Visit Lancashire

Feast your eyes at the Halo

It was the perfect combination and one I just couldn’t resist - lights, kites, music and an open air picnic - at Feast Your Eyes at the Halo, the finale event to the Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food and Culture last Saturday evening.

With rucksacks of food we climbed the hill with crowds of others to the large scale Halo sculpture which overlooks much of Rossendale, to hear drum music beating from the marquee, see the sky a-flutter with brightly coloured kites and sit with lots of other families tucking into the picnics they had brought along. My children hadn’t brought their kites (I think they’re still tied up in knots from the last windy outing!) so they were delighted to find that there was the opportunity to make kites there.

Tasting of England at Stanley House Hotel

Richard Bampfield, one of only 280 Masters of Wine in the world, is an experienced wine professional with over 30 years of experience in the international wine industry. For the last 11 years, he and his wife Jackie have been running their own business, specialising in wine public relations, corporate wine events and trade consultancy. Richard tells us about his most recent visit to Stanley House Hotel in Mellor for its second annual Tasting of England event.

A masterclass in Risotto making from Lancashire chef Warwick Dodds

Yesterday saw three of our four team entrants head off to the Hastings in Lytham for a cookery masterclass by head chef Warwick Dodds in preparation for the first round of the Great Northern Cook Off Competition. For the amateur cooking competition, attracting teams from all business sectors, our intrepid team of Tim, Justina, Sally and Katie donned their aprons and headed into their first professional kitchen.

What followed was a fascinating display of chopping, frying, stirring and culinary genius – well, in our opinion! Guiding the team through the basics of knife skills as they chopped and sliced onions and vegetables I was ecstatic that no-one lost a finger! Whilst covering the basics of good sauce making – butter/flour/milk or stock/seasoning – Justina audibly gasped at the amount of salt used but conceded the dish tasted perfect.

Way of the Roses Cycle Route Launched!

I recently accepted the request from the office to ’help’ launch the brand new 170 mile Way of the Roses coast to coast national cycle route 69 which goes from Morecambe to Bridlington and has been developed by Sustrans. My role was to cycle the first 35 miles from Morecambe promenade to Settle, which sounded fine until I realised that Morecambe is at sea level, and Settle, very much, isn’t! So with a looming sense of dread I arrived at Morecambe promenade, adjacent to the newly restored art deco Midland Hotel, with dark clouds around, but no rain, for the official opening by the various dignitaries including one of Morecambe’s famous sons, designer Wayne Hemingway.

A perfect 'sprint' up Pendle Hill

I’ve lived in the East Lancashire area for a pretty long time now and never yet climbed Pendle Hill. As we’ve been enjoying what might be the last of the summer’s sun recently, we decided it was time to put this right.

We set off from the car park in the village of Barley and unwittingly chose the steepest route for our climb – this and the fact that we had to keep up with my mountain-goat of an eldest daughter, made me glad that Pendle Hill is 170 feet (51 metres) short of being a mountain! The view from the top is worth any aching legs, though. From the trig point you can see hardly any signs of modern civilisation, apart from a few wind turbines - just fields, stone walls, reservoirs and woods. It’s a perfect away-from-it-all spot for a well-deserved picnic.

If you fancy a guided walk up Pendle Hill try “Pendle Hill the Hard Way” on Thursday 9^th, part of Pendle Walking Festival which runs until Sunday 12^th September.

I’m thinking of taking the children back for the spooky Hallowe’en Witch Walks up the hill next month...

Barbara

Full Steam Ahead!

We recently visited Ribble Steam Railway, based just by Preston docks. With two youngsters with an interest in all things steam, based on their upbringings on Thomas and Friends, we were all looking forward to our trip. There are well known steam heritage lines around the country and the nearest one I think to us is the East Lancashire Railway linking Rawtenstall and Heywood. This one however, is a little hidden gem. There’s a museum full of heritage engines with plenty of easy to follow information, a workshop where you can see what’s being currently done to restore some of the past, a shop, cafe, lots of hands on things for the youngsters and of course, a steam service that takes you about one and a half miles going behind Preston marina and alongside the River Ribble. Car parking is also free. The weekend we visited was their fifth birthday and even got some free cake too!

Shimmering Cycles, Sparkling Lights

Tuesday evening saw my twelve year old son and I take to our bikes along with another 12,000 equally energetic souls to hit Blackpool’s world famous promenade for the annual Ride the Lights event. For one night only six miles of Blackpool’s seafront is closed to traffic and pedal power takes over whilst the illuminations are given a proper test run before the big switch on (someone called Robbie Williams is doing it this year!)