A day to catch up on some of things that need doing and as it was dry I decided to walk up to my post box, which is about ¾ mile away. Where I live we do not get post delivered or for that matter nor do we get a refuse collection. I am also on a spring supply for water but we do at least have electricity, which only arrived here in the 1960’s. Prior to that it would have been oil lamps.
In the evening I went to the Town Hall to meet with this year’s intake of new councillors. We wanted to know their experiences and if we could do more to support them. They all looked to be handling their roles of councillors well and it seemed that the information and mentoring that they can get has been helpful.
Tuesday 30 October
We set off on the Emmott Arms, Laneshaw Bridge to Earby section of the Pendle Way in warm sun.
As we walked it did cloud over but didn’t rain, so success with the weather again. This stretch takes us by the trig point adopted by John Belbin and we noted that it could perhaps do with a wash and brush up similar to the freshly painted trig point on top of Pendle Hill.
Mr Belbin's adopted trig point
This is the sixth section of the walk and once again gives excellent views across Pendle.
Up and over
Wednesday 31 October
I ordered the heating oil for winter on the internet, which is very easy to do, cheaper and the service has been excellent. In the afternoon I delivered Barnoldswick Town Council’s newsletter called Communicate. This has gone quarterly but this time we decided to deliver it ourselves to save money and to get a tighter delivery round. Previously when we paid the post office to deliver they could only do it to a postcode area, which included villages not in Barnoldswick. The delivery took me about 3 hours and takes me into a part of the Town we call Poet’s Corner has the street names are called Milton, etc.
In the evening I was on the Standards Committee to consider a complaint about a councillor. We looked at the evidence given by the officers and as the majority of the committee wanted to have a full hearing we had to defer it for a few weeks.
Thursday 1 November
I nipped in to my friendly hairdresser Manfred, at Talking Heads in Brierfield, for my regular haircut and ear bending. Manfred has clients from all over the place including me from Barnoldswick. He told me that one client rung him from South America to make sure that she got booked in!
In the evening I went to meet with the bell ringers of St Mary le Ghyll Church. They are a committed bunch and want to get a ring of 8 bells rather than the 3 that are there now. These original bells are from 1723 and were last refurbished in 1880.
The bell ringers took me up the bell tower to see for myself the problems that they have now. The bell frame is also starting to split and need replacing. The idea is to start a Centre of Excellence for bell ringers. But they have been turned down by the Heritage Lottery Fund and are looking for ideas to be able to move forward. I said that I would do what I could to help them. The church just celebrated being built 850 years ago so this is living history and needs everyone to support them.
Friday 2 November
We went to open the Old Rock Cafe in Trawden in the morning. On arriving at 10.00am we were a little surprised to see it was full already. So, they had got the new buisness off to a flying start.
We open the Old Rock Cafe with a nice cup of tea
I went round the tables to chat to everyone and met a couple from Japan who were over looking for antiques. I also met the author of a book on Trawden and a man who made stained glass windows. Several local people were also there to welcome the new Cafe and told me that it was just what was wanted in Trawden. I urge you to go and visit the Old Rock Cafe soon.
In the afternoon we had a meeting with Tim, who is the Commanding Officer of the John Lilburne's Regiment of Foote in the Sealed Knot. The Sealed Knot put on re-enactment civil war battles. We were investigating if we could do this in Colne next year and the initial response was positive. Tim says that a full battle would bring in 2500-3500 members of the Sealed Knot. They would make a replica tented village of Civil War battles. A lot of work will need to be done if we are to get this event to take place but if we can it would be a fantastic spectacle that would get people flocking to see it.
Saturday 3 November
A busy day today. In the morning we visited the Crown Court in Burnley for Inside Justice Open Week.
We are in the Jury for the 1960's court case
They had a re-enactments of 1960’s and a 1990’s court cases. Both were youth court cases, which would not have been open to the public if they were for real. We also saw an exhibition on tagging and were told that around 2000 of the devices are in use in the Burnley Area. We asked if they could they be tampered with but were reassured that that is easily detected. We went straight from the Courts to the Kelbrook Arts & Crafts Fair.
Chatting with the owner of Kelbrook Pottery
I managed to have a chat with several of the stallholders who were all offering excellent craft articles at reasonable prices.
The Mayoress gets into serious buying mode
The Village hall management team also kept me abreast of their funding issues for completion of the project.
Meeting with some of the members of the Village Hall management committee
We then went into the new café area and I had pasty, mushy peas, gravy and red cabbage. Excellent! We congratulated the ladies in the kitchen for all of their hard work.
Thanking the ladies for an excellent lunch
In the evening we went to the Burnley Mayor’s Ball. This was held at the newly re-furbished Mechanics Institute.
Black tie for the Mayors Ball
I have to wear my dinner jacket and black tie for the do as Mayors and civic guests from all over Lancashire were there. After a session by comedian Bobby Bender! we called it a day and arrived home around midnight.
Sunday 4th November
I had to get the yard at the front of the house cleared in the morning as I tomorrow we are having it tarmaced. This meant shifting stuff that had been lying around for years and blowing the leaves from the Sycamore trees into piles for composting. Fortunately my brother-in-law turned up just as I was getting to heavy shifting stage.
Firework Fantasia
In the afternoon I helped to put up the park and ride signs for tonight’s Fireworks Fantasia. The event is held in Victory Park in Barnoldswick and parking can be short supply so we ferry people in by bus from the outskirts. At around 7pm on a clear and not too cold night we went back with our civic chains on to open the event.
Big J and the Piccolo Chickens
On stage were Big J and the Piccolo Chickens, a daft name but a cracking band and they got the crowd dancing in the park.
Ron from St John Ambulance on duty
Before going on stage we met with the St John Ambulance team who always do an excellent job. I asked if they had had anything to do to which they answered no and wanted it to stay that way. There were many thousand of people in the park when I went on stage to open the Fireworks Fantasia.
Countdown to the fireworks
Everyone joined me in counting down to 10 for the start and then watched twenty minutes of the best firework display in the North West. Over 2 tons of brilliant fireworks went up into the night sky to cheers and applause from everyone.
Two tons of fireworks in 20 minutes
After the event finished we joined the crowd as they left and chatted to a few who said that it was the best ever and great value for money.
Fireworks, the green laser lights and me
