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May 2021
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Samantha Prendergast of Krizma Cosmetics
The Lancashire writer’s book
made into a film by Disney
samantha prendergast Creating a unique cosmetic business
Are you living next door to some of the world’s deadliest creatures?
How To Be Kind To Stressed Out Skin
Stress Awareness Month (April 2021)
The ambitious Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood
Catherine Dean
Frances Hodgson Burnett and the secret garden
Nutritional & Lifestyle Coaching
Time to discover the good life with Rowland Homes
Find your next corporate vehicle with Bolton Kia
Frances Hodgson Burnett and the secret garden By Margaret Brecknell
The children’s classic novel, The Secret Garden, was first published 110 years ago in 1911. Written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it was, surprisingly, less popular than many of the writer’s other books during her lifetime, but has since become probably her most celebrated work. The Secret Garden has been adapted for film and TV on numerous occasions, most recently late last year. Above: Frances Hodgson Burnett c1900
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Frances Hodgson Burnett spent most of her life in the USA, so it may well come as another surprise to learn that she spent the first 16 years of her life here in the North-West. Frances Eliza Hodgson was born on 24th November 1849 in the Manchester suburb of Cheetham. Her father, Edwin, owned a thriving ironmonger’s business in the centre of Manchester and the fact that they had two maids reveals that the family lived a comfortable life. Frances would later cite the garden from her early childhood home, which she called the “Back Garden of Eden”, as one of the inspirations for her writing. In 1853 Edwin died suddenly of a stroke and his widow, Eliza, was left to run the family business, as well as raising five young children on her own. Facing increasing financial pressures, the Burnetts were compelled to leave their comfortable home in Cheetham and moved to Islington Square in Salford. Frances would later reminisce about her childhood in an 1893 memoir. Rather disconcertingly she constantly refers to herself in the third person in the book, using names such as “The Small Person” and “The One I Knew The Best Of All” (which is also the memoir’s title), but it does provide a fascinating glimpse into the author’s early years in the North-West. Frances describes Islington Square as having “seen better days” with “an atmosphere of faded gentility”. This once sought-after address was by Frances’ time right next to one of Manchester’s most notorious slum areas, its residents only separated from their more unfortunate neighbours by a large iron gate. In The One I Knew The Best Of All she recalls that, “The Square was at that time a sort of oasis in the midst of small thoroughfares and back streets, where factory operatives lived and where the broadest Lancashire dialect throve”. Frances was seemingly www.lancmag.com
Above: Illustration by Reginald Birch from 1886 edition of Little Lord Fauntleroy
fascinated by this dialect, secretly learning it from two or three of the local girls with whom she was not supposed to mix. She never forgot it, later putting it to good use in one of her early novels. Eventually, Eliza was compelled to sell the business in 1863, a victim of the Lancashire Cotton Famine which adversely affected so many people in Manchester and the North West. Two years later, as the American Civil War was coming to an end, the family moved to the United States to join Eliza’s brother in Knoxville, Tennessee. He had written boasting about the success of his business venture in Tennessee, but upon arrival it quickly became apparent that he was not doing anywhere near as well as he had implied. Frances’ family soon found themselves living in the most basic of houses in the middle of
nowhere a few miles away from the town of Knoxville. However, Frances soon adapted to her new life. She quickly realised that in order to fit in with the locals, she needed to lose her English accent. In the same way as she had picked up the Lancashire dialect, she now easily learned an American accent. She revelled in living in the Tennessee countryside, appreciating it all the more after the years spent in Islington Square amidst the smog of industrial Manchester. “There is a wide, wide distance – a distance which is more than a matter of mere space – between a great murky, slaving, manufacturing town in England, and mountains and forests in Tennessee”, she later recalls in The One I Knew The Best Of All. Frances had enjoyed writing stories from a young age and
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Ready, Sheddie, Go: Cuprinol Shed Of The Year Returns For 2021 Right & Below: Cuprinol Shed of the Year WINNER, Bedouin Tree Shed by Daniel Holloway
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Prepare to discover what new heights of creativity the nation’s sheddies have scaled during lockdown as Cuprinol Shed Of The Year returns for 2021. The past year has seen us all spend unprecedented amounts of time in our homes and gardens. It’s resulted in a DIY boom where we have reshaped our living environments - by creating office spaces, back garden pubs and peaceful refuges away from the world outside. That’s why Cuprinol is predicting that the 15th year of its much loved Shed of the Year competition will be the most exciting one yet, with almost 100 entries already submitted ahead of the 2021 launch! The acclaimed contest invites entrants to submit their creations in one of the seven categories for the chance to win the prize of £1,000 and £100 worth of Cuprinol products. This includes the new Lockdown category introduced last year to recognise the incredible efforts seen during a difficult 2020.
