BBC TV appearance for Lancaster’s Knitted Village
Wednesday, 7th March 2007
The amazing Knitted Village, at Lancaster Leisure Park was featured yesterday morning on CBeebies, in their popular morning show, The Wonderful World of Weird.
Situated inside GB Antiques Centre, the knitted village is the only one of its kind in the world. It is the creation of 3 ladies from Kendal and was based on the idea of a Morecambe resident. Named Moss County, the village is made up of three sections, “Lesser Knitting”, “Lower Needle” and the original “Much-Knitting-on-the-Needle”. The village is imaginary, but it does include some local buildings that residents of the area may well recognise!
The village features a knitted helter-skelter, beach huts and a harbour, several rows (no pun intended) of houses and shops, a play-park, two churches and a couple of cafes. In total there are 72 buildings, 8 stalls and a train. In 1998 the village was finally complete after five years work and amazingly, no patterns were used, except for the trees. Five gentlemen helped the village along by making the wooden and electrical items, the bases and the trestles. They also had a hand in making the sports ground and the village golf course!
Owner of Lancaster Leisure Park and GB Antiques Centre, Allan Blackburn said “I heard that the village needed a new home, 4 years ago and knew it would be perfect as an extra attraction for the Antiques Centre. One minute you are browsing for bargains - the next you are eye-to-eye with a knitted lighthouse!”
It also caught the attention of BBC 2 who featured it in their 45 mins long children’s television programme yesterday.
Allan explained, “I was presenting my regular radio programme about antiques on Radio Lancashire and I was talking about the knitted village. The Producer of “The Wonderful World of Weird” heard the show and phoned in to ask for some details. It all went from there. Within weeks there was a film crew here and lots of children running up and down the aisles of the antiques centre.”
Before leaving, the children were given the opportunity to try on some Viking helmets and other antique garments. They all had a great time.
Many buildings in the village are named in remembrance of someone who has died from cancer and any donations received, are collected for charity. To date, the knitted village has raised over £10,000 for charities.
Open every day, admission into GB Antiques Centre is £1.50 for adults and 75p for children. Follow the brown tourism signs for “Lancaster Leisure Park”.
For further media information and photos, call Kate Bowyer on 01524 825604
