Friday, 30 March 2012

Southport


Our final stop on the 5 Go Mad challenge took us to Southport. We got on the bus from Old Skem, as it’s quite a way from Skelmersdale on public transport it cost £4.60 return each. The bus took over 30 minutes and we arrived in the centre of Southport.











Southport is a popular tourist attraction; it's got a great range of shops so there's something for everyone. On the day we went, there was a large outdoor market selling everything from clothes to plants and garden equipment. As you can tell by the pictures the weather wasn't great! We had a walk down to the promenade and we went on the new tram from Southport centre to the end of the pier. At the end of Southport Pier there is a new arcade called the Penny Arcade. The arcade houses old retro arcade games, these games are well maintained considering their age and they're really fun to see what games people used to play!

Whilst we were there we went for a walk down Lord Street. Lord Street is one of the most famous streets in Southport and a lot of buildings have been left untouched since the Victorian times. There are lots of upmarket boutiques, with restaurants and coffee shops lining the street. 

Southport has plenty of things to do; there are loads of fish and chip shops. We ate in one off Lord Street and it was really nice.  There are plenty of other places to visit though, just out of the centre there is a retail and leisure complex with a Nando's, Chiquitos, cinema and health club, to name but a few.

We had a great day out in Southport (despite the weather!) and look forward to going back in the Summer. 

For more info about visiting Southport visit –

More information on the Penny Arcade can be found here -


Thursday, 29 March 2012

Burscough

We met at Skelmersdale Adsa to get the bus to Burscough. It roughly took about 30 minutes and cost £3.70 return each. We walked around and took pictures of the high street. We then walked down the canal and took pictures of the boats and the harbour. There are lots of cafes, pubs and restaurants so there was loads of choice if you wanted a drink, a meal or a snack.
Burscough is great for walking; you can take in the nature and the greenery on long walks around the town and down to the canal to view the longboats. If this isn't your cup of tea you can go to the Wharf. 


The Burscough Wharf is a big development in Burscough Village. Here there are shops, boutiques, pubs and restaurants so plenty to keep us busy whilst we were visiting. The Wharf is a popular choice for both locals and visitors. There is an Art Centre there too that holds galleries and exhibitions, restaurants and pubs.


We stopped in a local village café and had a traditional English breakfast while we were there.




You can find out more about Burscough here –

And you can find out more about the Wharf here –

Rufford

We visited Rufford a few weeks ago. We had heard a lot about Rufford from friends and family and had heard that Rufford Old Hall was a good place to visit for tourists. None of us had ever been here before so we were looking forward to visiting somewhere new.




On the day of our visit we all met at The Concourse in Skelmersdale. We got on the bus to Ormskirk and walked down to the train station. Here we got on the Preston train where it was 2 stops to Rufford. Unfortunately we got our timings wrong and ended up having to wait an hour for the train!


Luckily the train only took 15 minutes. We found Rufford Old Hall not well signposted from the train station but we followed other people from the station. As we got closer to the Old Hall there were more sign posts. It took around 15 – 20 minutes walk in total.




We were really impressed by the Old Hall. We took pictures of the topiaries and bee hives. The land around the hall was really remarkable; there were big gardens and a huge outside chessboard too. We paid £6.50 each to get in to the Old Hall, we looked around but we weren’t allowed to take pictures whilst we were inside. Rufford Old Hall doesn’t look like a tourist spot; it just looks like someone’s home. You can really see how someone lived there once.


Another thing we noticed was the trees in the surrounding gardens, some of these had dates and hearts carved into them as mementos – the oldest date we could find was 1947. It really took us back in time, you can imagine how people so many years ago would have come here, and we imagined how they would be dressed and how different things would have been for them back then.




Rufford Old Hall is part of the National Trust who preserve old sites and buildings for tourists to visit. It is currently listed as a Grade 1 listed building, which means it can’t be demolished or extended without written permission. It was home to the Hesketh family for more than 400 years.