Left: Cuprinol Shed of the Year 2020 - Special Commendation - Lockdown Repurpose SHED SCHOOL by Ashley Bates
Last year’s shed-building superstar Daniel Holloway walked away with the coveted title of Cuprinol Shed of the Year 2020 after wowing judges with his nature-inspired refuge Bedouin Tree-Shed. Daniel’s labour of love is built around two tree trunks in his back garden and is decorated with vintage etchings and specimens of butterflies, while a wood burning stove provides comfort during the winter months. Daniel says: “I was very surprised, but also felt very honoured and happy that the shed had been recognised as a worthy winner. “It’s very much a personal space, but as a result of Covid restrictions it has evolved into a communal space for our family - immediate and extended - and also close friends to gather and relax, in the back of the garden and away from the house.” Daniel handed his £1,000 prize money to environmental charity Trees for Cities and, since winning, continues to develop his shed and is using Victorian quarry tiles for a patio, connecting the shed to an area used as a fire pit.
it going.” Founder and Head Judge, Andrew Wilcox, says: “Since the competition started 15 years ago, we’ve seen some brilliantly creative uses of sheds across the UK. “Over the past year, we’ve seen people retreat to their sheds as a place of respite and sanctuary and the imagination going into them has been particularly impressive.” “We cannot wait to see the amazing ways people have used their sheds this year.”
Left: Cuprinol Shed of the Year - 2010 Lady Sarah Out of Worthing
Ashley Bates took home the competition’s first ever Special Commendation in 2020, after setting up The Shed School to help educate children while lockdown closed classrooms. He says: “Looking back, this time last year my shed was just a shed, it wasn’t anything spectacular, it was filled with rubbish. “Not a year later we’ve got this huge following of children across the world that tune into these lessons and it’s running like a business now, it’s running like a tutor service for people who are still at home and still needing that support. “We now run monthly mental health classes to help children suffering with anxiety and parents who need a little extra support. “Without Shed Of The Year we wouldn’t have gone into that, we would have closed the shed door and locked up after the first lockdown, but it’s given us that impetus to keep www.lancmag.com
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Remembering Dodie Smith By Margaret Brecknell
Lancashire-born writer Dodie Smith may not be a household name today and most of her once popular works have been largely forgotten, but her best-known book remains very much in the public consciousness. Dodie’s children’s story, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, was first published in 1956 and was subsequently adapted, not once but twice, by Disney. Above: Dodie Smith
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Right: Entrance to Botanical Gardens as it is today Credit “Alexander P Kapp/CC BY-SA 2.0”
This ever-popular story remains relevant today, tapping, as it does, into contemporary issues such as the campaign for animal rights and an end to the fur trade. Indeed, Disney is set to release a new prequel, Cruella, based on the supposed early life of the heartless villainess, later this year. The timing of this film seems particularly appropriate, as this year also marks the 125th anniversary of Dodie Smith’s birth. The author was born in Whitefield, near Bury, on 3rd May 1896. Christened Dorothy Gladys Smith, she soon became known as “Dodie”. Her father, Ernest, died when she was just two years of age and her mother, Ella, returned with her baby daughter to live with her parents in the Old Trafford suburb of Manchester. A few years later the family moved to Whalley Range. Years later Dodie would recall her childhood in Manchester fondly in the first volume of her memoirs called Look Back With Love: A Manchester Childhood. Dodie may have been an only child, but she recalls growing up surrounded by loving family. In addition to her
