We visited Simpsons of Greenfield Mill in Colne for their celebration of 30 years in business. At the family firm we met with their directors and were shown around the high quality new kitchen and bedroom showrooms.
We also helped with the cutting of their cake celebrating their 30 years. Its an excellent achievement to have a business that has been going so long, as the average age of all businesses is only about 9 years. And of course good companies like Simpson's provide jobs for many local people.
Cutting the 30 year anniversary cake Apart from a meeting of West Craven Together in the morning I had most of the day to catch up on some of the masses of things that I have had to leave until later, during this very busy year.
Friday 28th September
In the evening we held a thank you reception for the walk leaders of the 4th Pendle Walking Festival. This has been the most successful so far with over 1500 people joining us on our guided walks.
Looking at the civic chains in the Council chamber
We had also invited the walkers that are participating in our walk of the Pendle Way which we walk every Tuesday afternoon, to join us.
Walkers look at Pendle's civic history
After meeting them all they went into the council chamber where I joined them in my full civic attire to show them how I chaired meetings of the council.
I show the walk leaders how I am required to dress for Council Meetings
I gave a short thank you speech and Jacqui and I explained some of how the council works. We had on show all of the civic chains, which are extremely fine in their detail, including the 110 year old Colne chain which I wear.
Pendle Way walkers on top of Pendle Hill
Here’s what I said;
We are very fortunate here in Pendle to live in an area of such outstanding beauty. Surprisingly to some, Pendle is mostly rural and offers lots of opportunities for excellent walking and many other outdoor activities. In Pendle we have many beautiful small villages, many great traditional country pubs, the best stretch of scenic canal towpath in Britain and our local people who always have time to welcome visitors. We also have a great history from the Vikings to the Romans to the Victorians who provided us with our fascinating heritage.
After many discussions with footpath experts I have come to the conclusion that because of our heritage, this little-know gem of Pendle, has more defined footpaths per square mile than anywhere else in the world. More than the Yorkshire Dales, more than the Lake District, more than Scotland or Wales and more than other area in Britain. And it is a well-known fact that we have more footpaths per square mile on this tiny island than other country in the World. So there you have it Pendle is the footpath centre of the world! Probably.
Recently as Mayor I have been leading a group of walkers around our attractive 45 mile Pendle Way on Tuesday afternoons. It is split into 8 sections and on completing it we decided that we had enjoyed it so much that we should turn round and do it the other way. If you can spare the time come and join us.
I have also taken the opportunity to get to the top of our 3 largest hills in Pendle, in my suit, with my chains on and we didn’t do it by helicopter! They are of course Boulsworth, Weets and Pendle Hill. Proud Pendle is only 60 metres short of being a mountain, so on a clear day you can see Blackpool Tower and up to the Yorkshire Dales and beyond. And as a result of the picture being in the paper, a parish councillor has gone up Pendle to give the trig point a fresh coat of white paint. So I asked him if he could Weets and Boulsworth as well!
Pendle has the potential to be able to welcome many, many more visitors and with the opening of the new Boundary Mill Store, that is going to happen. On that site at the end of the M65 we will have a Pendle Visitor Centre where we can let everyone know about what great delights we have in store for visitors to Pendle. We will encourage them to see our fantastic countryside and stay a while. Most of our fantastic footpaths give glorious long distance views of Pendle Hill, and all of them have great interest for walkers. Once people see what we have here in Pendle they will want to come back again and again.
I led one of the walks on the Sunday of the Walking Festival, Beating the Bounds. A 9-mile walk around the ancient boundaries of Barnoldswick. In the pouring rain The Town Crier set us off and we gave everyone a willow wand with which to beat the boundary stones. But best of all was our lunch stop where we had erected a marquee in Letcliffe Park to feed the walkers with a good rustic repast lunch with a bottle of Copper Dragon beer. Whilst they were eating they were entertained by a Border Patrol a local folk band singing folk songs including our own Beating the Bounds song, which everyone joined in. It’s on YouTube if you want to see it later. We attracted people from all over including three Indian Ladies from Liverpool, two of who had not gone on a walk like this before. The Town Council then presented medals to everyone who had completed the walk.
We are very grateful for all of the walk leaders who gave up their free time to make the Pendle walking Festival the undoubted success that it has been. I wish to thank you all for your great efforts even though the weather was less than perfect.
Thanks also to John Belbin the walk organiser, and Mike Williams and Vaughan Jones from Pendle Council’s Tourism team.
I do hope that you will all be able to get involved again next year when we are looking to make the 5th Pendle walking Festival even bigger and better.
Looking towards Black Moss reservoirs
View down to Barley from the foot of Pendle Hill
Thursday 27th September
In the morning we were very pleased to join Mr & Mrs Bowker and family in Barnoldswick for their Diamond Wedding anniversary.
With Fred and Kathleen Bowker on their Diamond Wedding
Whilst having a slice of cake and a cup of tea Fred showed us the medals from his days in the Army. He has also played in Earby Brass band for many years and worked at Rolls until he retired. Kathleen worked as a cook in Barlick.
