Visit Lancashire

Do ghosts roam around Lancaster Maritime Museum?

Do ghosts roam around Lancaster Maritime Museum? Well, personally I remain unconvinced, but the team from Living TV's 'Most Haunted Live' were certainly giving it their best shot to find them. They came to the Maritime Museum as part of the 2009 Halloween special 'Eight Faces of Evil'. As it is live TV, I think they were asking a lot to expect ghosts to perform on cue and for much of the evening they appeared to be in hiding. But Ouija board activity in our fisherman's cottage display and the sense of a murder in the stores of our 18th century warehouse maybe suggested otherwise.  The next day a perceptive visitor remarked that our ghosts 'had all been upset' by the TV crew's interference the night before – but I've yet to find any evidence. Nothing has moved, there are no orbs or spooky groans and, for me, Lancaster Maritime Museum remain a very friendly place to be. But if people want to come down and test the atmosphere for themselves and see if sprits are at play, that's fine by me. All visitors are welcome!

Michelle Cooper, Assistant Keeper, Lancaster Maritime Museum.

Young Explorers at Clitheroe Castle

Many museums offer trails and treasure hunts for little ones, but I thought the recently redeveloped Clitheroe Castle Museum did it particularly well. As well as the tick list of objects to find and draw, they provided some great props to get children into the theme, in the form of an explorer’s hat and a brightly coloured rucksack containing a magnifying glass, pencil and sharpener (useful addition). This certainly kept my children happy – the four year old was volunteered by the other two to wear the hat and carry the backpack while they helped her find everything on the list.

Fright night in Lancashire

Sally's Tale: It was a dark, dark night in West Lancashire, the moon was out and the ghouls were ready for Farmaggedon– the ultimate terror experience!

I’m a big wimp generally when it comes to ghost trains and horror movies but this looked liked fun and it was, it was really good, scary fun.

First up was ‘Terror on the Farm’. We queued briefly outside a haunted house, complete with dancing skeletons and freakish dancers to wait our turn.  The majority of other thrill-seekers were teens, but there were also families and couples waiting, and wanting to be scared. Finally we were invited in (we were in a group of 4) and so made our way cautiously inside.  We followed dark passage ways through scary scenes and gory sets as blood thirsty actors jumped out, screamed and terrorised our path. The sound affects and the screams from other ‘victims’ added to the experience – which was as much fun as it was frightening!

Zoe's Tale: Having just left the other scare house I was a little on edge and could have done with a few minutes of mediation just to calm the nerves... With 'inmates' chasing and jumping out at me from behind coffins, tables and walls my pulse was racing the whole way around Insanity. The' shirking rooms' were particularly disturbing; being forced to push your way through a giant marshmallow sounds like fun, but in the dark with people pushing at your back and screams it overpowered my senses! After leaving Insanity the general feedback from the crowed was “excellent”! And I shall definitely be back next year too!

Who decided Halloween was so cool this year?

It seems we've all gone Halloween mad! Moorhouses Brewery in Pendle has seen a huge leap in beer sales. The brewer said the success was down to increased sales of its Pendle Witches ale in the run up to Halloween!

If you're joining in the Halloween fun, check out what's going on in the home of the Pendle Witches (that's Lancashire by the way).

MORE HALLOWEEN FUN THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A (BROOM)STICK AT!

Personally I'll be hoping for a visit to the Parr-a-Normal Party at Farmer Parr's the night before I do my own party on Halloween for my little boy's first birthday.

Sarah Lundy

Can’t Stop Monkeying Around

One off my days off last week was spent at Go Ape, Rivington! If you follow our blog you may have read about my last trip to Go Ape, Rivington with my work colleagues a few months ago.

This time I went with some of my family, which again was a lot of fun!

My younger brother has always been very unsure about big rides so we weren’t sure how he was going to get on. So like the loving big sister I am, I made him go to the back so he wouldn’t slow me down. But he loved it and raced me to the 2nd course so he could go first!

My Lancashire Travels...

October is officially heritage month for me – I have visited a number of Lancashire heritage attractions and there’s more to come. At the beginning of the month I visited Whalley Abbey in the Ribble Valley. Unfortunately the rain stopped me having a tramp around the Abbey ruins but I did call into the exhibition and looked around the conference centre. I have to say it is quite exciting driving through the gatehouse into the cobbled courtyard of the Abbey and the village of Whalley is a real ‘English’ village. The Monks tours sounded very interesting – might have to go back for that one.

"I'm the King of the Castle and you're the dirty rascal!"

"I'm the King of the Castle and you're the dirty rascal" That was the cry from Sarah Short on Sunday (18 October), our recent competition winner as she spent the day as King of The Castle at Clitheroe Castle Museum. Sarah and her 5 loyal subjects descended on the Museum for an exciting day of exploration, adventure and fun - a day fit for a king!

As Site Manager of Clitheroe Castle I had the honour of welcoming Sarah and her retinue to our wonderful museum. I must say that I had a great time – it's not often that I get to dress up in costume as a Medieval woman and take such a lively group around our venue.

Love, From Blackpool

Valerie and Frank spend a romantic night in Blackpool....

Spilling the Beans about SilverDell

Every once in a while you stumble across a real Aladdin’s Cave of a shop and that’s exactly what I found at SilverDell of Kirkham – for such a small local shop there’s a lot going on! Not only does it sell books, cards and gifts but it is also a coffee shop, ice cream parlour and a real magnet for some big names in authors.

Last week it was the turn of Clarissa Dickson-Wright, perhaps best known for her role on the television series, Two Fat Ladies, to come to SilverDell to sign copies of her latest book “Rifling Through my Drawers: My Life in a Year”.

Proprietor Elaine Silverwood always makes an ice cream in honour of her book signing guest and lucky Clarissa got two – Clarissa’s Spilled Beans (award-winning vanilla with jelly beans), after her autobiography “Spilling the Beans” and Clarissa’s Ginger Tipple as she loves ginger.

The secret's out!

I’ve got mixed feelings about finding out that our local Italian restaurant, Nino’s in Rawtenstall, has just gained Taste Lancashire Highest Quality. One half of me feels disappointed that our special, secret place, where we always go to for any family celebration, is now on the Lancashire food map for all to discover. The other, more rational side of me is delighted that what we’ve known for years has been recognised in this award – that this is one of the best Italian restaurants around! Anyway, saying that it’s a “secret” place could not be further from the truth as the restaurant is frequented by Premiership football players amongst other “celebrities”.