Ghostly goings on at Bolsover Castle

FOLLOWING the success of last year’s Hallowe’en events at Bolsover Castle, English Heritage is promising even more ghostly apparitions and gruesome tales from the grave for its biggest ever Hallowe’en event.

Hallowe’en week will see family activities during the day and two evening openings when Bolsover Castle’s ghostly secrets will be revealed with special illuminations, ghostly effects and costumed actors.

Time Travellers Go…Ghosts and Ghouls 

From Monday 24 to Friday 28 October, special children’s activities are on offer with Time Travellers Go…Ghosts and Ghouls. Let your little horrors scare themselves silly this Halloween with creepy crafts, spooky activities and ghost hunting galore! Take part in a knee trembling trail around the grounds to find the hidden tomb and discover who lies within. Create your own terrifying decorations in our craft area and wander the grounds with our very own ghost hunter as he tells gruesome tales of times gone by! Adult £7.80/Conc £7.00/Child £4.70/Family £20.30. EH members free entry. Plus £1 for every child (members and non-members)

The Ghostly Castle at Night

On Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October Bolsover Castle will open its gates at 6pm for two nights of spooky Hallowe’en fun. Have you got what it takes to brave the castle after dark? Find out about some of Bolsover’s more horrific happenings and ghostly goings on, then explore the site by torchlight and meet some the castle’s previous residents: they are dying to meet you.

The Castle at Night Hallowe’en event is from 6pm- 9pm (last entry 8.15pm) on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October. Booking tickets is recommended as places are limited. Adult £10.00, Concessions £9.00, Children £6.00. Purchase tickets online at www.english-heritage.org.uk/bolsovercastle or by calling 0870 333 1183.

East Lodge is AA Top Performer

Rowsley’s hotel and restaurant East Lodge in the Peak District has renewed it its status as an AA ‘Inspectors Choice’ Red Star top hotel – at the prestigious annual awards ceremony in London last Monday – singling out East Lodge not just as one of the finest hotels in the region, but as one of the cream of a select few hotels in the UK – as confirmed by the AA’s own Inspectors. In the words of the AA’s own website, Red Star hotels “stand out as the very best in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, regardless of style”.

Tourism promotion row

A ROW is looming over a tourism campaign aimed at attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Community leaders say the Staffordshire Peak District brand was adopted  to ensure that the Moorlands gets its fair share of national park tourists.

But only one third of the Moorlands falls within the Peak District boundary and opponents fear tourism outlets in other areas, such as Biddulph and Cheadle,  could lose out.

How was the motion passed in the first place?

Former Moorlands District council leader Ron Locker has tabled a motion to Saturday’s full meeting of the district council calling on the authority to ditch the brand and market the Moorlands in its own right.

Dovedale Loos at Risk

Ideas are being sought to help avoid the closure of public toilets at a Peak District beauty spot visited by about a million people each year.

The Peak District National Park Authority, which faces budget cuts of £1.7m by 2015, said the toilets at Dovedale cost more than £17,000 a year.

It wants to hear suggestions from local people and organisations by the end of October.

The toilets are likely to shut in March 2012 if a solution is not found.

They are situated within Dovedale‘s car park, which is privately owned, with the surrounding land belonging to the National Trust.

Elsewhere the park authority own other facilities nearby, such as car parks or snack kiosks which help support the associated toilets, but in Dovedale this is not the case.

Residents of the nearby village of Thorpe, which many visitors pass through on their way to Dovedale, have raised concerns that the closure could increase the numbers using their public toilets.

The answer to me is straight forward. The owner of the car park who collects £00000000000?s a year should provide the toilets as a matter of courtesy. Problem solved.

Good Hope at Hope Show

The Hope Show, held at Marsh Farm in Hope, is run by an army of local volunteers, and is a key event in the Hope Valley social calendar.

The event was the first show under new president Steve Fox, who was brought up inBamford and now lives in Hope with his wife, Jayne.

More than 8,000 people were estimated to have visited the show for a great family day out, enjoying both the attractions on offer and the goods available at the 80 stalls on site.

The Flying Childers Inn, Stanton in Peak

I came across this interesting article in the Telegraph about “The Flying Childers Inn”,Stanton in Peak.

It is a stone’s throw from Chatsworth House, Haddon Hall and Bakewell in the Derbyshire Peak District.