Lancaster Footlights is halfway through it’s run of Enchanted April, based on the classic novel by Elizabeth Von Arnim, and I absolutely urge you to go and see it. There are still three performances left on 19/03, 20/03, and 21/03, and you can get tickets here.
I went along on Friday night and was swept away to the 1920s Italian Riviera and paradisio! When two married women decide that they need more from their lives and, along with two ladies, escape post-war London for the Mediterranean coast of Italy, they are surprised to find that their lives, when viewed through the lens of ‘sunshine and wisteria,’ perhaps have more to offer them than they previously thought…
If you like articles like this one; sign-up for my newsletter to get fortnightly updates about the history, culture, food scene, and small businesses from around the North!
The whole ensemble cast were absolutely brilliant and funny; whilst Maire Robinson shone in the linchpin role of Lottie Wilton. I was amazed by the sheer number of lines (and quite long monologues!) she had to deliver, and she seemed to do it with relative ease!
“I enjoyed it so much if I was able to make a second night, I would happily watch it again.” – Happy Theatregoer
I would like to congratulate the director, Sarah Ludford, and the whole crew for pulling together a wonderful and heart-warming performance in such a short space of time (9 or so weeks!). It really was a truly lovely piece of theatre!
Whisper it quietly, but it’s nearly 2026. I know! Where did 2025 go to?! How does it feel like it’s gone so quickly? Anyway, with the new year nearly upon us, it’s often a time when people are thinking about new and exciting things they might like to do. Well… allow me to suggest a few hobbies or volunteering options you might like to take a look at as 2026 rolls in.
Volunteer for the National Trust or English Heritage
Two of our largest UK charitable institutions rely extensively on the help of their volunteers in order to keep their historic houses, beautiful gardens, and expansive wild spaces across the North open to the public. If you’re able to, volunteering for one of these institutions can be incredibly rewarding – my dad used to volunteer as a warden at UNESCO World Heritage Site Fountains Abbey (jointly run/owned by the National Trust and English Heritage), and spent hours up there, walking around (with our Labrador!) and helping guests. If looking after heritage (and potentially spending more time outside, if that’s a resolution you’re thinking about!) and being a part of telling the story of a place and its people, is something you’d be interested in, there are hundreds of properties and locations across the North at which to potentially volunteer. Check out the National Trust or English Heritage volunteering websites for more information.
There’s also many many many other amazingly charitable institutions that would love your help, if giving up a few hours of your time is something you think you might be able to achieve in the New Year. From the RSPB to the RNLI, these charities rely on their incredible volunteers to keep them going – so check out whichever cause you’re passionate about, and get involved!
Get involved with a local theatre company
Ever dreamed about treading the boards? Well, maybe 2026 is there year to try it! There are theatre companies in many towns and villages, and they’re always looking for new people to help stage shows – either to be in them, or to make them happen backstage. Just in my local area and the immediate vicinity there’s Lancaster Footlights (based at The Grand), MAODS (Morecambe Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society), LADOS (Lancaster Amateur Dramatic & Operatic Society), Morecambe Warblers… the list goes on! If you’re interested in theatre, singing, dance, or getting involved backstage, then I guarantee there will be a company, charity, or organisation near you that will welcome you to their throng. And remember, if actually being on stage isn’t your thing, there are so many roles available backstage – from costume, to props, to chaperoning, to producing, to set building and painting – your skills are needed and very welcomed!
Get fitter with Parkrun or a community running/walking group
If it’s your resolution to try and do a bit more exercise in the new year, why not have a go at joining something like Parkrun (found in nearly every town and city across the UK these days, with 1381 locations!) where you can be part of a community to help support those goals? Even if you go along by yourself, you can feel as if there’s plenty of other people there with the same goal as you – to get outside and to do a bit of exercise. If Parkrun doesn’t sound like your thing, then how about looking for a community walking or hiking club? With a little bit of digging around Facebook, or dodging adverts on Google, you could find a group of likeminded people who will help you get out and about in your local area and further afield, making your goals more interesting, and more attainable in 2026.
Explore The North!
How about making your New Year’s Resolution this year all about exploring your local area, and finding the hidden gems, amazing places, and great local businesses that can be found there? I know that this is definitely going to be mine in 2026 – I want to find even more places across this beautiful area of the country and shout about it. We’ve got so much on our doorstep, whether you live in Morecambe or Malton, Ambleside or Alnwick, so go and explore what your local area has to offer. Perhaps make it a challenge? Try and find fifty places within fifty miles that you can visit, either by yourself or with family and friends, to really discover how beautiful and varied your local area can be!
