This Saturday…. Mistletoe Magic at the Countryside workshop, Apedale Country Park (Opposite the Apedale Heritage Centre). Make your own Chrismas decorations using natural materials from the country park. Saturday 6th December from 10am to 3pm.
Also crafts stall from Action Apedale, and we’ll be open for mine tours, museum and cafe as usual. The railway station shop will be open for Santa Special bookings.
We’re pleased to say that the travelers camped at the end of Loomer Road have moved on and so the Country Park gates are open and the car parks by the Heritage Centre are accessible again. So it business as usual!
Unfortunately access via Loomer Road is once again blocked due to a Traveller camp situated at the end of Loomer Road by the country park entrance. Understandably, the Rangers service will be keeping the gates locked during this time which means that the car parks next to the Centre will not be reachable by Car. There is alternative parking on the car parks off Black Bank Road. See the map below for location details. You can also access the site from Loomer Road by foot (but not suitable for all walking abilities) across the field opposite the speedway entrance and via Apedale Road that has limited parking, but be aware that Apedale Road isn’t surfaced and may not be suitable for your vehicle.
We’ll be contacting schools and other groups that have bookings to discuss arrangements with them.
It’ll be business as usual as much as possible, and we hope that you will support us. Do call ahead if you would like to visit the museum or for a mine tour on 01782 565050 especially if you are travelling any distance, just in case. We’ll keep everyone posted via this site, facebook and twitter as information becomes available.
This weekend the lobby fairy will be visiting our café (I was reminded of this by our ever alert museum manager), so if you are walking in the park it’s a great way to warm up. We’ve used local produce so it really is a taste of North Staffordshire!. The railway will be running their very popular Halloween Ghost Train service (www.avlr.org.uk) again this year on the 25th and 26th of October, it’s always one of the highlights of our year. So come along to enjoy the spooky goings on and taste the wonder of fairy Mo’s lobby
Something for teachers – our brand new education pack has just arrived hot of the presses. It’s been updated for the latest revision of the national curriculum, has all of the up to date info on what we offer to schools, and is now a much more useful size. What’s more, it’s now available for download on our website from our education page.
Congratulation to the Heritage Centre Café team on achieving a Food Hygiene Rating of 5! A lot of hard work has gone into improving things in the café kitchen to get this which covers the record keeping side as well as the obvious things.
The companion dog show that was cancelled earlier this month due to the severe weather, has been rescheduled for Saturday 4th October. There are categories to suit all types of dog, such as “Waggiest Tail”, so even if your best pal isn’t a pedigree pooch, there’s still a chance to win. That all kicks off at 10.30am, with judging at 12pm. For more information click here.
If you’ve visited us over the last couple of week you may have heard the sound of drilling, hammering and general mayhem. Nothing to be concerned about, it was just John the electrician installing power in our new lamp room. Today the first of the lamp charging racks went in, and we hope that tomorrow we’ll be able to use the new room for our mine tours. It’ll be a much better layout as there is a separate entrance and exit, eliminating the usual scrum.
We’ve just been told that the dog show, that was to be held at Apedale today, has been cancelled due to the inclement weather. However it will be rearranged for a future date and a new date will be announced as soon as we have it.
Not one, but two events this weekend at Apedale! On Saturday and Sunday the Apedale Valley Light Railway are holding another Teddy Bear’s outing which means steam trains on both days and free rides for kids who bring their teddy’s with them, we’ll also be doing a teddy bear hunt activity in the museum.
The second event is the Companion Dog Show on Sunday 10th (click here for info). There are categories to suit all types of dog, such as “Waggiest Tail”, so even if your best pal isn’t a pedigree pooch, there’s still a chance to win.
We’re also in the process of updating the activity sheets in the museum. There’s a new version of the i-Spy activity for the younger visitors. There’s also a brand new activity entitled ‘How Many?’, if you want a bit more of a challenge (but still not as hard as our “Rather hard Museum Quiz”). They seemed to go down very well with one of our regular young visitors, who has been waiting for new activities for a while.