Morecambe’s favourite daughter

Thora Hird (28.05.1911- 15.03.2003) 

(Image attributed to Allan Warren)

Thora Hird was an actress from a very early age, making her theatrical debut before she was six months old. Her father James Henry Hird was the manager of the Royalty Theatre in Morecambe, as well as other buildings.

Her mother Mary was a actress, and helped Thora begin her acting career at eight weeks old, carrying Thora on stage as part of her own performance.  She performed regularly when she was old enough to do it, on her own, but also worked in the local Co-op, keeping the job for ten years.

This period of her life helped her in her acting career, as she would study the people that she served, and practise any of their mannerisms that she found interesting, or distinctive. Her father would watch and take note of anything that she might be able to improve on.  She credited her father as being one of the most influential people in her acting career, and one of the others was her husband James Scott.

Her father didn’t want her to be a actress, but James was fully supportive. James was a drummer in the Winter Gardens orchestra, and would later become Thora’s manager, and chauffeur among other roles when she became very successful.  The pair married in 1937 after a four year courtship, and set up home on Prompt corner. Their daughter Janette was born a year later.

 In 1939 she was spotted on stage by George Formby, who wanted her to play his mother. She was too young, for that role but was still put under contract with Ealing Studios. She earned £10 per week in between roles, and £10 per day when in work.

From that start, she would go on to receive 129 credits in television, performing in such shows as Dinnerladies, Last of the Summer Wine and Alan Bennett’s monologues.  It was ‘cream cracker under the settee’ which earned Thora her first Bafta in 1988, and which is one of the performances that stick in the minds of people. Her work with Alan Bennett, is filled with humour, but a good deal of sadness as well. Hird seemed to be able to find the balance between the two, making audiences laugh and cry in equal measure, something that existed in the majority of her vast amount of stage and screen roles.

 She kept working until very late in her life, and never lost touch with who she had been, her roots were important to her. She always referred to herself as being a ‘sand grown’un’ as she was Morecambe born and bred.  

A plaque was placed in honour of her, not far away from where she was born. It’s on the wall of Eric Bartholomew Wetherspoons public house, quite aptly, as the two most famous children of the town, are honoured together.  

Honours she received 

OBE (1983)

Honorary degree from Lancaster University (1989)

Dame (1993)

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Top things to do in Morecambe

 Gala Bingo is located close to the sea front, and the Town Hall. It’s a popular spot for people of all ages, and has a bar as well as serving food. During the week there are three sessions a day, and some of those have free games. It costs between £3- £5 otherwise to play.

If you’re a craft minded person then Heysham Library runs knit and natter sessions on Tuesday afternoons. It’s popular, with regulars coming each week to continue their knitting, and catch up on gossip. Bring your own wool and needles, and join in!

For the painters out there, there is a artists exchange located on West St in the West End. It’s a friendly place for people of a similar artistic nature to meet, and help each other with work.  If you’re interested in writing, whichever form that might take, then there is a place for you on West St as well.
Next door to the Artist exchange is the Writer's room, where writers can drop in if they like. Molly also runs workshops and groups for people to receive help and constructive criticism on their works in progress.

If you’re interested in taking walks, there are several options for you. You could head to Heysham, and have a look in the Heritage centre to see what historical events have occurred in the small village. There is a path directly into Lancaster, but it’s also used by cyclists so take care of incoming riders.

 Reel cinema offers senior discounts, and also offers a hot drink for free if you come on Tuesdays. They have all the films that you would expect from a multiplex, and the staff are always friendly.

Dining out 

The Midland Hotel offers afternoon tea, with a wide selection of different teas on offer, and the cakes and sandwiches are well worth the price. It’s a beautiful building, one of the few Art Deco hotels that still exist in the UK.

Morrisons Cafe offers reasonably priced cups of tea and coffee, if you get tired of shopping in the town centre.

The Station is a pub popular with families, but it offers good pub meals 2 for £7 and so is popular with other people too. It’s opposite the Midland Hotel.

(Information correct on the 15th February 2016) If you have found this article interesting, and are inspired to take a trip to Morecambe, then you might need a taxi firm. The one you want to call is Coastal Taxis.

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Top things to do as a family in Morecambe

Morecambe is definitely a family friendly town, if you want a memorable holiday then there is no finer place to go. Here are just some of the things that you can get up to.

The Eric Morecambe Statue is something that we are particularly proud of as a town, and it’s very rare to pass by without at least one person posing alongside him. It’s located on the promenade not far away from the Clock Tower, and the town centre.

Wacky Warehouse is a soft play area attached to the Station pub, so they can play after having a meal out.

