comments. The most overwhelming part of this is the businesses are claiming that it has created a “real sense of community” for them.

The first few days, it was slow. Those that I mentioned that I had spoken to, said that it wouldn’t work the same in Morecambe. Paul Bury and Suzie McVernon volunteered on days two and three respectively. Day three, the Groups membership almost doubled, from 214 to 396. Day four, more than doubled again to 853.

Our belief was, that this needed to be set up early in the Lockdown. Remind people what is on their own door steps, in the hope that they will resist the, often convenient, temptation of shopping online.

Those two words, fit together initially with a third; then a different third plus a fourth, created two Groups. Add some like minded people. The pieces of this puzzle have created a vehicle on which those ideas shared in Buccelli’s over the previous months, can develop further, beyond Facebook.

‘Totally Local Lancaster”.

Paul Cusimano Joseph Clothing, Lancaster

Highlight to them that these are the businesses that support their local charities and school and sporting fundraisers. That these businesses employ people, and are in effect, a vital part of THEIR community.

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SALE

up to

Opulence Bed

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Now open as normal and ou r deliverie s

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Our shop is following the government guidelines regarding social distancing, with a one way system in place, and hand sanitiser stations in use.

Meet Antonella, Helena & Louie at Ruby & Daisy We asked them a few questions about Ruby & Daisy & working together They say ‘Three is a crowd’ but clearly that is not the case at Ruby and Daisy.

Talk us through how 3 strong independent women work together and cope with the toil and turmoil of creating a successful brand.

Antonella - It just means that we genuinely admire each other’s skills and talents. You have to trust each others values and ethics, our friendship will ensure that we are equally committed to working through things with grace, especially those high-pressure, complex situations. It also means we have fun together!

Fun and friendship are not luxuries. They’re a necessity. We get to spend time together, which means laughing at the outrageousness and excitement of the whole endeavour.

Helena - Mutual respect, all 3 of us have something different to bring to the table and have different ideas, why it works is because we recognise that and respect it.

Louie - I suppose you can call us the 3 musketeers with all the adventures and challenges we’ve faced head on together.

We are a tight unit who celebrate each others strengths and always see the positive in everyone and everything we encounter….even 172

in tough times…when the going gets tough… we get tougher!!

Plus we are truly grateful for having the luxury of absolutely loving what we do, that no two days are ever the same and so we never actually feel like it’s ‘work’ as such.

Where do you each get your inspiration from for new ideas and products within the business and who has the best ideas?

Antonella - I don’t think any of us have the best idea no one is better than the other we are all equal and we work well as we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Helena - We continuously research what is going on out in the market place to make sure we are relevant and competitive, we listen very carefully to our customers and

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react accordingly.

Louie - We value and respect EVERYONES ideas at team R&D, wether they are head of buying or work in the warehouse.

We have regular brainstorms as a team and encourage everyone to share ideas. Our brains never switch off and Helena and I are known for texting each other at 3am in the morning with new ideas and screen shots of new clothing.

Do you need a sensible one in a partnership and who is that person in your trio?

Antonella - I wouldn’t know I am not familiar with the word sensible.

Helena - I think Louie and Nelly would say me, they like to call me Deborah Meaden.

Louie - Oh yes you definitely need that one grounded person in a business and that’s Helena. Nelly and I can

get really giddy at times and Helena is always there to rein us back in and get back to ‘serious business’….her nickname is Deborah Meaden off Dragons Den. What is the best, most proudest time of your career and also what is the funniest moment of your journey so far?

Louie - Personally for me the highlight of my career was in the first lockdown when I was working from home and my house temporarily became a warehouse, photo studio and sorting office over night as we had to close the shop. We became a virtual lifeline to so many of customers with our daily live videos and the response was phenomenal. They sent us handwritten letters and gifts thanking us for being there with them throughout lockdown and on many occasions they told us we were ‘an inspiration’.

Nothing can be more humbling than that!

Funniest moment? Too many to mention…. but the majority of them always happen on a live show when hundreds are watching and usually involves me tripping over my words or wrecking the set and knocking things over.

Who is the naughty one?

Antonella - I am the naughty one I cause chaos and mischief wherever I go.

Helena - Definitely Nelly.

Louie - Naughty Nelly of course! www.lancmag.com

What is your favourite part of the job and why?

What is your next goal and why?

Antonella - I adore seeing how empowered our customers are how they go from 5 ft tall to 10 foot tall how they have grown in confidence.

Being a part of that is truly priceless.

Helena - I honestly love everything about what we do.

Louie - I absolutely love the buying element…. the rush of excitement I get when I set eyes on a new top or coat is addictive! But what I love even more is when I see our customers wearing those items that I’ve chosen and how fabulous and confident they look in them….it makes me feel all warm inside.

Antonella - Rodeo drive baby! Why not!

Helena - We would become a household name.

Louie - To become a household name…. And I can guarantee you that Helena said the same!

The Ruby and Daisy Family has helped a lot of women through lockdown.

What makes that bond between you and your followers so strong?

Antonella - we are just like you down to earth and so relatable there is a Helena louie and Antonella everywhere we are just real women speaking to real women in a language they understand.

Helena - I think how open and transparent we are and probably how relatable and positive we always are.

Louie - Because we are 100 percent authentic.

We are real and totally relatable. We don’t pretend to be anything we aren’t and what you see is what you get…. there are no facades at all with any of us. www.lancmag.com

Would you like to see some of the designer brands follow your lead and make clothes more accessible for people of all shapes and sizes and what would be your message to them.

Antonella - Absoluteley, not just slender ladies have money! Money can be earned by all sizes so yes opening up their exclusive goods for the many and not keeping it for the few is the way forward and that way we are a more inclusive society. Its almost like getting rid of the mean girls if they did this. So no longer would we have the attitude of you cant sit with us.

Helena - Absolutely, its so important and we so proud to lead the way.

Louie - Yes indeed.

There is already a slight shift as more designers are making clothes increasingly accessible to people of all sizes and are using more plus sized models on their billboards, glossy magazines and on the catwalk… however there is still a long way to go.

From day 1 it was our mission at Ruby & Daisy to make fashion accessible to all people regardless of size, shape, age , ability and gender.

If you were stranded on a desert Island, what are your 3 items and why?

Name the best trait in each other.

Antonella - A big old’ knife. A giant box of matches. Who wants to spend hours trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together A bottle of sunblock nowt worse than sun stroke.

Helena - My Family, Wine & Fishing Net. Louie - A picture of my family…..so as to see their smiling faces everyday Vaseline… it’s my beauty her!

Tangle Teezer - the best hairbrush in the world to tackle all those knots after skinny dipping in the sea.

Antonella - Helena devotion Louie generosity.

Helena - Louie – Generosity Nelly - Compassion Louie - Helena - loyalty Nelly - empathy.

Tell us all your favourite outfit and signature scent

Antonella - I am all about comfort so at the moment no only does the Malissa j bling top and leggings make me feel comfy it also gives a bit of bling. I don’t have a sense of smell so wear old things I used to buy but I I love Jimmy choo the original it’s the last perfume my Dad bought me before he passed and I wear it whenever I need him with me.

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Helena - My favourite outfit will always include Magic Trousers and I don’t have a signature scent, I buy whatever I like the smell of in duty free and take hand me downs from Louie and Nelly regularly.

Louie - Parchute Dress, Cowboy boots and leather biker jacket Signature scent - Molecule 1.

Does dressing with style help with confidence?

Antonella - It is a proven fact that dressing up makes you feel good. If you dress up before you start your work from home, you might actually feel great despite the current situation. Take a good shower, dress up and put that makeup on. It will only make you feel great about yourself and there are no negative points to that.

Helena - Absolutely, if you feel nice, confidence radiates.

Louie - Hell yeah! If your outfit looks good you instantly FEEL good.

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What is your best advice for someone shy and body conscious to do to feel better and overcome their anxiety with fashion?

Antonella - Be aware of negative self-talk. People who are shy or have low self-confidence tend to have more negative inner chatter than average.

If you catch yourself saying something like “I am shy have no confidence and no good in social settings. ... Instead of negative self-talk, replace it with something like: “I may feel shy and not very confident and out of my comfort zone but I will handle deep breath head high tits out and crack on. Talk to yourself as you would others and you’ll never go far wrong.

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Helena - Build a good strong base of wardrobe staples that are right for your body shape, styles that will work hard for you. Experiment with colour to enhance your wardrobe staples and add bold patterns in with your accessories.

Louie - Simply hop onto our website for inspiration from real women including us 3 modelling our clothes and by watching our Facebook live videos where there is wealth of styling tips and ideas. Don’t be afraid to experiment with colour….