The Mayor & Mayoress of Pendle at Home was in the evening. Here we invite civic leaders from Lancashire and Craven to visit the Town Hall.
The Arden Youth Choir entertains
Over 50 guests heard the Arden Youth Choir singing in the council chamber and later watched a flower arranging demonstration.
In the Council chamber for the Mayor & Mayoress "At Home"
The Mayoress's committee also did fund-raising for the chosen charities and added over £600 to their fund.
Wednesday 26th September
I was in the Town Hall early for a catch up with our Communications Team so that I could bring them up to date on the activities that we are currently planning.
Just in time for a quick sandwich with my fellow councillors on the Licensing Committee, before we went in to session. Here we heard the application by the Bay Horse, Fence for an extension to their existing license. As several nearby residents had registered their concerns we heard from both them and the pub owners. The committee decided to grant the application as set out with two conditions relating to not holding karaoke sessions and that they would have to install a noise limiting device in certain circumstances.
I rushed from Licensing to the board meeting of Pendle Enterprise Trust who provide business support for start up businesses.
Back home for tea and a quick change before we went into Barlick to attend the Barnoldswick Town Council meeting.
Some of the Town Councillors at Barnoldswick Town Council
This visit was also a part of my tour of Pendle’s Town & Parish councils, I appeared first in my Pendle chains to go through the issues that I have been highlighting to all of the councils. That done, I withdrew to get the chains removed so that I could carry on with the meeting as a Town Councillor. Here I gave a report on the recent successful Beating the Bounds community walk. We also agreed to support SELRAP to get the rail link between Skipton and Colne reinstated.
Barnoldswick Town Council Chairman, Maureen Davis and myselfTuesday 25th September
Our walkers make their way up Pendle again
In the afternoon we continued with our walk of the Pendle Way, anti-clockwise, on another sunny day. The summer of 2007 seemes to have been good weather on Tuesdays! In over 10 outings we have only had to re-schedule on 1 day and even then 8 walkers carried on to complete it.
Long distance shot of our walkers coming up Pendle
This time we set off from Barley car park and went up Pendle Hill via the Big End, then down past Ogden Clough to finish at Newchurch in Pendle.
Jacqui and Anne at the shinny white trig point
On top of the Hill I got changed into my chains to enable us to do a before and after shot of the freshly painted white trig point. We got plenty of good photographs. If you notice my trousers have changed colour on the "after" photograph (via Photoshop!) to try to match the original shot which we had taken.
I meet with a runner from Halifax - "bagging" the hill
This is a report, which we sent to the press:
Pendle Hill gets a coat of paint.
Besides walking the many footpaths of Pendle, the Mayor Coun. Allan Buck has been touring all of the Town and Parish Councils in the Borough. One of his recent visits was to Higham with West Close Booth Parish Council, where he met with the councillors there. Before the meeting started, he discovered that the recent picture of the Mayor on top Pendle Hill in his suit and chains had spurred a Parish Councillor into action. He told the Mayor that he had been so ashamed with the poor state of repair of the trig point on top of Pendle as shown in the photo, that he had taken action into his own hands. So he had climbed the hill and given the trig point a smart new coat of white paint.
Recently as part of the Mayor’s second walk around the Pendle Way, his group stopped on top of Pendle to admire the freshly painted trig point standing out brightly in the sunshine. The Mayor said “I thank the Councillor for his community spirit, his efforts are very much appreciated by everyone. This really shows how much local people care about our wonderful countryside”.
The Mayor added, “ We have the most scenic footpaths in Pendle and they are all easy to access, so I encourage Pendle people to get out there and enjoy them for themselves”. If you would like to join him on Tuesday afternoons on his Pendle Way walk please contact 661633 for details.
Before - taken a few weeks back
And after - taken on Tuesday!
Monday 24th September
In the morning I had a visit from members of our Pendle I.T. support team who came to help set up my internet video conferencing. This is to enable me to provide a Mayor on Line service via a Skype link. To be able to video link with me you will need to download software, which is available on http://www.skype.com/ just click on the Skype version 3.5 box. We are still at the pilot stage at present and I shall give more information in a later blog.
In the afternoon I called in to the Town Hall to discuss the coming Mayors Tour of Pendle. We are entertaining civic leaders from many parts of Lancashire and we needed to run through the programme that we are planning for them.
In the evening I went to Earby Parish Council as part of my tour of all the Town and Parish Councils in Pendle. Here I gave a run through of what I had done so far and what was coming up. We also assisted with the presentation of the Shaw Greening Award for young people acheivements.
Charlotte receives the Shaw Greening Award
It was awarded to Charlotte Dundon (17) and we took a picture which we passed on the Barnoldswick & Earby Times. I fully agreed with Chris Tennant,the chairman of the Parish Council when he said that Charlotte is an inspirational girl. I also promised the parish Council that I would go back around Christmas to help with their best-dressed shop competition.