Happy Mount Park is great in the summer, containing a paddling pool and lots of space to run around. There is a outdoor obstacle course, as well as the privately owned Pirates in the Park, a indoor play area. If you and your family are interested in nature then there are ornamental gardens, and a habitat trail.

 Battery Play Park is split into different age categories, going from toddlers to children of eight or nine. Each section has a bolted gate, and age specific games and rides.

Not far from the Battery is two different water fountains for children to run in and out of, the water sprays up at regular intervals

Regent’s Park’s playground is particularly good if your children are under five, but there are activities for older children in the park as well.

The Reel Cinema is on Marine Drive, and offers all the films you would expect from a multiplex. The staff are very knowledgeable about the films, and sell hot drinks if so needed.

 Morecambe Superbowl is not far from Morrisons, sitting on the sea front. There are regular children’s parties held there, and it’s a great day out for children of all ages. It has a diner inside the building, if anyone gets hungry.

Johnny’s Fun Factory is a soft play area inside Pleasureland, a local arcade. There are video games inside the arcade for older children, and a small cafe which serves cheap and decent food.  

Sunshine Cycles offer bike hire so you could ride down the prom to Heysham if you wished to. If not there are cycle paths connecting Morecambe to Lancaster.

 Heysham Barrows is a great open space, particularly great for picnics in the summer months. There are ruins to explore, and a wilderness to play in as well.

The Stone Jetty has a lot of bird statues, and a circular maze for children to play on. It stretches out from opposite the Midland Hotel, and has a cafe at the far end.

If coming in the summer then the beach is a place that you might like to visit, it’s always popular with families.

Family friendly places to eat 

The Station pub offers 2 meals for £7, and has a big children’s menu but the main draw for families is that it has Wacky Warehouse attached to it.

Frankie and Benny’s is a local Italian restaurant not far from the cinema. It’s very popular with older children for birthday parties. It offers a regular cheap lunch menu, and the food is good quality. They have very helpful and friendly waiters.

KFC is located not far away from the cinema, and is usually packed with family groups.

 The Toby Carvery is a well known pub in the area, it’s still known as the Shrimp by local people. It has been going for years, and serves good quality pub food.

(All information correct on 15th February 2016)

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Lancaster University

Top things for students to do in Lancaster 

Lancaster University is perfectly placed for students to explore all that this lively city has to offer. If you can get out of the student ‘bubble’ that is!

 Nightlife 

The student union manages the Sugarhouse, a well established club in the town centre, which has hosted Rudimental, Red Light and Bondax amongst others. Whoops Wednesdays offers 3 for £5 on spirits and cans are only £2.

Hustle might not be the cleanest place (sticky floor), but you can have a good night and plenty of drinks for just a tenner.

The Yorkshire House offers live music and £1 Jaeger shots, as well as great real ale. Send More Paramedics, Burning Love and XLS are some of the groups that have played there.

The Gregson Centre is the place to go if you like poetry, and other creative activities. It regularly hosts open mic nights for poetry, and has a real community  feel. There are tai chi, belly dancing and martial art classes as well as choir practice and folk music performances.

The Golden Lion pub is not far from the Dukes and offers open mic music nights.

Places to eat 

Most places in Lancaster offer deals for students, discounts on food and drink when you show your NUS card.

The Whale Tail is a well known vegetarian cafe, it’s cheap and filling food starts at £3.95, but they offer a full breakfast for £7.95 which should cure any lingering hangover you might have.

Wetherspoons is great for food. The traditional breakfast, is only £2.99, filter coffee’s 99p and you can refill as many times as you like before 2pm. They offer cheap and decent sandwiches as well,  there's a chicken Panini for less than £2, and it included chips.

There’s a market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with lots of different food stalls.  The burger van which parks close to the British Heart Foundation on the high street, is popular. They offer a jumbo hotdog with cheese and onions for a little more than £2.00.

The vegetarian stall opposite WH Smith’s always has a queue but if you have the patience to queue, his falafel is well worth the wait. It’s been a while since I had one, but it was £3.50 last time.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth then Yummy cupcakes definitely live up to their name. They’re around £1.10 for one, the mint choc is delicious but there’s a wide range of different ones like Lemon, Snickers, and Ginger. Her stall tends to be not far from WH Smiths.

 Other activities 

Vue cinema is the local multiplex, and offers discounts and offers with the Borough for food.

If you prefer independent films, then the Dukes could be for you. It’s a local theatre but also puts on foreign and independent films, alongside the bigger name pictures.

Lancaster library is in the town centre, next to the museum and offers a number of workshops throughout the year, as well as a quiet area to work upstairs known as the Sanctuary.