It makes all the difference …. Don’t be tempted to hide away in black all the time…believe me once you start wearing colour the compliments will start to flood in!

Give us your worst fashion faux pas in your whole life?

Antonella - Yellow leggings. Enough said.

Helena - I appeared on a daytime tv show in my late teens in a head to toe tangerine ensemble. The only person to compliment my outfit was my husbands nan, who said “ooh you did look bonny”.

Louie - I once went out wearing pink from head to toe….pink top… pink skirt…pink pumps d..pink bag and even pink jewellery….i don’t for one moment think I made any boys wink at me that night… but I do think some may have ‘blinked’ in disbelief at the sight - ha.

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Welcome to The Wonderful World of Ruby and Daisy We offer a personal shopping service in store along with refreshments, reserved items, loyalty cards and regular special offers.

Our brand new website delivers a helpful shopping experience, as do our Facebook & Instagram Pages.

Shop online to build loyalty points and join our friendly community via our Facebook V.I.P page to receive exclusive discounts and offers.

Be sure to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages for videos, competitions and much more!

Come and see us or get in touch for a first-hand ‘Ruby & Daisy Experience’ As a special Ruby & Daisy treat we are giving you 20% off your purchase with code LANCSNWR&D20.

Simply apply the code at the checkout on our website www.rubyanddaisy.co.uk or present this magazine feature in store. *T&C’s apply.

www.rubyanddaisy.co.uk 331 Burnley Road, Novak Mill, Crawshawbooth, Rossendale, BB4 8LA

Call Us On: 0808 196 2216 Follow us on Facebook & Instagram! Facebook: Ruby&Daisy / Instagram: rubydaisy1

Antonella Talks Fashion of our most popular ranges, the comfy top that fits all.

Going from a size 8-22/24 it’s so versatile and easy to wear, and at only £22 you’re getting great quality for your money!

One of the most exciting things about a New Year for us is finding out what Pantone’s colour of the year is, and this year they have chosen Al Aqua. This colour absolutely radiates positivity, it triggers a feeling of clarity and is incredibly versatile, being on trend and innovative.

We cannot wait to bring you clothing inspired by this colour, let’s face it, we all need some positivity and brightness in our lives.

Well hello F lowerpots, Well hello Flowerpots, welcome to a brand new blog and a brand new year! We are saying a massive goodbye to 2020 and a huge hello to 2021. Before I start my blog about all the wonderful things about my boutique Ruby and Daisy, I best tell you who I am for those of you who don’t already know. I am known as Antonella The Uncensored Reviewer on Facebook and Instagram, I try before you buy. I now almost have 1.5 million followers on Facebook and 259k followers on Instagram. Not only do I give advice and review products, I am co-owner of Ruby and Daisy alongside Helena Hoyle and Louise Bispham, a multi award winning ladies boutique based in the stunning village of Crawshawbooth in Rossendale, we are a bricks and click store so don’t worry if you’re too far away to visit our shop, we do sell online too! I think that’s enough about me though for now, let’s kick 2021 off with some clothing!

Firstly; I would like to give a massive middle finger to 2020, a year that’s been negative for most. Now we have that hope, 2021 is going to be the year for togetherness, for love and seeing our families again. It’s a year that we will remember what our key workers did for us, the year we gave over £100,000 worth of discounts away last year to our key workers including retail workers, prison services, carers. The often forgotten… With that being said, I think that the Bye Felicia Desoto is just so appropriate. Saying goodbye to 2020 has come easy to most of us, and this easy wearing desoto matches our feelings towards last year. Our Desotos are one 176

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I think it’s time that we talk about basics, and what better basics to start with than the Magic Trousers. For people who haven’t tried these you’re missing out on the most comfy trouser you’ve ever worn.

They’re the kind of trousers you can throw on, go to a chinese buffet, eat everything in sight and your trousers still won’t feel tight, and in all that time, you still look smart.

They’re the kind of trousers that you can dress up or down with little to no effort, you literally can’t ask for more and at just £25 a pair I can guarantee that you will be hooked after just one wear. These will be your go to trousers and most of our customers actually own them in multiple colour ways because they get addicted and can’t just have one colour!

They come in two sizes, standard which fit from a size 8-18 and size 2 which fit from a size 16-22/24.

Magic Trousers £25

Chenille Hoodie £29

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Scarf is an absolutely stunning item, it can be worn in so many different ways like all of our scarves and has an intricate design that looks so expensive. We have multiple colourways available and at just £12 this really is a bargain for such an expensive looking scarf.

It’s time that we look at dresses, we have been indulging with treats and chocolates and hidden ourselves in loungewear for months. I think it’s about time to up our game, ready for the months of freedom, for when we can emerge again! So, why not do it in style? The RAD Swing Dress is a simple, plain dress that flatters any figure. We have two different sizes available, S/M going from a size 16/18 and a M/L going from a size 24/26. Throw on some accessories and a stylish scarf for a comfortable going out look. I like to wear my Swing Dress with my reliable Nelly Plus leggings mentioned above, they’re so comfy yet so stylish and easy to dress up or down. The RAD Swing Dress being only £15 is an absolute bargain! We have multiple colourways available too as we know you’ll just love them!

Wildcat Scarf £12

Shall we wipe away those cold January blues? I have the perfect solution for you! The Chenille Huggle Hoodie is the perfect January jumper, there are no words for how comfortable this actually is, it’s super soft and huggable material is literally irresistible, a bit like myself. It fits from a size 14-24 and is just £29, there’s literally no better feeling than getting home in the dark, throwing your Huggle Hoodie on, and sitting in front of the fire at night ready to chill out.

Team this with the Nelly Plus Leggings for the ultimate comfort wear. At only £10 your wardrobe is really working for you. Our leggings are such a great quality and are so versatile, you can wear them with pretty much anything and don’t have to worry about them being see through either.

Here at Ruby and Daisy there are two things that we know you love. Great quality leggings, and pockets!

Speaking of pockets, it’s time that I mention an item that was one of our customer favourites last year… Yes we are talking about the Slashed Panel Tunic, featuring a long sleeved, long length tunic that goes from a size 12-20.

Another item that will work hard for you, an essential for your wardrobe. At just £20 it’s really no wonder everyone went crazy for these and they sold out within minutes.

We; however at Ruby and Daisy have been lucky enough to secure more stock for you lovely Flowerpots as you’ve loved them so much. Why not add a pop of colour to your outfit?

Team the Slashed Panel Tunic with one of my favourite scarves, another one you’ve gone ‘wild’ for. The Wild Cat www.lancmag.com

The RAD Swing Dress £15

Well it looks like that’s all for now Flowerpots, all that’s left to say is I am wishing you a wonderful New Year, let’s make this one count more than ever.

Lots of Love Your Aunty Nelly

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Bottling Hope

When the world keeps coming up with bad news after bad news we could all do with a little something to brighten our day, something to look forward to...a little ‘Hope’.

From left to right Jon Judson, Oliver Hope & Ken Lynch at The Serious Brewing Co Brewery

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Right: Oliver starting the beer making process

T

hat’s exactly what Oliver & the wonderful team at HOPE Menswear are doing, they’ve joined forces with legendary brewers Serious Brewing Co & the award winning Baum Pub to brew up something truly fantastic.

A collaboration of mammoth proportions was just about the only thing that can save this year & that’s exactly what these three iconic Rochdale businesses have come together to do. And what better way to bring people together in these uncertain times than by uniting in brewing a completely bespoke beer. Simply called ‘Hope’, Serious Brewing’s Ken Lynch turns his expert hand to creating a beer to save us all.

A beautiful amber nectar full of subtle apricot notes, hints of toffee & caramel, giving way to a lasting orange finish in this incredibly drinkable beer. Ken is no fair weather brewer, Serious Brewing Co beers are firm favourites in Rochdale’s real ale pubs with some having an almost cult status, there was no better person to talk to about making a bespoke brew.

The brainchild of Oliver Hope, of the thoroughly brilliant HOPE Men’s & ladieswear stores of Norden & Clitheroe, the beer has been brewed & bottled to give to new & old customers alike to thank each of them for their support though the year & a gentle reminder that life will be back to normal very soon. Applying the same care & attention to beer as Hope have previously taken in commissioning their own bespoke trainers, it was essential that everything down to the hops be 100% British & that is exactly what they made. A truly British beer with a real taste of Hope. Jon Hudson, landlord of the award winning Baum of Toad Lane introduced the two companies & set the www.lancmag.com

Left: HOPE has been crafted using nothing but British Hops

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Above: John, Oliver and Ken discussing tactics

beer on the road to reality, making this a real modern-day story of cooperation in the town. Once the lockdown lifts, the beer will be available to buy in pubs too, Serious Brewing has been a staple beer in some of the town’s best pubs for years & who could resist ordering a pint of Hope.