Coming Soon: ‘Winter Foodie Feasts to keep your January delicious’ and ‘Best Northern bakeries I’ve visited (so far!).’Sign up below to not miss out on these articles and more!
Lancaster Footlights presents Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web at Lancaster Grand from October 3rd – 11th 2025.
Clarissa, married to a top diplomat, loves to spin tales just like a spider spins a web. However, when someone is murdered right in her drawing room, that’s another matter! Live drama is so much harder to cope with! Her house guests help her try and dispose of the body before her husband gets back but they are interrupted by the arrival of Detective Brown who was told there has been a murder! Hilarity ensues […] “Spider’s Web” is Christie’s second most successful play (744 performances), surpassed only by the record-breaking “The Mousetrap”.
Christie is well known as one of Britain’s best loved authors, with her own estate claiming the title of ‘Queen of Crime’ for the writer. Her characters of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are known across the globe. Spider’s Web, however, was written for a specific actress, Margaret Lockwood, who had appeared in many films, but wished to increase her theatre repertoire, asking Christie to write a play for her. Must be nice to have that sort of clout and for a request like that to bear fruit!
The cast have been having a lot of fun rehearsing, and are excited to bring the play to the stage.
“The Spider’s Web has been great fun to rehearse and the cast have all been brilliant to work with. The show itself has all of the usual murder mystery trappings – secret passageways, invisible ink, and more than a few red herrings! What I’ve particularly enjoyed is the humour, as there is much more to be found in The Spider’s Web than in most other Christie plays!” – Ian Brown, Inspector Lord
It’s official; you can smell it in the air, and feel it in the coolness we’ve had this past week, the blackberries have been ripe for a while (we got five freeze-able boxes last week!), and the trees are just beginning to show their golden glow…
I love this time of the year… the heat of the summer is coming to a close (and this year we have had eight official heatwaves… which is a whole ‘nother issue that I really don’t want to think about it!), although we do sometimes get an Indian summer in September, and that feels like the last burst of summer before autumn officially draws in. Side story, a couple of years ago I was in York for my 30th birthday, and the whole weekend it was 28-31 degrees in the second week of September… that was warm. It made for a wonderful weekend, but it was a little bit weird for it to be that temperature in northern England in September!
But with the start of Autumn, people start looking to the cooler months, Halloween (if you like to celebrate spooky season), cosy jumpers, and homemade hearty soups. I’m definitely looking forward to stews and casseroles cooked in the slow cooker again, which have just felt too hot and heavy to eat throughout the summer. And, with the end of summer, it’s not like we going to run out of stuff to do – the calendar is absolutely packed for September, with plenty more to look forward to in the month’s following. I’ll be doing calendars for October, November, and December as well, pulling out the best of what’s happening in the local area for the rest of the year. If you’d like to keep up with what’s happening, sign-up for free to receive a weekly newsletter.
This time of the year has always been important throughout history. In the Northern Hemisphere it’s the time of the harvest and preparation, and the time to give thanks (whatever that means for different cultures) for food and sustenance before the winter comes in. In Celtic culture deities such as Danu and Lugh were honoured at the time of the harvest, with even more celebrations towards the traditional festival of Samhain, which has a heavy focus on the cyclical nature of life and death, and the transitions between worlds in different religions and cultures. For the Romans, the beginning of Autumn and the harvest brought holidays and festivals honouring the goddess Ceres (Goddess of the harvest), and Pomona (Goddess of fruit trees), amongst others. At the end of the season, the Romans celebrated the festival of Saturnalia, honouring Saturn, the God of time and renewal.
As for me, I’m looking forward to cooler days spent by the sea in Arnside, Silverdale, or Grange-Over-Sands, breathing in the crisp Autumn air. I love getting my jackets back out of the wardrobe, to not worry about overheating in my jeans or my leather trousers, and being able to wear my boots again. Autumn hits different to winter in this respect, because I’m not a huge fan of having to bundle up every time I step outside, but we haven’t reached that point yet.