 (All information correct on date of publication 15th February 2016)
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Nightlife in Lancaster

Do you enjoy movies? Maybe you’re a theatre buff, or like poetry? Or perhaps you’re someone who enjoys sampling different cuisines? Then you will love spending time in Lancaster and the surrounding area 

Lancaster has a lot of different things to do once the sun goes down. There are restaurants, nightclubs, pubs, a cinema, two well established theatres, and the Gregson Centre and the Storey both offer poetry, and other creative outlets.

Restaurants

Lancaster offers a variety of different cuisines, so there is always somewhere good to eat out.

Bella Pasta in the city centre offers Italian food, such as Calzone and pizza

The Borough offers excellent pub food, their burgers are particularly tasty, and they do a deal with both the local theatres, allowing ticket holders a discounted meal.

Molly’s is a small Italian, with an extensive happy hour, offering some dishes at £4.95. Their salmon fettuccine and pizza Margherita is particularly good, but all their food has a great reputation.

Paolo Gianni’s which is a short walk away from Molly’s is a lively place to eat, and offers inexpensive meals with a friendly atmosphere.

Pubs

The Robert Gillow is a city centre pub that hosts regular music nights, it’s a friendly place which has great beers. They host folk, jazz and blues music nights, and a folk band performs there every week.

Merchants is the place to go if you like your pubs to be steeped in history, it’s been on the site since 1688. It’s a small but friendly pub, with several different rooms, which feel like you are in a beer cellar. Good music too!

The White Cross is located on the canal side, and offers wonderful meals. On weekdays you can order a main course for £6 between noon and six. Their fish and chips hold a fond place in my memory, and the staff help add to the warm atmosphere.

Yorkshire House also known as ‘Yorkie’ prides itself on it’s live music. It’s located not far from the bus station and is always full of people. It offers a wide range of music genres, and also has a great reputation for it’s real ale.  

Nightclubs

The Sugarhouse is popular for live music. It’s not a easy place to find at first, located down a side street, but the effort is definitely worth it, if you enjoy dance music. They host local DJs as well as more well known ones, Rudimental and Lethal Bizzle have both done sets there.  

The Mint is a cocktail bar, which some consider a little pricey, but the drinks are excellent. It’s mainly dance music which is played though, and it’s a small place so it can get a little loud for some tastes.

Cinemas

Lancaster has two main places to see a film

The Vue is a multiplex, where you can see all the latest releases and it’s in the city centre.

The Dukes offers well known films but also screens foreign language films. They often have more than one screening of a film.

Theatres

If you’re a culture vulture, then Lancaster boasts two excellent theatres

The Dukes is a theatre and a cinema. They have a wide range of different things on, and put on matinees every week. The ticket prices for the theatre start at £5, for a standing only ticket. There are a lot of different things on every week, in one week they publicised a ballet one night, and then Andi Osho (Comedian from Mock the Week) the next night, and then there was a Brazilian film screening on the night after.

The Grand hosts a number of nationally known comedians, and has it’s own amateur dramatics troupe who often put on productions. The pantomimes are particularly popular if you come at Christmas time.

(Information correct up to 15th February 2016)

If after reading this article, you have found some places that you would like to visit, and need to book a taxi, then you need to call Coastal Taxis.

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Lancaster for families

Poldark? Downton Abbey? War and Peace? If these have been part of your regular viewing on television, then come to Lancaster. You can see what people were really doing in the past. 

 Museums 

Maritime Museum is on the quay. It shows the history of Lancaster as a port city, referring to the slave trade, and the ships which used to travel along the canal.It’s an impressive building, and the staff are very well informed about the history of Lancaster’s maritime trading. It costs £3 for adults and £2 for concessions.

Lancaster Castle is one of the oldest prisons in the country. It’s only recently stopped being a working one, but is still in use as a Crown Court. The staff run tours throughout the year, which are full of information about the past. It also includes a chance, for those who wish it, to be closed into one of the cells that were used to house those accused of witchcraft in 1612. Tickets for families cost £20.

Judges Lodgings is a large museum, where the judges used to stay between 1776 and 1975. It’s also the oldest town house in the city. Now it is home to an impressive collection of Gillow furniture, and also the Museum of Childhood, showing toys which date from the 18th century to the present day. It’s not far from the castle, and is within walking distance of one of the former Gillow factories. It costs £3 for adults, and £2 for concessions.

Lancaster City Museum sits right in the town square. It’s an imposing Georgian building, and the ground floor tends to host exhibitions. They are changed quite often, but are well publicised. The upper level is filled with items from the long history of Lancaster, showing it’s growth from the Roman city to today. It’s free to enter the City Museum, and children friendly activities are often run by the Museum staff.