We’d heard a lot about the ‘Legend of the White Lady’ tale before we came to Rufford. The Hall is reportedly haunted by ghosts and even the TV show Most Haunted has been to visit. They say the ghost of Elizabeth Hesketh can be seen at night in the Hall, and also another ghost can be seen hovering over the canal opposite, but we didn’t stay around long enough to see! The Old Hall is really eerie. It’s an old building that dates back to the 15th century so you can understand why we thought it was a bit creepy!


We visited St. Mary’s Marina whilst we were in Rufford which was lovely. The Marina opened in 2006 on the Leeds Liverpool Canal. We saw loads of different boats there. There were facilities for the boaters and even a post office on the site. There’s also a workshop there where people can store their boats when they’re not on the canal.




We headed on back to the town to get the train home. We went into a café next door to the train station for ice cream and chocolate cake. We got on the train back to Ormskirk and made our way back to Skelmersdale.





You can find out more about visiting Rufford Old Hall here –

St Mary’s Marina, Rufford –

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Ormskirk

We started our 5 Go Mad project in Ormskirk. We chose Ormskirk as we thought it was a good place to start – it is one of the closest towns to Skelmersdale and we know there are lots of things to do there.We all met at the Concourse in Skelmersdale and got the bus to Ormskirk. The 385 bus took around 20 minutes and there was hardly any traffic on the roads. 


We first visited the Chapel Gallery. We’ve been here once before with College – our Art & Design work was showcased here last year celebrating 50 years of Skelmersdale and Megan won first prize! It was good to go back and see what new work they were showcasing.
c/o ormskirkcp.co.uk
We got to the Chapel Gallery and it was free admission. We viewed the exhibitions; we found some really good puppets and sculptures from local artists. There were photography and design exhibitions that were really interesting too. We found out that the gallery have school children visiting doing art classes and they also hire the facility out to the local community.
We had a look round the gift shop which was selling crafts and decorative items such as jewellery, glassware and ceramics. We didn’t buy anything though. We visited the Café but found it a bit too expensive so we didn’t stay.


After we left the gallery we headed on over to Ormskirk’s Indoor Market. It was quiet so we stayed and had a look round.  The indoor market was full of different stalls and shops; we took a lot of pictures of the market and the unusual items that were on sale.  




Outside we admired the clock tower and took pictures of the surrounding areas. 




We went to Tesco to buy some bread then headed on over the duck pond to feed and take pictures of the ducks whilst we were there.





We had a look round the local boutiques, and admired the walks and arcades and the shops. 


We had a look round the outdoor market and took some pictures. It was really busy when we where there, like most market days are. There was a wide range of things being sold on the stalls.







All in all we had a great day in Ormskirk, there’s something for everyone to do and plenty to see.

You can find more information about visiting Ormskirk here - http://www.visitlancashire.com/destination-guide/ormskirkYou can get some more information regarding the Chapel Gallery here - http://www.chapelgallery.org.uk/

Thursday, 15 March 2012

5 Go Mad - An Introduction

Hi everyone!

Thanks for visiting and welcome to our blog! We're 5 Art and Design students from West Lancashire College in Skelmersdale and we've been set the challenge by VISIT to discover our local area using only public transport. Here is our brief ... 

"The VISIT* project has agreed to sponsor five students from West Lancashire College to visit local attractions using public transport.

On their travels, the students will find out how easy it is to visit the best spots West Lancs had to offer, travelling solely by public transport. The students will take photos and publish a blog of their experience.
The project is called '5 Go Mad in West Lancashire' in  tribute to Enid Blyton's Famous Five.

The overall aim is to demonstrate the way public transport can be used to visit interesting places in West Lancashire and show that using public transport can lead to an enjoyable day, visit and experience."


Over the next few weeks, we will be updating this blog with -


  • Where we went
  • How we got there
  • The cost of travel
  • What we found when we got there


We will also be updating this blog with tons of pictures of our visits. We have visits to Ormskirk, Rufford and Burscough planned, so keep checking back for all the latest updates on our adventures!


Dom, Elizabeta, Kirsty, Megan, James