Category Archives: Accrington

Accrington Food Festival bursting with international flavours!

This weekend’s Accrington Food & Drink Festival will bring flavours from across the world to the heart of the town.

Let your taste buds travel with over 75 stalls of the finest food and drink from France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, India – and beyond!

The food and drink festival on Saturday 4 June is a FREE ENTRY family event with something to appeal to all tastes and appetites. From Malaysian street food to authentic Italian pizza, savoury Turkish treats to Mexican churros, there’s a wide variety of international flavours on offer – plus local dishes too.

Murray Dawson of East Lancashire based Scott Dawson Advertising, organisers of the Accrington Food & Drink Festival, said:

“I’m an Accrington lad myself and keen for the food and drink festival to be a huge success, as part of our civic pride initiative. We’ve been working hard to top last year’s very successful event, bringing together a food market full of flavour for festival visitors.

Sweet treats will be on offer, including tasty crepes and pancakes

Sweet treats will be on offer, including tasty crepes and pancakes

“Accrington’s 2015 food festival attracted over 10,000 people into the town centre. This year’s event is set to be even bigger and better, and with good weather forecast for the weekend we’re sure plenty of people from across Lancashire will come and join the fun.”

In addition to all the tempting smells and flavours of the food market, there’s a lot more to appeal to all the senses.

Watch the live cookery demonstrations in the theatre kitchen on Broadway. Celebrity chef Richard Fox will host a series of demos throughout the day from local chefs, as well as showcasing two of his own original recipes too.

Younger visitors to the festival can get creative in the Cakelicious children’s cake decorating competition in Accrington Market Hall. Bugs are the theme of this year’s competition, run by tutors and students from the new Roots Restaurant at Accrington & Rossendale College. It’s free to enter and one lucky winner will receive a sweet hamper from Sweet Treat Designs on Water Street.

Children can also get involved in the Dig For Victory seedling planting activity with Incredible Edibles and the Sandy Lane Gardening Group, which is taking place all day in the town centre.

A lively World War 2 re-enactment will take place in St James’ Church grounds at 1pm. It could be the last chance to see re-enactors with their deactivated guns following changes to EU rules regarding deactivated weapons. There’s also the chance to see a classic MkIX Spitfire plane outside the Town Hall, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the RAF’s iconic Battle of Britain fighter’s first flight. Plus, commemorating the Accrington Pals centenary, actors the History Men, dressed as Accrington Pals soldiers, will be out and about in the town all day to add to the wartime flavour.

Oh My! are bringing their Malaysian street food to Accrington Food & Drink festival this weekend

Oh My! are bringing their Malaysian street food to Accrington Food & Drink festival this weekend

And when it’s time to work off some calories, sponsor Simon Jersey’s Ride To Rio bikes will be in the Arndale. As designers of Team GB’s formal outfits for Rio 2016, Simon Jersey has set itself the challenge to pedal the 9,395 kilometres from their offices in Altham to the Brazilian capital. Visitors to the food festival can show their pedal power on the two Ride to Rio exercise bikes.

Free transport to the food festival is available on board a beautifully restored 1968 Leyland Titan double-decker bus from pick-up points in Great Harwood, Rishton, Baxenden, Church, Clayton-le-Moors, Huncoat, Oswaldtwistle, Rawtenstall and Haslingden.

Full details of the event on Saturday 4 June – including how to book a seat on this classic bus – are available at www.accringtonfoodfestival.co.uk. Festival programmes have also been delivered to around 35,000 local homes and 40 schools.

Keep in touch with news from Accrington Food Festival on the event’s Facebook page, or follow @accringtonfood on Twitter and Instagram.

Groundhog Day? No… it’s Ground Force Day!

Sophie and ClariceAccrington Stanley is calling up the volunteers again this Sunday, July 12th, when its ‘Ground Force’ event is back by popular demand.

The club ran a successful Ground Force Weekend on June 20th and 21st, calling on supporters and local volunteers to help get its Store First  Stadium in tip-top condition ready for the first pre-season friendlies.

Plenty turned up, armed with brooms, paint brushes and toolboxes, and quickly got stuck in, making a real difference by tackling a variety of jobs. The weekend was organised by thDiane Greenhalghe Official Accrington Stanley Supporters Club, whose chairman Nick Westwell said: “We got a lot done and the icing on the cake was that people enjoyed it so much they asked if they could come back another day and do some more!

“Because of that we’ve organised another Ground Force day this Sunday, July 12th, from 9am to 4pm. It’s the same formula as before – if you want to help just turn up on the day and it doesn’t matter if you can only stay an hour or all day, we’ll be delighted to see you.”

Refreshments will be provided for the volunteers who turn up at the stadium in Livingstone Road and the club is particularly keen to hear from those with trade skills. For more details email: n.westwell@sky.com

Accrington Pals make Twitter boom on Somme anniversary

July 1st marked the 99th anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in world history, and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of WWI troops who laid down their lives for King and Country is being kept alive by modern technology.

The opening day of the infamous Battle of the Somme is remembered as the worst day in the history of the British Army, with 60,000 men killed or wounded. Nowhere was the impact more keenly felt that in Accrington and its surrounding district.

Among the vast number of casualties was the majority of the11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington) East Lancashire Regiment – better known as the “Accrington Pals”. Of the 720 Pals who participated, 584 were killed, injured or reported missing, sending the town of Accrington into a collective state of grief as almost everyone in the town had a friend or relative who had joined the Accrington Pals.

The recruiting ethos of the “Pals” battalions was that men were more likely to enlist if they knew they would be fighting alongside their friends and neighbours. But the catastrophic losses of the Somme Offensive and other battles led to the scrapping of the system, as towns and districts saw a whole generation of their menfolk killed or terribly injured.

Yet their sacrifice lives on, and now social media is strengthening the message that “we will remember them”. Accy Pals Tweet capture 1

Burnley-based Scott Dawson Advertising runs an Accrington Pals Twitter account (twitter.com./accrington_pals), regularly posting messages – known as “tweets” – on the popular online social networking service.

To commemorate the 99th anniversary there was a special push on Twitter, with a series of tweets recounting the days’ events and telling the stories of individual soldiers present at the first day of the Somme.

It was extremely well received by people who follow the Accrington Pals Twitter feed. Throughout the day the tweets were “retweeted” – passed on so that many more people see them – 150 times and were “favourited” 53 times, spreading the account and its commemorative tweets all over the world. Accy Pals Tweet capture 2

Accrington Pals’ historian Andrew Jackson took notice of the attention the posts were receiving, commenting “Great tweets today”. Jackson also wrote the book “Accrington’s Pals: The Full Story” which was used as a research source for a number of the tweets sent out on the day.

John Williams, who manages social media output for Scott Dawson, commented: “Although the history of the Accrington Pals is well-known locally, telling that fascinating story on social media means the experiences and events of that historic day can quickly reach new audiences worldwide.

“It also means that younger generations, who use social media all the time but might not have known much about the Accrington Pals, can find out about the incredible sacrifices their ancestors made 99 years ago and ensure their story lives on.”

Scott Dawson Advertising manages a number of different social media accounts for commercial clients and as a way to help and promote local communities.