The Hope family have tailored to the discerning gentleman of the North West for over 60 years & their commitment to bringing a little brightness into their customers lives runs deeper than remembering names & sizes. This year & the problems that came along with it meant the family business couldn’t host any of their usual events, but not ones to be deterred hatched a plan to bring the spirit of Hope right to their customers doorsteps.

One unforeseen upside of the recent lockdowns is that three incredibly busy business owners were able to take a day to make the beer together.

The trio made their way to the Serious brewery one rainy Rochdale Wednesday morning, & working under Ken’s watchful eye the first ever batch of Hope was brewed & the results are magnificent. Made with some lesser seen British hops, bursting with citrus & a smattering of toasted malt to create a truly unique tipple worthy of this most monumental first flourish of collaborations. Even the bottle gets a glorious transformation courtesy of 180

local artist Vic Whitaker, immortalising HOPE Menswear’s iconic Norden storefront in her own signature style.

Above and below: The Hope bespoke trainers, made in collaboration with Norman Walsh in Bolton using British fabrics and hand finished in Bolton.

Thanks to people like Oliver, Ken & Jon, we’ll soon have Hope on tap, and in these strange times, that’s something we can all look forward to a pint of.

Hope Menswear:

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794 Edenfield Rd Norden OL12 7RB - 01706 649264 42 King St Clitheroe BB7 2EU - 01200 423723 www.lancmag.com

The Big Winter

SALE

MANY ITEMS NOW OVER

50% OFF

DONT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO GRAB A BARGAIN!

HOPE

MENSWEAR

WOMENSWEAR

HOPE Menswear Norden - 794 Edenfield Rd Norden OL12 7RB 01706 649264 HOPE Womenswear Norden - 798 Edenfield Rd Norden OL12 7RB 01706 357306 HOPE Mens & Womenswear Clitheroe - 42 King St Clitheroe BB7 2EU 01200 423723

Colour and Style

www.sarahharrisstyle.co.uk

Our section on Colour and Style with Sarah Harris from ‘Colour Me Beautiful’ This month I want to support the shops on the local high streets by encouraging everyone to turn off the computer and go shopping, take a walk into town! February also means Valentine’s day and with this in mind let’s look at our lips and find the perfect lipstick! We will need the perfect lipstick if we are using video calls in our businesses, life online became so big last year and continues this year, so I’m also going to be looking at how we can enhance our image on video calls!

Shop Your High Street Last year it was all about re cycle, re use and shop your wardrobe, I’m still very much for this wonderful approach, and working with women and men I know that we always want to shop and we won’t stop shopping! What are the positives and negatives of online shopping compared to the high street?

Online shopping:Positives 1.

Shop from the comfort of your home 2.

Don’t have to get dressed 3.

Delivered to your door

I’m Sarah Harris and I’m a Colour and Style Consultant who trained with Colour Me Beautiful the world’s leading Image consultants. My background is in fashion and after leaving school at 16 I travelled to London to work as a Fashion/photographic model, I enjoyed the life and it allowed me to travel the world, during my career I also worked in wholesale/retail within the fashion industry. I learnt all about fabrics, business, international companies and trying all those clothes on – the quality, cut and fabric. I took a break from the business when I married and had our two children. I retrained as an Image consultant with Colour Me Beautiful who have been changing the lives of women and men for over 35 years.

I’d like to inspire you with Colour, Style and skincare tips every month, I’m hoping to give you an interesting read.

If there is something that you would like to know about please email me and I will do my best to help.

Email: sarah@sarahharrisstyle.co.uk www.sarahharrisstyle.co.uk

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Negatives 1.

Staying in all day, for some they may be out but still staring at a screen 2.

Wearing comfortable clothes and not making much effort 3.

Clothes don’t always fit when they arrive.

4.

Might have to wait a week for them to arrive 5.

Delivery charges sometimes expensive 6.

Not seeing staff face to face, all tech High Street shopping:Positives 1.

Getting out, exercise 2.

Make the effort to get ready 3.

Feeling items and trying on clothes 4.

Purchase only what suits you on the day 5.

Meeting people and talking Negatives I can’t think of anything negative about going out of the house to shop. My reasons for this are:a. communication with real people is very good for mental health b. great for physical health as you have to make the effort(getting dressed etc.) c. you are supporting your local community (friends, family, local people)

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Online shopping is essential for people who cannot go out of the house due to busy schedule, illness or disability.

However, for those that can get out I urge you to make that step to help your community.

With the Arcadia group going into liquidation and Debenhams coming to the end of an era, I realise that we need to get off the computer and walk into town, support the staff and businesses. Talk to the staff and make it a point to spend in those shops sometimes, instead of from your computer. Remember high street shops have to pay high rents and wages to staff. Think about the pleasure you get from shopping and the memories that you have made whilst shopping. (for those who don’t find shopping enjoyable that’s ok, but there are many that do) I will take you back now to the 1980’s - I’m from Blackpool and I remember going into town with my mum when I was young looking for something special to wear, there was RHO Hills, Lewis’s, Chelsea Girl. Although there wasn’t such a big choice the experience was fun. We would browse the rails and try on clothes probably have a tea and cake, before catching the bus home. I even remember RHO Hills having models walk around the restaurant wearing clothes from the fashion department, they wore a bracelet with a number on so that if there was something that took your eye you could go and buy it. A great way of advertising! They really were the good old days of shopping! Then as a teenager on Saturday I would meet up with my friend and shop for our Saturday night outfit.

We would buy make up and bits to dress up in.

My love for shopping is why I enjoy being a personal shopper as I can see how happy clients are when they find clothes that suit them. I have been told that it has changed their lives for the better! This is why I want to do all that I can to help the community and supporting local businesses is essential.

Think of all the people involved in a shop from the cleaners, floor staff, merchandisers, window dressers, security staff the list goes on and if you look at a company it is like looking at a family network. #standingbythehighstreet

Red accessories can brighten up your wardrobe

Valentine Lips - what’s your shade? (if you just want a touch of red why not add a lipstick)

Colour Me Red Red is the colour of love, energy, power, strength and passion but it can also be a warning sign and indicates danger.

However, on a positive note It gives confidence and makes the wearer stand out from the crowd, it is a good colour to wear if you want to make a successful business deal and brightens up a neutral colour. Finding the right shade that suits you is essential! Why not treat your loved one this Valentine’s day to a gift that will last a lifetime a colour consultation – I guarantee it will change the way you think about colour.

If you aren’t sure of wearing red from head to toe you could add an accessory, a red scarf or bag will look great with a camel or charcoal coat, or a pair of red earing’s will add a touch of glamour. A red belt is also a good addition to any outfit, however, remember your scale and proportions – it is a statement piece and therefore the eye will be drawn to it. www.lancmag.com

Which is the best lipstick for you and did you know that if you have a cool undertone you are better wearing blue based colours, whereas, a warm undertone needs yellow based colours.

Your dominant might be light, deep, clear or soft but your undertone would be cool or warm. To find out the shades that suit you best it is worth having a colour consultation, once you know the colours that work for you it will make you feel and look so much better and make shopping so much easier.

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At Colour Me Beautiful we have a red lipstick for everyone! And remember Pink is a lighter form of Red which some prefer as the red might not suit their style personality.

Not everyone wants a Red so maybe a pink, peach or neutral shade.

LIP SHADES

Red Velvet for Warms - Red Carpet for Cools LIGHTS: Red Velvet or Warm Pink (warm) Red Carpet or Dusty Rose(cool) DEEPS: Red Carpet (Cool) Tomato (warm) WARMS: Tomato or Red Velvet COOLS: Red Carpet or Cerise CLEARS: Red carpet (cool), Red velvet (warm) SOFTS: Red Velvet (warm) Red Carpet (cool)

Light/warm – Warm Pink Light/cool – Dusty rose

Clear/cool Cerise Clear/warm – Strawberry

Deep/warm – Sheer Rum Deep/cool Purple Rain

Soft/warm – Chiffon Soft/Cool – Soft Mauve

Warms Spiced Peach Cools – Sheer Silk

We all have different skin tones and different lips but there is a perfect colour for everyone!

Deep

Warm

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Light

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Looking good online

First Impressions really do count and looking your best on a video call could make or break your business!

You need to look at:What you are wearing avoid fussy patterns they can be distracting (unless that is the intention) solid bold colours are better.