grandparents, five of her mother’s siblings were still living in the family home when they arrived there in 1898. The book provides a charming account of family life during the Edwardian era, giving the reader a tantalising glimpse of a Manchester that has long gone. Whalley Range was still regarded as one of Manchester’s most exclusive residential areas at the time Dodie lived there with her family during the early years of the 20th century. Soon after, however, the area began to fall into decline. Dodie herself recalls how when she returned to Whalley Range some years later, many of the grand Victorian houses had been demolished and replaced by what she describes as “rows of
nasty new ones”. In her memoir the author paints a picture of a seemingly idyllic childhood, filled with jolly daytime outings to the seaside or botanical gardens (now no longer in existence) and evenings when the whole family took part in charades or musical soirees. All the family loved the theatre and Dodie credits them with instilling in her a passion for the stage which would prove to be such an important factor in her future success. Her grandfather was an avid theatre goer, Uncle Harold an enthusiastic amateur actor and her mother Ella had also once held ambitions of becoming an actress. In 1910 the 14-year-old Dodie’s life changed forever when her mother remarried and they moved to the south-west London suburb of Barnes. Sadly, Ella died of breast cancer only four years later, the same year in which Dodie started studying at RADA to train as an actress. Disappointingly for Dodie, her subsequent acting career proved to be far from spectacular. She herself later recalled in an interview in 1976 that she was sacked from her first acting role in a musical comedy, because, she confessed, “I simply wasn’t very good”. By 1923 she realised that she was never going to enjoy success as an actress and decided to take a job as a shop assistant at Heal’s on Tottenham Court Road in London.
Above: Heal’s Tottenham Court Road London – Credit “Philafrenzy/CC BY-SA 4.0”
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The ambitious Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood By Margaret Brecknell
When Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood was born 220 years ago in May 1801, the Fylde coast would have been unrecognisable to those who know the area today. Blackpool consisted of little more than a few cottages. Further down the coast, Lytham may already have been a well-established town, but St Annes didn’t even exist. As for the land on which Fleetwood now stands, this then formed part of the Rossall Estate, owned by the Hesketh family, and, other than a large 18th-century hall, was largely uninhabited. Above: Lithographic portrait of Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood c1840
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The Rossall Estate had long been dismissed as being unsuitable for development. It was an isolated and blustery spot, open to the elements. However, with the arrival of the railway during the mid-1830s, Peter HeskethFleetwood believed this piece of land offered huge potential as a site for a new coastal town and began to set in motion plans that would drastically change the landscape of this part of the north Fylde coast. Peter Hesketh, as he was originally known, was born at Wennington Hall, near Lancaster, on 9th May 1801. At the time his unmarried uncle, Bold Fleetwood Hesketh, was the lord of manor at Rossall. When his uncle died childless in 1819, the estate passed to Peter’s father, Robert. Peter would have had little expectation of ever inheriting the estate when he was growing up, as he had four elder brothers who were ahead of him in the line of succession. It was only when the last one of these, Edward, died in July 1820 that he became heir. Peter Hesketh had just completed a degree at Trinity College, Oxford, when he inherited the family’s then considerable Lancashire estates following his father’s death in 1824. As well as most of the Fylde, the family also owned
part of the land further down the coast on which Southport now stands. Two years later in June 1826 he married Eliza Debonnaire Metcalfe in Dover. The newly married couple travelled north to Rossall Hall the following month. The Lancaster Gazette of 22nd July 1826 reports how on their arrival they were greeted by about sixty of their tenants “amidst the loudest exclamations of joy”.