And yes, sure, it rains more in autumn than it does in the summer, especially in the North-West. It comes with the territory… there’s a saying in Manchester that “if you can’t see the Pennines, it’s raining; and if you can, it’s going to rain,” which definitely has more than a grain of truth to it! Aside from anything else, after the spring and summer we’ve just had, we need the rain – our reservoirs are seriously low, and farmers have been saying that they’re on track to lose about 30% of their vegetable crop due to lack of water. So, in that vein I’d like to invite people to enjoy the rain. Of course, too much rain can be catastrophic, that’s not what I’m saying or trying to invite, I’m just talking about your typical rainy day. Find a way to enjoy it. Remember what it was like when you were a child and you’d splash in puddles and catch raindrops on your tongue, find things to do that don’t require going outside (there’s plenty of them!), and if it’s really not your thing, think about how much cosier the inside of your house or room is when it’s raining outside… take that nap with zero guilt because you can’t go out anyway. Win, win as far as I’m concerned!
Photo by Brigette Tohm
What are you looking forward to the most as the cooler months roll in? Let me know, or come say hi on Instagram or TikTok (@thenorthishlass)! I’d love to hear from you…
After a morning in Corbridge, enjoying Grant’s Bakery & Patisserie, Vintage by the Tower, and Forum Books (read Part One for all of the information), in the afternoon it’s time to explore the amazing history the town has to offer.
First things first: the Romans. The Romans left a huge footprint throughout this part of world, and Corbridge offers just one of the beautiful historic sites available to visit. You can walk from the centre of town down to the Roman ruins which can be found at the edge of Corbridge, it’s a distance of about a mile. Alternatively there is also a car park at the site, and I believe the local bus also runs past the entrance at various times.
During the Roman occupation of Britain, Corbridge was possibly known as Coria, although there is plenty of debate as to what the place-name actually was with Corstopitum and Corie Lopocarium also suggested by contemporary records (I’m going to stick with Coria). Coria was the most northerly settlement in the Roman Empire, established in the late 1st Century AD, probably in the decade after the beginning of construction on Hadrian’s Wall, beginning as a fort to house soldiers marching on the crossroad between the Stanegate Road (East-West) and the Dere Street (North-South). It was only after the Roman’s permanently fell back to Hadrian’s Wall in 163 AD that the fort was abandoned by the army (in favour of the larger Vindolanda), and Coria became a predominately civilian settlement, thought to be part of the supply network for Emperor Septimius Severus’ northern campaigns.
By Birley, Eric, 1906-1995 – https://archive.org/details/corbridge-roman-station-official-guidebook/page/n30, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=102255098
Today, the Roman fort and town has been partially excavated, about 25% is exposed – the rest is buried under the present town and therefore inaccessible. There is evidence of large granaries, an elaborate house for an official, and buildings that were probably temples. The ruins are in the care of English Heritage and can be visited year round. The attached museum contains some of the most important Roman collections in Britain including the “Corbridge Lion” which is thought to be the work of a master sculptor due to the intricate detail in the sculpture.
Following the Romans leaving Britain in the 5th Century AD, other notable historic buildings in Corbridge are the parish church of Saint Andrew, thought to be have been consecrated in 676 AD, possibly by Saint Wilfred.
There is also a fortified vicarage, one of only three in the country. The Vicar’s Pele (pronounced peel) is in the SE corner of the churchyard and has walls that are 4ft thick. The Pele Tower is a Grade 1 Listed building with National Monument Status, but is now a unique microbar selling quality craft ales and other drinks.
Interior of the micropub in the Pele Tower
For a small town, there is a lot for a history buff to take in and see. Of course, just walking around provides plenty to see – buildings throughout the town date from the late Tudor period to the Edwardian period, and as such the varied architecture has lots of visual interest, and elements to admire.
If you liked this article and would like to receive more updates, please subscribe for free below to get weekly updates on fabulous things to do, people, places, events, and hidden secrets from around the North!
The Romans left Britain in the 5th Century AD, but they left a legacy of ruins and artefacts behind for people in the sixteen centuries since to explore. One of the most enduring symbols of Roman Britain is the seventy-three mile long Hadrian’s Wall that stretches from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the East to Bowness-on-Solway on the West Coast. Built to be the literal and symbolic end of the Roman Empire (and also a defensive barrier to keep the Picts at bay), there is a lot to see and explore, especially towards the middle, in the rolling hills of rural Northumberland.
Set less than three miles from the central mile fort on Hadrian’s Wall, close to what was formerly Sycamore Gap (and hopefully will be again soon when the new seedlings grow), you can find the beautifully situated Hideway Huts and Stable Cottage. I’ve been to the Huts and the cottage several times, and am always taken aback by how peaceful it is.