Neckline – simple and open to lengthen the neck, if you are wearing a scarf keep the fabric light and not too heavy (it can look too bulky) and in a flattering colour that compliments your look Jewellery should again be simple, avoid dangly earing’s and lots of bangles as they are distracting and can be noisy!

Also large chunky jewellery can overtake the screen, the same applies to large rings if you use your hands a lot Glasses should suit your face shape and work in harmony with your bone structure Make-up – a little bit of make-up is better than none and wear powder if necessary as too much shine isn’t a good look!

Teeth – clean teeth is essential (make sure you’ve flossed!!)

Nails – manicured nails are so important

• • • • • • •

The Set and background

•

Lights – avoid fluorescent lights they cast shadows, and over lights put dark shadows on the face. The main light should be behind the camera and try to face a window.

Camera – should be at eye level, elevate your computer if need be and look at the camera.

Background – neutral and uncluttered, less is more.

Objects can be added but only if relevant to the call.

No distractions from children, pets etc.

• • •

It is so important to have a professional image on a video call and to look at all the fine details, before the call take a selfie and look at what you are portraying.

You have to think about what you are wearing, the colours and styles. It is very different from meeting someone in person as you are only getting a headshot, you can’t see the height and scale of a person the same as you do in person.

I did a zoom colour consultation for a lovely lady and after lockdown we arranged the final face to face consultation.

When she arrived she was only 5 foot tall and when I had seen her on the screen she seemed so much taller!! She was also surprised as I’m 6 ft!! That is why the principles of dressing on a video call are different than face to face. I have been giving zoom advice to many clients over lockdown on how best to make a good impression.

Think about what signs you want to send out – • what line of business are you in • What is your style personality • Are you well groomed • What colour suits you All the little details are so Important and most of all SMILE! Please let me know if you want any advice on anything colour, style, make-up and virtual. Let me know how your video calls have gone and any funny stories.

Enjoy February and stay safe, and please go onto your high street to shop! Let’s support our communities.

Warm Wishes, Sarah x

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Wellness

By Mark Bateman

I

n recent years, the term ‘wellness’ has become a popular concept and something that we are all more aware of. But just what does the term mean?

The expression ‘wellness’ goes back to the 1950s when it was coined by an American Physician called Halbert Dunn who integrated the words ‘wellbeing’ and ‘fitness’.

To put it in its most simple terms Wellness is the formation and practice of healthy habits to attain better physical and mental health. It is based on a strategy of deliberate action to improve all areas of a person’s life. To sum it up in a few words, ‘Instead of just surviving, you’re thriving.’

Where wellness differs from the simple term ‘health’ is that health usually just refers to a physical body free from disease. Wellness is more of a holistic practice which targets seven main areas in which we should target continued growth and development if we are to grow as people.

Some advocates of wellness refer to eight or even twelve dimensions of wellness, but in this case we will stick to the seven areas identified by the school of health and wellness.

These can be remembered by the acronym S.P.E.C.I.E.S and are Spiritual, Physical, emotional, caareer / vocation, Intellectual, environmental, and social.

The first of these dimensions is the spiritual and this means finding a purpose, a value and meaning in life 186

with or without organised religion.

It also means participating in activities that are consistent with your beliefs and values.

The next dimension is physical and put simply this entails caring for your body now and in the future. This is an area in which life coaches are particularly helpful and we will examine their role in wellness later.

The emotional is the next dimension and this is split into your emotions with regards to yourself and other people.

In terms of other people, it involves developing an ability to appreciate the feelings of other people. When it comes to yourself it requires learning to positively manage your emotions, as well as understanding and respecting your feelings, and learning to develop the ability to feel positive and enthusiastic about your life.

Another important area concerns a person’s career or vocation. This means preparing for, and participating in, work that is in line with your goals and values and which leads to personal satisfaction and a sense of life enrichment.

The next area is the intellectual dimension, and this involves developing the ability to respond well to intellectual challenge and remaining curious throughout life and willing to learn. It includes expanding your personal knowledge and skills and sharing these skills with other people.

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Instead of just surviving, you’re thriving.

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7 dimensions of wellness

One part of wellness that is of increasing importance at the moment is the environmental area. This is a three-pronged field. Firstly, it involves developing an understanding of how the social, natural, and built environment affects your health and wellbeing. Secondly it concerns being aware of the fragile state of the planet and how your daily habits can affect it.

Lastly it requires developing practices (e.g. recycling more) to demonstrate a personal commitment to a healthy planet.

Habits are the key to wellness because if we can turn a positive behaviour into a habit that we carry out unconsciously then we can spend more time focusing on the important decisions in our lives. But habits are not easy to establish, it is estimated that new habits take on average 66 days to form. It has also been shown that once habits are ‘hard- wired’ into the brain they can never be truly eradicated only ‘over-written’ with more powerful newer habits.

To put it in its simplest terms wellness is all about self- regulation and the development of positive, beneficial habits

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It also helps to know whether you are a hypothetical sprinter or a marathoner? Are you an opener or a finisher? Do you over buy or under buy?

And when working towards goals do you prefer lots of baby steps or a few big steps?

The process of self – examination is time consuming and not easy, but it is always worth doing. Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses then you can go on to create specific strategies (here again is where a life coach can help) that enhance your chances for success whatever your goal(s). You can identify systems that will work for you such as monitoring and reporting, scheduling, and using rewards and treats.

Human beings are social animals, and the social dimension involves developing and maintaining relationships and friendships which requires caring for other people and in turn letting them care for you. It also means making a positive contribution to your community.

Now that we know the seven core areas of wellness, we can examine how we go about improving and developing in these areas. To put it in its simplest terms wellness is all about self- regulation and the development of positive, beneficial habits. Selfregulation is the ability to control impulses and direct behaviours to meet certain standards and ideals and to achieve certain personal goals.

There are two keys to forming new positive habits and these are Self awareness and strategies. We all like to think we’re self- aware, but how many of us truly are? Self-awareness involves working to your strengths and developing routines that take advantage of these. As an example, if you’re a ‘night owl’ then there’s not much point trying to get up earlier in the morning to exercise. You would need to think of another way, and time, to get this exercise in.

The central aspect of wellness is a willingness to change and improve whether this is physically, mentally, socially or in any other of the seven areas of wellness. Change can take a long time and it will involve massive effort and probably repeated failures to achieve your goals. But if you’re determined to improve yourself wellness practitioners suggest regularly asking yourself the following three questions.

A balanced diet is important

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Get out for a run

Are you going to accept yourself as you are or expect more from yourself?

Are you going to embrace the present or consider the future?

Are you going to care about yourself or overlook yourself?

There are lots of resources available to work on your wellness yourself, but if you’re someone who works better with a partner in a guided environment then a life coach might be just what you need to kick start your wellness journey.

Essentialise is run by Lee from Preston. Lee is a qualified environmental psychologist, well-being trainer and functional life coach. Lee has a passion for helping people find their direction and purpose in life, and achieve their full potential whatever area this may lie in.

Are you going to embrace the present or consider the future?

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As a functional life coach, he works closely with all his clients developing the ‘functional fundamentals’ of: Energy, wealth, mind, relationships and body and spirit. His successful strategies involve targeting your ambitions, optimising your energy, crafting your mind set and ‘upgrading your software’ to develop beneficial habits.

Have a look at what Lee offers and hear from people who have benefited from his coaching at www.essentialise. co.uk or email him directly on lifecoach@essentialise.co.uk Also have a look at P.T. Health Coaching. This life- coaching service offers a successful, personally tailored, two- pronged approach to life coaching.

Firstly, they offer personal health coaching. This process takes a look at health and fitness in a way that is goalorientated and tailored to each specific client. It covers all areas of physical and mental health and includes looking at areas such as: dietary analysis, the preparation of healthy meals, sleep and mental well- being assessments and strategies.

The second area P.T. Health Coaching specialises in is performance coaching.

This is targeted at your particular sport or event. It involves formulating a plan tailored specifically for your goal whether this is a personal best, a podium finish or just to help you stay fit and injury free.

For more information go to www.pthealthcoaching.com

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Iconic rock frontman Robert Smith becomes Patron of Heart Research UK Robert Smith, of alternative rock band The Cure, has become a Patron for national charity Heart Research UK.

Robert, who is the only continuous member of the legendary band that he co-founded in 1976, has announced his patronage after supporting the charity’s anonymous heART project for the last two years.

The anonymous heART project sees hundreds of anonymous artworks auctioned on eBay, and Robert’s two pieces have raised over £10,000 for the charity’s pioneering research.