Parks 

Williamson’s Park can be seen for miles, thanks to the prominent Ashton Memorial which sits atop one of the hills. It’s a local landmark, and in the summer the Dukes often put on performances. There’s a butterfly house, and a nice cafe, as well as a children’s play area. It’s a lovely park, particularly popular in the summer months, but if it snows in the winter, people come to use their toboggans on the long sloping hills. It’s free admission to the park, but the other attractions such as the butterfly house do cost money to get in.

Other landmarks 

The Priory Church is in the grounds of the castle, and has been a place of worship for centuries. It’s beautiful inside, and is well worth a look if you have an interest in architecture.

Other family activities 

The Zone is a indoor soft play area with three levels. It’s separated into different age categories, with space for babies, toddlers, and junior children. It’s located in Dalton Square, and is open most days during the school holidays.

Lancaster Canal cruises and waterbus offer guided cruises complete with historical talks about the local area. The cruise includes food and drink, with allergies catered for.

(information all correct as of 15th February 2016)

If after reading this article, you have found some places that you would like to visit, and need to book a taxi, then you need to call Coastal Taxis.
01524 424424 (Morecambe)
01524 60000 (Lancaster)

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Morecambe's Brightest Star

Eric Morecambe is known across the world, by people who might not know that he had his origins in the little town in the north of England which bears his name.  He was born John Eric Bartholomew, to George and Sadie Bartholomew.

His mother was one of his earliest supporters, in his ambitions to be an entertainer, taking a job as a waitress to pay for his dance classes.  Sadie’s belief in her son paid off when he won several competitions, one of which led to him meeting Ernie Wise. The pair that would eventually become known as Morecambe and Wise, and become one of the best loved comedic duos in history, met in 1941.  They were booked separately for Jack Hylton’s revue in Nottingham, but quickly became close friends.

Sadie encouraged them to try to develop a double act, and Hylton eventually allowed them to perform it as part of the revue. It was successful enough that Hylton kept it as part of the regular set, and also let them perform separately.

War service put a end to their burgeoning success, as Eric joined the Merchant Navy when he came of age.  They reunited unexpectedly in 1946, as they were both performing at Swansea Empire, and joined forces. That was the true beginning, as the pair worked together until 1984.

The first foray into television, in Running Wild broadcast in 1954, wasn’t very successful, and made them determined to have a greater hand in what they were performing.  When they went on Winifred Atwell’s show in 1956, it had more impact, and they were eventually offered their own series by Lew Grade. It was called Two of a kind, and ran for seven years (1961- 1968)

Unfortunately Eric suffered his first heart attack on 8th November 1968, and was helped to hospital by a passerby. After leaving hospital he cut down on his professional engagements, taking six months off.  The writing staff that had been working with Eric and Ernie at the time, didn’t believe that Eric would work in comedy again, and therefore decided to cut professional ties during his recuperation. The duo returned to the stage, in Aug 1969 and received a four minute standing ovation from the audience in Bournemouth.

They were soon back on the television in Morecambe and Wise show (1968-1977) , as well as having the Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise show on Radio 2 between 1975- 1978. Their 1977 Christmas show had viewing figures of over 28 million. Their final foray into television was also called the Morecambe and Wise show, running between 1978 and Christmas 1983.

Together they produced some of the most well loved comedic sketches in history, such as the ‘Singing in the Rain’ parody, where Ernie is in the Kelly role, happily dancing, but it’s Eric as the policeman who gets soaked to the skin.

It’s a testament to the enduring popularity of Morecambe and Wise that their television programmes, and the specials are still re run despite the fact that unfortunately neither are here anymore.

Legacy 

He was voted the funniest person of the 20th century, in 1999, gaining more than 20% of the vote and beating Tommy Cooper among others.

Kenneth Branagh directed a West End play based on one of Ernie’s catchphrases ‘The Play what I wrote’, it featured Kylie Minogue, Roger Moore and Nigel Havers, as well as Prince Charles, who is a fan of the pair. It ran in 2001, and went to Broadway.

His eldest son published a book ‘Life’s not Hollywood, it’s Cricklewood’ revealing his father to be like his on screen persona, if a little watered down. The book included family photographs, and was published in 2003.

His daughter Gail regularly speaks about him to interested parties, and runs a website in her father’s memory.

A poll run in 2005 by comedians and comedy insiders voted Morecambe and Wise to be the fourth greatest comedy act ever.


If you have enjoyed this article, and it has made you want to visit Morecambe, then you might need a taxi service. The one that you want to call is Coastal Taxis.

Safe, Reliable Taxi Services 

Safe and reliable. Punctual and polite.  Reliable, recommended, tracked, tested, monitored – these aren’t just the words our customers use about us; they represent our values.  Whether you’re a student wanting to move your stuff or a company looking for a great value taxi contract, you’ll find first class service at Coastal Taxis.

Call us today – Or BOOK ONLINE.

01524 424424 (Morecambe)
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