IN TODAY'S SCOOP
This week's sponsor: Rebecca Haddow, Mobile Hairstylist.
Twenty years of salon experience, now coming to your front door. Rebecca has gone mobile across the area, offering cuts and restyles, colouring, extensions, perms and blow-dry’s, all in the comfort of your own home.
Friendly, professional, and tailored to you.
HELP GET THE KING'S GUIDE BACK ON THE SANDS
Before a guided walk, the channels across the bay have to be checked, because they shift with the tides, and a safe line has to be found and marked. Michael's tractors carry him and his kit out onto the sands to do that. They also turn up at events and crossings to keep things moving.
Last month they were vandalised. The Lancaster Guardian reports that one was left with its engine running overnight until it seized. The Guide over Sands Trust has said plainly that the walks depend on those tractors, and those walks have raised more than a million pounds for charity in a single year.
A fundraiser to repair them is open, organised by Michael himself. The target is £5,000. On Tuesday morning it stood at £1,385 from 37 donations. The page asks for whatever people can manage, from a pound upwards, and points out that sharing it costs nothing.
The tractors are old and battered and nobody would call them showroom machines. They have spent years in salt water and mud doing a job that keeps people safe on one of the most dangerous stretches of sand in Britain. Whichever shore you read this on, the walks belong to you too.
Help get the King's Guide tractors back on the sands | GoFundMe, organised by Michael Wilson. £1,385 of £5,000 raised. Donate or share
The story so far | Lancaster Guardian
Around the Bay
An art fair on Grange promenade
PromArt sets out up to sixty stalls of paintings, photography and handmade work along the promenade at Grange-over-Sands on Sunday 11th October, 10am to 4pm. It calls itself Cumbria's largest open-air art and crafts fair. It is outdoors, so the organisers check the forecast before each date.
The railway station sits beside the promenade, so it is an easy trip from the Lancashire shore without a car. No admission price is published.
Two Apple Days
Ulverston's is first. Ford Park holds its Apple Day on Saturday, 11am to 3pm, and it is free. There is apple pressing, a makers market, plant and apple sales, children's crafts and traditional games. Bring your own apples and they will press them for a small donation. The Apple Day Bake Off is judged at 2pm.
Leighton Hall, near Carnforth, has its own a fortnight later, on Sunday 18 October, 10am to 3pm. Early bird tickets are £1 for under fives, £3.50 for five to 11s and £6.50 for everyone older.
Lancaster Music Festival starts a week today
From Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th October, more than 300 acts play over 500 shows across more than 50 venues in Lancaster, from the courtyard of Lancaster Castle to a tiny bookshop. Every venue is within half a mile of Market Square, so once you arrive you can walk the lot. There are family activities and workshops alongside the music.
You don't need the car. The Furness line runs into Lancaster from Ulverston, Grange, Arnside and Carnforth, and the venues are a short walk from the station.
Driving in from further afield? The organisers point visitors to the Park and Ride. Volunteers in blue festival shirts will be about to help, there is a Changing Places toilet at Cornerstone Café on Sulyard Street, and the access contact is Barry, on WhatsApp at 07427 171510.
Autumn at Leighton Moss
Last week we told you the bearded tits were back and the first pink-footed geese had reached the saltmarsh. The numbers have grown since. The reserve's own sightings, updated on Saturday 26 September, count more than 2,000 black-tailed godwits on the saltmarsh, along with pink-footed geese, ruff, spotted redshank, greenshank and kingfisher.
On the main reserve, more than 30 bearded tits are coming down to the grit trays, and bittern and otters are being seen most days from Lower hide and the Causeway. Most of the marsh harriers have gone, but some are expected back for the winter over the next month or so.
The saltmarsh hides are a mile from the visitor centre, with their own car park and a 2m height limit. Dogs are welcome on the Causeway and the dog-friendly trail, but not on the main reserve paths.
WHAT'S ON · 1st - 8th OCTOBER
👪 - >marks the ones that work well with children, here and in Any Day.