Robert, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year as a member of The Cure, is working with the charity on a number of exciting projects, due to be announced in 2021.

“I am very proud to be a Patron of Heart Research UK. Their determined focus on pioneering investigation into the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease, and their drive to improve the ‘heart health’ of the UK is inspiring,” said Robert.

“More than a quarter of all deaths in the UK are caused by heart and circulatory disease - I have very sadly seen too many friends and family fall victim over the years.

“Continuing support for research into the understanding and treatment of coronary heart disease is absolutely vital for everyone.”

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Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said: “We are honoured to have Robert joining us here at Heart Research UK. We are all massive fans of his music, and now, his artwork!

“We have been blown away with his energy and generosity in supporting our campaigns, and we are so excited to continue our partnership with him.

“We know research works, but the seven million people living with cardiovascular disease in the UK need it to work faster.

We are dedicated to funding the latest research in to the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.”

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Exec @HRUK

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February

reviews

by Suri Krishnamma

PIECES OF A WOMAN

M

any years ago, when I first watched Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre, I remember feeling that the opening scene was going on a bit, unaware that the entire film was set at a restaurant table. Once I realised this, I soon relaxed, and it became one of the most magical cinema viewing experiences of my life. Something similar happened with Pieces of a Woman, where the extraordinarily long birth scene (it must be up to 30 mins of the film) turned an already engaging film into something even more compelling.

Adapted from the play by Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber, Pieces of a Woman is the Hungarian Mundruczó’s first film in the English language.

Martha and Sean are about to have their first child by homebirth in their Boston apartment, having just taken possession of a new car bought for them

by Martha’s mother. But when complications occur and they are forced to call an ambulance to take them to hospital, blame 192

for the failure of the process is directed at the inadequately skilled mid-wife. In the year that follows, and while dealing with the emotional trauma trigged by the birth, Martha and Sean’s lives are pulled apart as they prepare for a criminal case against the mid-wife.

There are powerful, aggressive performances bulging from the simple and uncomplicated narrative – with a no-holdsbarred, unrestrained energy to the acting. Shia LaBeouf as Sean leaves no stone unturned in his hunt for the intimate details of a

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relationship falling apart. He is convincing as both a construction worker (his descriptions of how the structure of a bridge can change, and deteriorate, over time, acting as an effective metaphor for his own fragile marriage) and as an everyman eagerly coming to terms with his new-found status as a soon to be first time father. Ellen Burstyn as Martha’s overbearing mother, Elizabeth, heckles from the wings of the drama before herself exploding onto the screen, attacking her daughter’s choices and invoking her own experience

Photo: Netflix

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TO OLIVIA

Photograph: Atticus Pictures

as a holocaust survivor. Her previously suppressed belief, that if Martha had done things her way her daughter would be holding her baby in her arms right now, loudly expressed in public.

But it is Vanessa Kirby as Martha who impresses most, playing a woman from more advantaged stock than Sean, an economic and emotional contrast to her husband. In her evocation of the shocking and speedy gear changes between the pain of childbirth and the immediacy of loss, Kirby never hits a wrong note. It is little wonder she won the performance award at the Venice film festival in September 2020, and no doubt other accolades will follow in 2021.

This is a courageous film, both in terms of its uncompromising exploration of characters altered by a single, traumatic event, but structurally too - the birth sequence itself dominating the first third of the film. It’s also a film for a mature audience, for those wanting something more challenging than readily available conventional options, for those who are not put off by a relentlessly raw, honest experience. But although Kirby is brilliant, some of the scenes between her and LaBeouf can, at times, feel too mannered, despite a clear determination to create naturalistic performances, and the overall sense is that the work hasn’t fully developed from a workshop environment.

Intimate details are shared as the relationship is thrust under a microscope, the cracks becoming more and more evident, but perhaps unlike the fatal fractures of one of Sean’s bridges, there is always the hope that the couple will grow back together, that the trauma doesn’t need to tear them apart.

Pieces of a Woman is available on Netflix. www.lancmag.com

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accines for measles had yet to be developed when the seven years-old Olivia contracted the disease and was rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Her parents, the children’s author Roald Dahl and his American actress wife Patricia Neal, were living the quiet life in rural England with her and their two other younger children, Tessa and Theo when the tragedy struck.

The year is 1962 but the Cuban Missile crisis is far from the minds of this soon to be globally famous couple as their loss casts a dark shadow over their lives, pushing their relationship to breaking point. The characters of Dahl, played by Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey and Paddington) and Neal, played by Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty), newly emerging celebrities in their respective fields, will be familiar to some, but this film catches them during the heart-breaking tragedy that precedes their fame.

The early sequences in the film show Dahl’s affectionate relationship with his children and through that we get a sense of what the inspiration for his storytelling was. But it is harder to find where the ‘twisted’ slant of his work (often referred to by his wife) comes from and why it drives him as a storyteller. Although loss and grief are central to the story, we don’t get a full sense of who Olivia is well enough to engage, a problem that is compounded by the quite brilliant performance of her surviving sister, Tessa, who we get to know rather better than

her sibling. Despite focusing on grief, the film feels oddly restrained, as if the period setting, costumes and curiously out of place civility between the couple has been too dominating. Hugh Bonneville brings pathos to the role as Roald Dahl, while Keeley Hawes pulls off the American accent and character of Neal superbly.

The film occasionally breaks free from its steady pace when moments of high drama or tragedy strike, but the experience could have been enriched by more layers, more subplots to contextualise the main drama.

At the end of 2020, the Dahl family issued a long overdue statement to apologise for the hurt caused by Dahl’s well-documented antisemitic comments and attitudes. In it they said that his ‘prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl’s stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations.’ Whether this fact about Dahl’s character undermines this familyfriendly interpretation is for an informed audience to decide, but there is an underlying sense that a complex character and story has been, to some extent, sanitised to be accessible to the widest possible audience. This is a feelgood, family film that spotlights an intriguing slice of Dahl’s life, albeit a thin one.

To Olivia is available on Sky Cinema

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memorable given such a limited amount of screen time. As Tyler’s younger sister, Aliyah, Tabitha Milne-Price is confident at every level of the emotional range required from her character, including delivering many of the film’s more surprisingly humorous moments, such as when demanding to be compensated with a burger and a drink after being left at the school gates after dark.

COUNTY LINES

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here is a chilling certainty about what lies ahead in Tyler’s immediate future.

Just one more disruptive crisis and he will find himself on an increasingly dangerous path, a journey for which his fourteen years-old character will be largely unprepared for. When the inevitable does happen, the consequences are no less distressing for them having been predicted.

‘County Lines’ is a term that refers to the phone numbers, or lines, that are used in the business of transporting drugs, usually from urban areas to rural or coastal districts, often by teenagers who have been groomed by organised gangs. These young people, already vulnerable from having fallen through the net of an inadequately funded welfare system, are easy prey for abusers where short-term gains are all that matters.

Henry Blake, writer and director in his debut film, got inspiration for this highly topical story from his own experience as a youth worker in a Pupil Referral Unit where children excluded from mainstream schools are registered. In this ritesof-passage story, Tyler finds himself squeezed between the economic stresses of his homelife and isolation at school. After being saved from yet another aggressive encounter in a fastfood restaurant by Simon, a fake do-gooder, Tyler is slowly 194

but surely lured into the drugdealing orbit of this manipulative sociopath. Small errands that involve shifting drugs from the city to the countryside lead Tyler further and further away from his home-life and from any contact with more benign influences.

And as his descent into darkness escalates, so does the realisation that he’ll find all paths back blocked.

Photograph: BFI

There are few flaws, but one small criticism might be the scenes involving social workers and teachers, where dialogue feels overwritten, and doesn’t always reach the same levels of authenticity as the rest of the film. As bleak as this film is at times, there is the hint of hope at the end – that things don’t need to be this way, that the future can be different, that despite all the economic hardships and underfunding of social care, the best of human nature – the belief that we have a common responsibility for each other – can win through.

The film works at its best when dialogue is minimal, allowing the events themselves to tell the story, helping to create an ominous atmosphere and an unnerving sense of doom.

The economy of storytelling, where only the most essential scenes and images are included, demonstrates a deep understanding of the medium.

There is no need for extensive backstories such as why Tyler is having such a rough time at school – just that he is - and no need to dwell on why Toni is overworked and why neither have appropriate support from the authorities.

The strong casting choices are matched by confident direction and the overall work shows a maturity beyond what might be expected from a debut filmmaker.

Ashley Madekwe as Tyler’s mother, Toni, who works at night and sleeps during the day, is as authentic and formidable as anything in a Ken Loach film.

