Visit Lancashire

A perfect picnic

In true British style LBTB staff celebrated Lancashire picnic month in the office rather than brave the torrential rain pounding the Chorley streets. From chicken sandwiches and home baked bread (from Rossendale) to pork pies and olives (bought from a Lancashire supermarket) - we all enjoyed a lovely LBTB lunch!

A Floral Feast in Garstang

Not only does the area of Garstang have a reputation for serving up some of Lancashire's finest produce but it is also a twice Gold winner of Britain in Bloom and yesterday hosted a visit by the judges of the European equivalent - The Entente Florale!

Adrian and I joined the hard working horticulturalists of Garstang and the European judges at the Garstang Country Hotel & Golf club last night to celebrate the blooming achievement of this Lancashire village.

A hole in one for Blackpool

My weird and slightly childish love of crazy golf saw me trying out the new adventure golf course at the Pleasure Beach over the weekend. In glorious Blackpool sunshine we tried out this newly opened 12 hole course, complete with water obstacles, astro-turf and frustrating hurdles.

Girls' Night Out

Friday night saw myself and my friend leaving the family at home and heading out of Blackpool for a good old girlie chat over dinner. Having checked out the website for a good recommendation we chose to take a drive up the A6 to the New Holly at Forton. Neither of us had been before but the newly promoted head chef Sam Sanderson had taken part in one of our Lancashire Hot Shots events last year and the feedback had been excellent.

Ship Ahoy!

Where to go for Father's Day lunch was the dilemma... The Ship at Elswick the solution. Chosen from our yummy list of Taste Lancashire accredited restaurants, and one that I hadn't tried before (or known anyone else to). Was it a gamble that paid off?

Fence Gate - tastic

The temptation of award winning sausages* and the need to celebrate my husband's birthday made the Fence Gate Inn, near Burnley, our destination on Friday evening.  Only the week before I had sent the winners of a 'Lancashire gourmet short break' to the Fence Gate Inn for lunch (which they had thoroughly enjoyed) and thought it was high time I sampled Kevin Berkin's award winning food for myself.

A Sunday Afternoon Treat

Yesterday I was lucky enough (along with my brother) to be treated to Sunday lunch by my Mum and her partner. As she hails from Yorkshire I always try and find somewhere new to go and eat when she visits.

After a recommendation from Sarah at work on the Friday we took the short drive along the road to the newly refurbished Windmill Tavern at Salwick near Preston - Highest Quality Assured Grading.

An Italian Job

This week saw the tourist board saying farewell to fellow team member Ann and as is customary we all travelled in convoy to Croston's most bellisimo Italian Fresco Fresco.  As the sun beat down on to our 'alfresco' table and Italian voices drifted across the restaurant we could well have been in Italy instead of a very pretty and quaint English village on the outskirts of Chorley.

The Cheese Adventure

In a tale that might well have been lifted straight from the pages of an Enid Blyton story, members of the LBTB team set off to explore the Creamy Lancashire Cheese Trail on a glorious evening in May. Starting from Chipping with sun beating down, this 4 mile 'jolly romp' took the team through some beautiful countryside - locally known as the 'milk fields' of Lancashire. We were soon joined by a plucky little dog who lead us over stiles (we nearly missed) and across open fields - we were now officially the Secret Seven!

Following the French

I’ve just returned from 10 days in the Dordogne region of France and was impressed by 2 things - the variety and quantity of the local produce markets and their efforts regarding the environment and plastic bag use.