Thursday 1st
Spice Girls Experience | Grand Theatre, Lancaster. 7.30pm
Iron by Rona Munro | The Dukes, Lancaster. 7pm, nightly to Saturday
Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet | The Dukes, Lancaster. 7.30pm
Tennants Valuations Day | Leighton Hall, Carnforth. 11am to 3pm. Free
Forage and Nibble with The Forage Box | Holker Hall. Ticketed
Spice Girls Experience | Grand Theatre, Lancaster
Friday 2nd
Mayor's Charity Race Night | Morecambe Town Hall. Doors 6.30pm, racing 7pm to 11pm. £5 from the mayor's office, 01524 582065. For Morecambe Bay Foodbank and Citizens Advice North Lancashire
👪 Foodie Friday | Heron Corn Mill, Beetham. 1pm to 3pm. Free
👪 Arnside Country Market | Village Hall, Arnside. 9.30am to noon. Free
Art Workshop, Block Printing | Holker Hall. Ticketed
Iron | The Dukes, Lancaster. 7pm
Mayor's Charity Race Night | Morecambe Town Hall.
Saturday 3rd
👪 Ulverston Apple Day | Ford Park, Ulverston. 11am to 3pm. Free
Just The Tonic Comedy Club with Angelos Epithemiou | The Platform, Morecambe. Doors 7pm, show 8pm. With Olivia Lee and Tom Wrigglesworth
Hey, Old Friend: A Tribute to Sharon Bell | Grand Theatre, Lancaster. 7.30pm
Iron, final day | The Dukes, Lancaster. 2pm and 7pm
Just The Tonic Comedy Club with Angelos Epithemiou | The Platform, Morecambe
Sunday 4th
Crash Test Dummies | Morecambe Winter Gardens. 7pm
Blues Jam with The Thieving Magpies | Arnside Sailing Club, The Promenade. Doors 4pm, music from about 4.30pm, to 7.30pm. £6, or free for musicians who join in
Blues Jam with The Thieving Magpies | Arnside Sailing Club
Monday 5th
Yoga and Relaxation with Shelley Osman | Victoria Hall, Grange-over-Sands. 6.30pm to 8pm
Tuesday 6th
GANS and TV Face | Kanteena, Lancaster. 7pm. The first gig of Lancaster Music Festival week. Upstairs in Atika, with no lift
Wednesday 7th
👪 Holker Wild Venison Week | Holker Hall, to Sunday. Free tastings and cookery demonstrations in the courtyard
Holker Wild Venison Week | Holker Hall
Thursday 8th
👪 Lancaster Music Festival | Across Lancaster, to Sunday. More than 300 acts in over 50 venues, almost all free
How Soon is Now? | The Dukes, Lancaster. To Saturday
Supper and Stories, Wild Venison Week Special | Holker Hall. Ticketed
Any day
👪 RSPB Leighton Moss | Silverdale. Car park dawn to dusk. Ring 01524 701601 for the day's opening
👪 Holker Hall and gardens | Cark-in-Cartmel. Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
👪 Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway | Season runs to 1 November. The morning timetable changes in October, so ring 015395 31594 before you set off
👪 Lakeland Motor Museum | Backbarrow. Adult £13.25, child £7.90, family £36, under fives free
👪 The new public telescope | West End Promenade, Morecambe, opposite the Battery play area. Free
Cartmel Priory | Cartmel. Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm
👪 Arnside Country Market | Village Hall, Orchard Road, Arnside. Fridays, 9.30am to noon. Free, with refreshments
Ulverston street market | Town centre. Thursdays and Saturdays from 8am
ONE GOOD THING
There is a new telescope on Morecambe's West End Promenade, and it points at Cumbria.
It went in last month near the Battery, opposite the play area. It is free to use and it is wheelchair accessible. Lancaster City Council installed it, and the money came from the West End Million, the community project run by West End residents. The council says it is ideal for a close look across the bay, or at the wildlife on the way.
Thanks for reading! Hit reply and tell us what we got wrong. We would far rather be corrected once than be wrong twice.
And! If you enjoyed today’s SCOOP - share it with your friends and family.
See you Thursday.
The Bay Scoop publishes corrections in the following issue, in the same position and at the same length as the original.