Harris Dickinson as Simon is scarily magnetic, delivering a performance that is astonishingly

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And leading the cast is Conrad Khan who plays the quietly troubled Tyler, showing a vast range of ability in an understated role, and with such great courage in all dramatic, violent and grotesquely real scenes that it is hard not to compare him to a young Gary Oldman or Tim Roth, and no doubt his professional acting trajectory could well go in the same direction.

County Lines is available on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema

This is a tough watch, but without doubt a must-see film for a wide audience – not just for teenagers caught up in this vicious social cycle, nor even just for parents who are wondering how to stall the acceleration of their child’s destructive journey, but to society in general who can access, from the inside, the painful reality of lives shattered by economic neglect that all too often leads to bad choices.

From its mesmerising first shot, to its hopeful denouement, this brutally truthful story is brilliantly told and a compelling watch. www.lancmag.com

Prince Plumbing

01253 932 832 Heating and Gas The role of Prince Plumbing is to offer quick response time, undertaking small to medium jobs in the very local area

Domestic

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Plumbing, Heating and Gas

Small Plumbing Jobs

All engineers are ex-military, local, quick to respond and professional

Ex Military engineers on a mission to help “The lads were bang on time very clean, professional and respectful...�

David Adshead

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www.princeplumbing.co.uk info@.princeplumbing.co.uk

Prince Plumbing

“Ex-Military Engineers on a Mission to Help”

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hen I first got into contact with Danny Prince, the owner and director of Prince Plumbing Heating and Gas Ltd, to arrange my interview with him there was a clear difference in his approach from the outset. I could tell straight away this wasn’t your average businessman who was too busy (or disorganised!) to deal with. Instead, I found he was very willing to arrange the appointment, and absolutely came back to me when he said he would. He was even efficient enough to create an agenda to keep us focussed on the call with things he thought would be important to the article! So my first impressions were incredibly positive but was it all to be downhill from there? Fortunately not.

When I chatted to Danny properly, it became apparent as to why he and the rest of the team operate in this way and that this wasn’t just a one off. Prince Plumbing is a professional operation, that much is certain, and when you hear Danny’s story, it all makes sense…

A background in service Danny started his career in the British Army, in the Royal Corps of Signals, a combat support arm 196

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Above: The Prince Plumbing team, Danny, Rob and Rick

Left: Danny, in the Royal Corps of Signals

focussed on providing battlefield communications and information systems. His eleven years of service were, in his own words, “not always perfect, but amazing nonetheless”. He served a tour in Afghanistan in 2007/8 and was candid in his relief to me that he did not see too much of the hardship that others encountered. “Don’t get me wrong,” Danny added, “it wasn’t exactly plain sailing, but I know so many that were really in the thick of it who www.lancmag.com

must have seen some terrible sights. I’m thankful that I was able to do my job and help those soldiers stay in contact to help keep them safe whilst executing their missions in a dangerous place.”

Right: Rob, serving in the British Army

Throughout his army career, Danny had been based in various barracks across the UK and Europe, latterly Aldershot where his time came to an end.

He added, “I’d had some fantastic experiences and loved most of the life I led, but the time came to move on and come back home where I wanted a new challenge.” So return back to the North West he did, specifically the Fylde Coast from where he originally hailed. And where better to start his own business than this beautiful part of west Lancashire?

Not a plumber by trade, Danny launched himself into the training he needed to become the best he could be, gaining all the qualifications and experience he required to set up Prince Plumbing.

The motivation which stood him in good stead whilst in the army, not to mention the work ethic that was heavily ingrained in him, meant that he achieved his goals when he set out and Prince Plumbing was born.

Building the right team After a year of trading, Danny needed some more support and decided to recruit. And where better to source his new teammate from than the ex-Forces world? Coming from a similar background with a

What is extremely important to the success of Prince Plumbing is the professional and exacting service they provide to customers

similar values set makes it more likely that Danny would get along with his new recruit – something that is needed when working so closely together.

Rob joined five years ago now and they’ve never looked back. In fact, Danny kept looking forwards and added a third member to the team, Rick, again with a military past. Serving in the British Army is something they are all proud of and have in common, making it easier to come together in an efficient and effective unit.

Military precision What is extremely important to the success of Prince Plumbing is the professional and exacting service they provide to customers. It’s why they come so highly rated with excellent reviews across the board. One thing that they are sticklers for is time keeping. Danny says, “to me, it’s extremely unprofessional and disrespectful not to stick to the timings you have agreed with customers and the team feel the same way. You won’t find us making flaky arrangements with a guesstimation as to when we might show up. We don’t ‘squeeze’ jobs in if we don’t have enough time – it wouldn’t be fair on any of our customers as the service would absolutely end up compromised.”

Left: Rick, serving in the British Army

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Instead, they did some very careful planning of how many jobs of a certain size they can realistically fit into a working day. More importantly, they all stick to it. “It was really hard when I was starting out,” he added, “because your instinct is to say yes to everything to get the business going. But in reality, you just end up providing a sub-standard service and I was never alright with that. That’s why I decided to plan the time out across the working day, factoring in breaks and driving time to the jobs too. That way, we don’t end up disappointing multiple people, providing a poor service and LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 197

stressing ourselves out.” So when you speak to Prince Plumbing, don’t take it personally if they can’t fit you in – it’s simply that they don’t want to provide you, or any of their customers, with a service that isn’t up to their high standards.

It isn’t just the timings that showcase their military precision either. When the team arrive, they look the part, all in matching uniforms. Urban camo trousers hark back to their formers careers and they sport branded t-shirts too – the Remembrance Day period saw them wearing special memorial ones. The vans they arrive in are all liveried, with the engineer’s avatar on the back so you know who you’re following, and you’ll find their working style is clean and methodical – every part of the operation reminds you of their past as it unfolds.

Not your average plumbers In somewhat of a break from the norm, Prince Plumbing focus on a key area of business that most other plumbers do under duress; the small jobs.

Fully acknowledging his late entry into the industry, Danny says “there are plenty of plumbers in the area who have decades of experience in the bigger jobs such as complete bathroom installations and so on. While I know what I am doing with all types of plumbing, I decided to leave this sort of project to the others and concentrate on the smaller jobs.

These are the sort of things that most plumbers don’t really want to bother with so I have made them my bread and butter. I know exactly how many I can finish in a day so it makes it easier to plan my time and satisfy my customers.”

Prince Plumbing focus on domestic jobs only so they have defined a clear market. “It means that people know where they stand with us and we aren’t trying to be too many things to too many people. It has made us experts in our field”, he added. Boiler services are on the list, they’re Worcester Bosch accredited and they also hold the appropriate qualifications to provide landlords with their gas safety certificates. Danny even has a favourite type of job – doing a combination boiler replacement with a power flush. So if you find yourself booking one of these in with Prince Plumbing, don’t be surprised if you see Danny himself turn up on your doorstep!

means the engineers aren’t interrupted whilst on the tools, as those in the trade say.

However, this doesn’t mean the traditional methods are always used. In fact, Prince Plumbing very much moves with the times and utilise apps and software to manage the business.

Danny describes how they use WhatsApp to their advantage; “it might sound a bold claim, but WhatsApp has been revolutionary for us. It’s a free service which we encourage customers to download to their smart phone. They can send us a photo or video of the fault and any supporting details as soon as it occurs. Prince Plumbing Heating and Gas HQ will then get back in touch with a quotation and a time when we could come and fix the problem.

But also, the customer can see if we have received the message and when we read it too, removing the doubts of the past as to whether a voicemail has been listened to, a text message received and so on. It has really worked for us.” Other tech makes the customer’s life easier too from digital invoicing and payment to automatic reminders sent when services and maintenance are due. They really do make working with them as easy as possible.

One of the most important aspects of Prince Plumbing is trust. They want customers to know that they can be relied upon to provide the highest level of service at all times and they do this in a respectful way

Once a techie, always a techie For anyone to spend such a significant amount of time in the Royal Signals, there has to be more than just a passing interest in communications techniques. And for Danny, this has translated into a thoroughly modern method of working. He understands the power of human interaction and as such, you’ll find the phone lines are managed at all times in business hours. Not only does this mean that the customer can immediately speak with someone rather than leaving a voicemail, but it also 198

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member of the small business community, I find it’s all about helping each other as best we can. Since I set up Prince Plumbing in 2014, I’ve been amazed at how willing others are to give you a boost so I’ve been trying to do the same ever since”.

