Monday 7 April
In the afternoon we delivered Focus leaflets for the forthcoming local Pendle Borough elections on May1st. There are 49 councillors on Pendle Council who every 4 years retire or stand for re-election. 17 council wards seats are being contested. There are new Town Councils being set up in Nelson and Colne so all of those seats are also being contested.
Tuesday 8 April
Today we went on the Mayors tour of Hyndburn. This area covers Accrington where Barbara - the Mayoress who is also my sister and I were born.
In the afternoon we delivered Focus leaflets for the forthcoming local Pendle Borough elections on May1st. There are 49 councillors on Pendle Council who every 4 years retire or stand for re-election. 17 council wards seats are being contested. There are new Town Councils being set up in Nelson and Colne so all of those seats are also being contested.
Tuesday 8 April
Today we went on the Mayors tour of Hyndburn. This area covers Accrington where Barbara - the Mayoress who is also my sister and I were born.
We are welcomed to Hyndburn by their Mayor & Mayoress
We started at the Dunkenhalgh hotel in Clayton-le-Moors. Robert a long time employee showed us around and gave us a history of the building.
We are shown around one of the haunted Dunkenhalge rooms
There was a building on that site as far back as 1285 which later came into the hands of the Rishton family who owned it until 1571.
Judge Walmesley - The hanging judge
Later the Walmesley’s bought it and one of their family – Judge Walmesley was known as the hanging judge. Robert indicated that there were plenty of ghosts still at the Dunkenhalgh.
Accrington Stanley - the club that wouldn't die
From there we went in the coach to Accrington Stanley FC for a look around and to hear some of its history. I had a bit of that in my pocket. My dad’s membership booklet from the 1948-9 season has his signwriting business advert on the back page.
My Dad's 1948-9 official handbook with his advert on the back
My dad was a signwriter and we lived in the Town and he had signwritten all of the big signs around the ground.
From there we went to the Haworth Art Gallery also in Accrington.
Wood carving in the Haworth Gallery
The gallery houses the largest public collection of Tiffany glass in Europe. The art-nouveau glass was the collection of a local man called Joseph Briggs who worked at Tiffany glass until the company closed in 1933. There was also a list of photographs of the Accrington Pals - the soldiers from the Town who all went out together to fight in the First World War. Many of them didn’t come back.
Remembering The Accrington Pals
From there we went to the Globe Centre for lunch. This is what used to be a massive engineering company premises making weaving and spinning machinery to export all over the world. After the business closed it was imaginatively changed into offices, restaurants and meeting areas.
Wednesday 9 April
Another full day, starting with an officer briefing for the Licensing Committee. The main part of the hearing which started at 1pm was for a review of the premises license for the Good Night Club in Nelson. The police had brought forward the review because of alleged crime and disorder at the premises. We saw two videos of fighting taking place in the early hours of the morning. The police were represented by their solicitor and the club owner by a barrister. The committee took around 3 hours to come to its decision, which was after 5.30. We agreed to amend the license to reduce the hours of opening. We also suspended the license for 4 weeks.
Thursday 10 April
At 10.00am we had a very interesting visit to Number One Market Street. This is the brand new impressive Liberata building where some of Pendle's council services have been contacted to. We started by seeing the document scanning team who process all paper work received and then send it to the PC of the relevant council officer in Councils throughout Britain – not just Pendle. Liberata have decided that all of their scanning will be done in Pendle so they are presently recruiting new jobs in this area.
New scanning equipment make document handing much faster
We were shown the training rooms, the contact centre and all the new facilities that they have. We also visited I.T., Estates, H.R. and Revenue and Benefits.
The IT department had saved this bit of kit from a time before computers
From the new building the views of Pendle Hill are great and because of the large number of windows there is plenty of light.
Great views of Pendle - this is called the big end
From one of the offices we could see a magpie starting to build its nest in a tree on Market Street.
I had to nip over to Talking Heads in Brierfield for a quick hair cut and obligatory ear bending by Manfred as my hair was starting to get a bit embarrassing. With my smart new haircut we went to The West Craven Sports Centre in Barnoldswick to promote the Healthy Eating 5 a Day campaign.
On yer bike
The idea is to mix a smoothie by peddling like mad on a stationary bike which is fixed to a blender. We were joined by the children who go each day during the holidays to do different healthy pursuits at the Centre. I let the kids go first then then got a head of steam up to make my banana, kiwi fruit and orange smoothie. Very nice. And rather healthy – another one of my five a day!
The tiles were delivered today for one of our bathrooms that is being revamped. I rang Peter the plumber to let him know that they had arrived, as had the bathroom suite, only to find out that he had done his back in.
Friday 11 April
I had an early morning business meeting in Accrington and had to get back in time to be ready to go to Euravia’s open day in Kelbrook.
Dennis Mendoras of Euravia and I welcome the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire to Pendle
On the field opposite the company, the knights of Middle England were gathered to demonstrate their jousting skills.
The impressive knights of Middle England
The day was perishingly cold at about 6 degrees and one of the things that Mayors can’t really do is dress for this.
The jousting was very realistic
Whilst a minstrel band entertained, the knights gave very impressive shows of horse riding and jousting to which I wondered how they had done their risk assessment!
We meet up with the Knights
Afterwards in Euravia’s premises, The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Shuttleworth unveiled a plaque to commemorate the company’s new factory extension.
The Knights pose in front of the new Euravia plaque
All of the village of Kelbrook had been invited and there were plenty of young children there with their parents.
St. George gets ready to slay all dragons that were in Kelbrook
We had several photographs taken with the knights and I asked for one just with St George which we could use for St George’s Day which is coming up soon.
St George helps me with a bit of publicity for his Day
It was a great spectacle and I just wished that it had been slightly warmer as my feet took hours to thaw out.
The Euravia guys compare their gold chains to mine
Saturday 12 April
It’s still very nippy with fresh snow on the hills in the Yorkshire Dales but it doesn’t seem to bother the flock of field fare (birds) in the field or the pheasants that are still coming down for their daily snack of seeds that I put out for them.
A male pheasant in fine plumage gets stuck into the bird seed
At noon we went to take part in the Nature Day at Ball Grove just outside Colne.
Ball Grove Nature Day - its a bit cold
This was organised by the Pendle Council Park Keepers. Plenty of youngsters turned up with their parents, all keen to take part.
I join the youngsters spotting the clues
We walked through the park up to the old lake and on the way the children had to spot letters on clue cards hidden around. When they had completed all of the letters they had then to re-arrange the letters into a well know insect. The children then went in for a spot of pond dipping to see what they could find. Being a bit wimpy we decided that we were more than cold enough, so we said our farewells and walked briskly back through the fields to the car. And finally another great pic of my favourite hill;
Hang gliders taken about a month ago by my son Alex from the top of Pendle Hill