There are three huts to choose from: The Bothy, The Shieling, and The Wainscot. All of the Hideaway Huts sleep two in either a king sized double, or two zip & link single beds, perfect for cosy weekends away, or even trips away by yourself to get some peace and quiet, and simply take in the surroundings. The cottage sleeps four and is suitable for children. The Wainscot has a walk in shower, whilst the other two, and the cottage, have shower-over-bath. They’re also equipped with full kitchen, a washing machine, wifi, and an outside porch. Sadly there are no dogs allowed inside the huts or the cottage.
One of the things that really sets the Huts and Stable Cottage apart from some other places I’ve been is Helen, the owner, and the care she takes with the stays and the guests. The places are always immaculate, and there’s always a goodie basket of homemade goods, and food in the fridge. Last time we went there was eggs, bacon, bread, lemon drizzle cake, a bottle of mead, milk, butter, and homemade jam. It’s great because one thing I dislike when you go to some places like this, there is absolutely nothing, and often the place is quite a distance from the nearest shop, or you might have got there late, or it’s a Sunday etc. etc. So you struggle to even have a cup of tea without going out to try and find some milk. You never have that problem at Helen’s. There is always enough food and bits and pieces to tide you over to at least the following day when you can go out and get what you need.
I have been to the huts with my mum, the cottage with both my parents, and also used a hut of my own for writing in the peace, whilst looking out over the pond and woodland that surrounds them. The pond is a fairly recent addition and has brought even more wildlife to the area in front of the huts, which is amazing for me as I could watch the birds and the wildlife for hours.
One of the thing that strikes me every time I travel to this part of Northumberland is the dark skies at night. It is wonderful to be somewhere that, at night, actually gets really dark. We’re so used to light pollution being around that to be somewhere where it is truly dark, it’s amazing when there is none to disturb the dark, and let you sleep. When I’m at home, I have to sleep with an eye mask, to block out the light from street lamps streaming through my (supposed) black out blind. I like it dark when I sleep, and when I’m at Hideaway Huts I don’t need one. It’s beautiful. Of course, it also means that, when you go outside, you can really see the stars. One of my favourite memories of being there was lying out on one of the picnic tables at midnight in July, looking for all the different constellations that I could remember. Sometimes it’s wonderful just to sit and look at the stars.
Outside of the huts, there is so much to do in the surrounding area. The incredible Vindolanda is less than a mile away. Vindolanda is the ongoing excavation of a huge Roman fort and surrounding town. In 1987 Vindolanda joined Hadrian’s Wall as part of the transnational “Frontiers of the Roman World” World Heritage Site. It truly is a magnificent site and museum to explore, and you can get a duel ticket for the site and the Roman Army Museum just down the road (where another enormous excavation called “Magna” has just begun). It is thought that only 27% of Vindolanda has been excavated, so by their own estimation, they could be excavating for another 150 years!
Other things to do in the area are, of course, walking Hadrian’s Wall, trying fish & chips from the excellent chip shop in Haltwhistle, wandering the beautiful town of Corbridge, or going for a delicious lunch at the Rat Inn at Anick (who do the most amazing Chateaubriand (ordered by different weight) – I would definitely recommend!).
If you’re heading up to this part of Northumberland, I would definitely recommend the Hideaway Huts as a bolt hole to stay and explore this beautiful part of world.
If you like this article and would like more information and articles about local events, small businesses, and other exciting things, SUBSCRIBE below for a free weekly email from The North(ish) Lass. Thank you!
Did you know the North(Ish) Lass has Instagram? Well, I do!
If you have Instagram, give me a follow @thenorthishlass for lots of cool stories, photos of the beautiful north, and videos of things to do in Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire, and Northumberland!
I also highlight lots of other Northern places, independent retailers, and events to check out.
Follow me @thenorthishlass on Instagram
Let me know your handle and I’ll check out your page!
Go and see SIX: THE MUSICAL (LIVE) screened at The Dukes in Lancaster. (Link for tickets)
To Eat
Deep fried black pudding and potato stack (with added bacon if you wish), poached egg, and chilli jam @ The Quayside, Glasson Dock. Open Thur-Sun. Read about the café in my article here.
There’s so much to do in Lancaster, Morecambe and the surrounding area in June! The table below is a collection of events that I have gathered together happening in the local area throughout June. Check out the list and then head along to some of the events – our town is thriving and there’s always something going on, with lots of different genres and types, so there’s something for everyone. Note: This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and is just a selection of things happening in the area.