A service you can trust One of the most important aspects of Prince Plumbing is trust. They want customers to know that they can be relied upon to provide the highest level of service at all times and they do this in a respectful way. The ethos that runs through the core of the company is the same as they all held in the army: • Attention to detail • Punctuality Local lads working together One of the things you learn early on when you speak to Danny is that he is proud of his roots and is happy servicing his local area and he’s even happier with the team they have. Danny himself is from Lytham-St-Annes, Rob is from Fleetwood and Rick is from Blackpool so they’re all more than happy to concentrate on the Fylde Coast and Wyre region. They have a motto to “Keep it local, keep it reputable” and it’s one they stand by.

• Professionalism • Reliability • A will to win and get the job done It’s for these reasons that Prince Plumbing has earned in excess of 100 five-star ratings – no easy feat for any small company! These ex-military engineers really are on a mission to help and that’s exactly what they plan to keep doing, in exactly the same way, for as long as they can!

Danny said of Rob and Rick, “Prince Plumbing really wouldn’t be where it is today without Rob and Rick and all three of us working together as a proper team. I’m so relieved I’ve found lads I can rely on who share the same work ethic and standards as I do so I can trust them completely to deliver the level of service we want to be known for.” It’s always great to hear a business owner hold the team in such regard, and Danny certainly does that.

The extended team are local business owners too.

The phones are actually answered by a virtual PA service, Preston PA Services. Danny talks very highly of this, saying “Sue has been a real asset. Using a freelance service such as this has allowed us to keep our costs to a minimum and the savings can then be passed on to the customer. Plus, she keeps us really organised which is handy when we’re out on site all day!” Accounting and bookkeeping services are also provided by another local so they really do practice what they preach.

Danny also likes to keep his recommendations local too. He works with a network of other businesses who provide complementary services and sometimes he even promotes competitors!

If Prince Plumbing can’t get to a job in a timely manner, for example, they will recommend someone who can in order to still give the customer a good experience. Danny promotes this network in the Prince Plumbing brochure so he can help them gain a little bit of exposure too, saying of it “as a

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What services do Prince Plumbing Heating and Gas offer?

• Natural gas domestic boiler installations, services & repairs • Central heating installations • Gas certifications • General plumbing and heating works Tel: 01253 932 832 or 07479 959 203 email: info@princeplumbing.co.uk web: www.princeplumbing.co.uk LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 199

Aiming Higher

You can donate to Aiming Higher using the following methods Website | www.aiminghighercharity.org.uk/get-involved/donate/ Just Giving & PayPal | Found on Aiming Higher website

Post | Aiming Higher. 231 – 233 Church Street, Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 3PB. Please ring 01253 206447 further information

Aiming Higher for Disabled Children & their Families is a Blackpool based charity that supports hundreds of local children and their families. 2021 sees them celebrating their tenth anniversary. Over the years the organisation has gone from strength to strength. The charity grew from a government initiative to improve short breaks for disabled children called “Aiming High for Disabled Children”. Aiming High for 200

Disabled Children ran from 2009 – 2011 delivering short breaks, including holiday clubs, events, swimming, and horse-riding.

When the funding stopped the parents and the Project Manager came together to create the charity Aiming Higher.

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In 2011 and 2012 Aiming Higher brokered short breaks on behalf of Blackpool Council, including three different Holiday Clubs, After School Clubs, Family Events, Help4U Hours, and a Watersplash event.

Between April 2012 and May 2013, the charity successfully ran a pilot scheme from Mereside Community Centre which provided a Café, where families could enjoy a “cuppa”, attend meetings, training sessions, access information, and bond with other families who may have similar issues.

When the Community Centre was closed by Blackpool Council the charity decided to look for a building of their own, a place that families could “own” and in May 2013 after a sixmonth refurbishment, Aiming Higher moved into 231 – 233 Church St which remains their home.

Now the charity has a team of 10 staff plus volunteer counsellors and helpers providing a range of services to families with disabled children in Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the charity was offering monthly trips and visits for the whole family, under 5s groups and activities in the centre, counselling for parents and carers as well as wide-ranging support from the family support team which covers everything from housing and education to budgeting and behaviour management.

During 2020 the team adapted well and took counselling, peer support coffee mornings, and family support on to the phones and via video link, delivering food parcels and activity packs to families and helping in any way possible. They helped maintain a sense of community via social media with competitions, videos, and shared photos of families joining in with various activities. www.lancmag.com

Although families have not been into the centre for almost a year, work has continued and measures are being put in place to ensure the safety of everyone when they do return. There are plans underway to develop the building, which include moving the offices up to the top floor to make way for a suite of meeting rooms where the team can deliver individual family support.

Aiming Higher Charity Manager Hayley Kay speaking about plans for the next 10 years says “Although 2020 remains our most challenging year to date, we are certain that 2021, our tenth anniversary year will be our best yet! The development of the building is only the start of an exciting phase in our history and I’m looking forward to reaching even more families across the area”

Like all charities, Aiming Higher has seen fundraising activity decrease in 2020, so if you can support them in any way possible, be that volunteering, or by donating, any assistance will be gratefully received.

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Discover Your Bedroom Trend ‘Tribe’ How Your Décor Choices Link to Your Personality According to a new study, our colour preferences, accessory choices and interior design styles place us into one of five tribes which give away our personality traits, and even our career choices!

More than a half (57per cent) of Brits have re-decorated or updated their bedrooms this year, a survey by My Fitted Bedroom revealed.

With a further 68% predicting that updating their homes will continue to be a priority for 2021.

Two thirds (67% per cent) also admit that the events of 2020 have completely changed the way that we view our homes and

the individual spaces within it.

The survey also looked at how Brits have beautified their bedrooms – in terms of colour and style, which has shown some key trends. This has been researched further in terms of what this says about our personalities.

“When it comes to bedroom design trends, the research discovered that there are five

key decorating tribes that distinguish people in the UK”, explained Megan Baker, colour and design expert from My Fitted Bedroom. “However what is even more interesting is that we were able to align colour, texture and accessory choices with personality traits – proving that your bedroom may say a lot more about you as a person that you actually think.”

#1 Stressed-Out Serenity Seekers “One of the biggest tribes in the UK, according to the study, are the Stressed-Out Serenity Seekers.

This group of homeowners have busy, non-stop lives. Juggling fast paced jobs with home life, many have struggled to adapt to the overlap that homeworking has created. They want their bedroom to be calm, serene and uplifting – offering them a complete escape and refuge from the rest of the house.

“From a colour perspective, they have started to move away from grey colour schemes that have

been popular for many years – instead opting for the new neutrals of greeny-blues, dusty pinks, cashmere and also bright, stark whites. These colours offer a uplifting and calming space for them to unwind at the end of the day. The wider décor is minimalist. Accessories look good but are functional, with everything put away in its rightful place and no unnecessary clutter. Clever, hidden, built-in storage maximises the space and keeps surfaces clear.

Key looks: Stressed-Out Serenity Seekers

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#2 Eternal Optimists “Tribe number two are the Eternal Optimists.

They have responded to the events of this year by injecting bright blasts of colour, pattern and even uplifting slogans into the bedroom. Yellow and cobalt blue are popular wall colour choices for the bolder members of this tribe – others have opted to add in pops of colour via textiles, prints, slogans and soft furnishings.

Less is more is not a design term in this tribe’s vocabulary. In contrast to the Serenity Seekers, our Eternal Optimists like to surround themselves with

objects, pictures, books and artifacts – all often associated with special memories.

Members of this tribe are fun and lively with a sense of adventure and zest for life. This glass half full group are more likely to work in a creative industry, illustrated by their design flare which is not just restricted to the bedroom. Furniture is often a combination or old and new for an eclectic look which reflects their personalities.

Key looks: Key looks: Eternal Optimists

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#3 Hopeless Romantics “On first glance our Hopeless Romantics, which are tribe number three, might not look like a very cohesive group but it is their love of pattern, texture, florals and botanical prints which marry them together. Whether it’s bold statement botanicals or delicate florals, this tribe are traditionalists at heart and like their bedroom to display their romantic and passionate side which doesn’t always come to the surface in day to day life where they are confident and independent.

Whether it’s a statement four poster or a country cottage inspired bed, they like their bed to be the centrepiece of the room, with other furniture designed to complement it. This tribe don’t have a cohesive colour scheme but unlike the Eternal Optimist’s sporadic approach, they have a strong design theme which runs throughout their bedroom tying everything together.

Key looks: Hopeless Romantics

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#4 New Wave Naturalists “Tribe number four, our New Wave Naturalists, have been inspired by nature more than ever this year and have opted to use this as the basis of their bedroom design. Colour schemes include rich earthy tones, greens, blues and lavenders.

This is complimented with a wide range of natural materials including wood, sustainable fabrics and textiles and locally sourced, handmade accessories.

Another common feature of this group is their love

of plants and succulents which are a prominent feature in their sleeping space and connect them with nature whilst indoors. New Wave Naturalists are down to earth, reliable, loyal and caring and are likely to work in a profession with these traits. They are also very easy going and avoid confrontation. Unsurprisingly they like to spend as much time outdoors as possible and are passionate environmentalists.

Key looks: New Wave Naturalists

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#5 Pragmatists “Our fifth and final tribe are the Pragmatists. This is one of the only tribes who still opt to have a TV as a focal point in their bedroom, with lots of other homeowners claiming tech is increasingly a turn off in this space. In contrast, the Pragmatists have increased the amount of tech and gadgets they have at home – with smart bedroom gadgets central to their interior design.

From a colour perspective, Pragmatist’s are fans

of neutral whites and greys – clean lines, geometric patterns and minimalist design. This tribe are highly organised, practical and analytical. They are likely to work in IT, engineering, accountancy or law. For our Pragmatists, it’s all about creating the optimum space in the bedroom. Everything has a function and purpose and their bedroom design and accessories are chosen to create the ultimate in functional environment.

Key looks: Pragmatists

“It is clear from the research that this year has really shaped the way that we think about our homes – how we use them, what we need from the space and how they can help support our wider well-being. Our bedrooms are certainly central to this and many of the new colour trends and approaches to design reflect our wider outlook on life. For many we now require our homes to be multi-functional spaces and maximising space – clever storage and built-in solutions is becoming an increasingly important way of merging our style and functionality, something which looks set to continue as we head into 2021.”

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Your star horoscope

Manish Kumar Arora is a renowned KP Astrologer, Numerologist, Tarot Reader & Vastu Consultant. He has been rendering professional advice to clients with a reasonable degree of success. He has been conferred with the title of ‘Jyotish Varahamihir’ and ‘Jyotish Aryabhatt.’ He has been writing monthly astrological columns for many international magazines.

Aries: Mar 21 – Apr 19 An excellent feeling will prevail throughout this month. Connections or fortuitous meetings with people of status, importance or other cultures will feature. A sudden windfall gain is indicated for those individuals who are involved in competitive activity or games of chance.

People connected with your past may come back to your life through unexpected connections or communications and you may have a powerful opportunity to advance if you resolve past matters. with them. Complicated decisions related to a love affair, relationships or finances might have to be taken.

Favourable Dates: Feb 2, 3, 11, 12, 20, 21 Favourable Colours: Green & Blue Taurus: Apr 20 – May 20 You’re at turning point with your creative or spiritual gifts. Put latent ability into practice. You can bring about long awaited changes, perhaps by eliminating certain possibilities from the picture. Focus on new practices and dreams.

Friendships and a place in the community will be important this month. You will have to decide with whom you align and also see who stands with you.

Negotiations, dealings with authority and matters of joint holdings or monies may be reviewed or changed. You will move from one era to another in your partnership life.

Favourable Dates: Feb 7, 9, 16, 18, 25, 27 Favourable Colours: White & Blue Gemini: May 21 – Jun 20 A good month for your creative pursuits and outdoor activity.

Decisions taken in the professional front will be spot on and will lead to success. The emphasis this month is on financial planning, research on new business or an activity or improvement of career. Along with it also comes the desire to improve your appearance and interaction with friends. Just make sure the expansion confines itself to your horizons and doesn’t do the waistline or the brain cells any damage. You may find yourself entertaining others and also be entertained yourself.

Favourable Dates: Feb 4, 5, 13, 14, 22, 23 Favourable Colours: White & Grey Cancer: Jun 21 – Jul 22 A good time for spirituality, meditation and esoteric pursuits. Even though there will be periods of isolation and low energy levels, the support and care showed by your loved ones will give you succor.

Towards the second half of the month you are back at your best on the professional front and look forward to the future. Your ability to conduct yourself well, overcome obstacles and take the load will open new doors. Open your mind and your life to new possibilities. Make the gesture. Take the trip. Your luck could be in.

Favourable Dates: Feb 3, 8, 12, 17, 21, 26 Favourable Colours: Red & Yellow

Leo: Jul 23 – Aug 22 A good month where you set your own pace. Time is good for intellectual tasks, acquisition of new skills, higher education and research and academic pursuits. You are focused to put your personal life in order. Leisure able interactions with loved ones and friends are indicated. Some of you may return to old connections, emotionally or romantically. You’re having fun mixing it up a bit in your love life, whether you’re single or coupled up. At the same time open rivalry from enemies or competitors is also indicated.

Favourable Dates: Feb 3, 4, 12, 13, 21, 22 Favourable Colours: White & Yellow Virgo: Aug 23 – Sep 22 This month will test as to how you keep the balance of personal life and professional life or working responsibilities. Look long and hard before you make decisions. You may have to deal with professional bodies. Take authority where you have to and learn to deal with authority where you have to. There may be conflicting advice or a conflicting sense of duty. Negotiate but rely on your own judgement in the end. Patience and determination will see you to a better place. Take resort to prayer, meditation and spirituality to tide over stressful undercurrents.

Favourable Dates: Feb 4, 7, 13, 16, 22, 25 Favourable Colours: Blue & Yellow Libra: Sep 23 – Oct 22 You may find the first blossoms of the fruits you have worked for or you may suddenly be taken by a fortunate development or the winds of change. The change could be intense or complete once it rolls through. For those of you who’ve been studying or preparing for a new venture, career move or phase of your life, this is the time to put all you faith in yourself and your preparation and forge ahead. Those in a relationship can revive or renew romantic options or life together by expanding the horizon.

Favourable Dates: Feb 1, 4, 10, 13, 19, 22 Favourable Colours: Grey & Yellow Scorpio: Oct 23 – Nov 21 Financial planning specially related to investments, taxes, and fixed asset buying will be spot on. Gain of an asset and status is indicated. A good month for resolving long standing issues and disputes related to personal life and relationships.

You rediscover the love that you share with your dear ones and relatives and work harder to make these interactions better. For the singles, there may be someone new in your life. Their presence, activities or nature may bring changed conditions with what you do or the way you live.

Favourable Dates: Feb 2, 4, 11, 13, 20, 22 Favourable Colours: White & Yellow

Sagittarius: Nov 22 – Dec 21 The underlying theme this month is reaching out to the loved ones and showing that you care. You are at your communicative best when it comes to personal and professional interactions. You may go back over something in order to move ahead later on.

People who have featured in your emotional life before could return. This could happen with suddenness and provide an opportunity for renewal. You may reconnect with an old flame. You may return to goals or dreams that you’ve held in the past. Don’t immerse yourself too deeply though.

Favourable Dates: Feb 1, 5, 10, 14, 19, 23 Favourable Colours: White & Green Capricorn: Dec 22 – Jan 19 An excellent month that sees your creative juices flowing. It sees a major shift or break with regard to your desires or sense of life direction. You can turn your life around in some way or another. and move towards new frontiers and a new definition of yourself. Embrace the new and unknown. It can provide a breakthrough in perception and show the way ahead as long as you’re prepared to do the hard stuff and wait for the right time. Children and romance may feature strongly in important career or vocational decisions.

Favourable Dates: Feb 1, 6, 10, 15, 19, 24 Favourable Colours: Red & Blue Aquarius: Jan 20 – Feb 18 There will be change, challenge and important dealings with career direction and responsibilities. There could simply be a hectic feel as new projects or operations make their presence felt.

This will focus you on keeping the key aspects of life in balance, i.e. personal and professional, self and partnership and will test the urge for growth or expansion against the responsibilities that come with a position or profession. Work or health interests or concerns may feature at home. Domestic life could be changed by changes with partnership.

Favourable Dates: Feb 5, 7, 14, 16, 23, 25 Favourable Colours: Yellow & Blue Pisces: Feb 19 – Mar 20 It is time for to give more to those around you, becoming more involved or taking a leadership role. There may be developing associations with people of status, of other cultures and those of academic standing. Take on the people and projects that allow you to show what you’re made of. Your ideas are likely to inform or influence others about the way they live.

You’ll have the opportunity to test your powers to the full. You will need a broader horizon to bring new prospects, new frontiers or a sea change.

Favourable Dates: Feb 3, 4, 12, 13, 21, 22 Favourable Colours: White & Red

Manish Kumar Arora, 91-9871062000 | K.P. Astrologer, Numerologist, Tarot Card Reader & Vastu Consultant www.facebook.com/manishastroconsultant | manish@manishastrologer.com

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