Above: Fleetwood Museum, formerly The Custom House Credit: “Stevew2022/CC BY-SA 3.0”
The Hesketh family had acquired its extensive lands on the Fylde in 1733 with the marriage of Peter’s ancestor, Roger Hesketh, to Margaret Fleetwood, the then heiress
Left: Fleetwood Railway Station in 1901
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to the Rossall estates. This established a close link between two of the region’s largest landowning families. Peter Hesketh was evidently keen to emphasise his connection with the influential Fleetwood family, as, in 1831 he was granted permission, by royal licence, to incorporate the additional surname of “Fleetwood” into his own. From then onwards he was known as Peter HeskethFleetwood. Later, following the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837, he was knighted and made a baronet. In the same year as his name change to Hesketh-Fleetwood, he was invited to stand as a Tory parliamentary candidate for Preston. He was elected to Parliament in 1832 and would remain as one of Preston’s MPs for the next fifteen years. In many ways he appears to have been a man ahead of his time. He opposed slavery, was a supporter of free trade and argued passionately for the abolition of the death penalty. Such progressive views inevitably brought him into conflict with some of his fellow Tories, to such an extent
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The Mouser’s Toolkit By Rachel Smith
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Christmas 2019... the heady days prior to coronavirus. Back when masks were something you wore as fancy dress or something worn by surgeons; and social distancing was an alien concept. Fylde coast based businesswoman Rachel Smith ran her successful cat sitting business, (the Fylde area franchise of Home Loving Cats) It was her 4th Christmas in the franchise, and busiest one yet! visiting 16 cats on Christmas Day alone!
and mentoring. I thought this would be perfect to help me in my quest to create a sustainable and interesting online business! Under the guidance and encouragement of Anne Wilkinson; my business coach, my creativity and ideas coalesced to become “Mousers Toolkit”. The idea of Mousers Toolkit came from all the cat related questions my customers have ever asked me; and all the things they’ve ever asked me for help with! Cats are born hunters or mousers; and my online service aims to equip owners with the knowledge and tools to understand their own individual cats, and to encourage people to be always learning more about their cats! The beauty of the service is that it’s completely personalised to owners and their cats. If you need any help or advice; I can offer you a dedicated 1:1 consultation service - bookable directly through my website! I’m also excited to offer an amazing cat play area design service. Spread over 3 consultations, I will help you to design the perfect indoor or outdoor play area personalised to your cat’s or cats’ own specific needs and requirements; personality and incorporating any favourite toy types! I share stories learned from my own family of little mousers through my blog. Calli, now 6yrs old (mummy cat) and her 3 (now 5 year old) kittens Dommy, Rora and Minni all feature prominently!
When the pandemic hit, and everyone was told to stay at home my income was wiped out. I knew I was lucky, and could manage for the three months, so prepared to hunker down. Over the summer, business picked up a little, but only to around 50% of normal levels; however this was all repeat custom. New business and clients just dried up completely. Everything seemed to be opening up slowly again, so hope for a gradual revival was there. The increased restrictions for Lancashire in September were a blow. Bookings again were being cancelled; and my mind was spinning with ideas for what I could do to make my business more sustainable in the long term and how to diversify my business so I could work online and from home. By October the impending second lockdown over November struck me as the perfect “quiet time” to do the groundwork for creating an online business! I started searching for online business advice; and came across the concept of business coaching www.lancmag.com
I also have a selection of carefully chosen cat products for sale via the website - my first two are mouse shaped cat toys for wet and dry food which double up as puzzle feeders! I love that they are designed with natural cat behaviour in mind, and encourage cats to hunt around for their food - cats are true mousers after all! Cats can have some playtime whilst getting the food out the feeder, and then finally eat their food more slowly and in a smaller portion, and be less likely to wolf it all down quickly and promptly be sick! Mousers toolkit is also about building an online community of like minded cat owners and cat lovers!
You can join my mailing list to get my monthly cat blog; and participate in activities on Instagram (@mouserstk) and Facebook! (@mousersuk) Website: www.mousers.co.uk LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 139
Healing Herbs to Stop Sinus Congestion
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s a child, I suffered regularly with a stuffy, bunged up or dripping nose! was always sniffing and lost without a tissue in my pocket. My mum took me to the Doctors frequently. If it was winter, they’d say I had a cold, if it was summer, they’d say it was hayfever. Finally (after many years) they diagnosed a chronic sinus problem. Luckily, I eventually grew out of this problem but as a herbalist I see sinus issues on a regular basis, both in children and in adults. Usually diagnosed as rhinitis or sinusitis, chronic sinus problems are often treated with antihistamines (if an allergy is present) or nasal sprays. Oh how I remember the nasal sprays! Have you ever tried to convince an 8 year old that squirting liquid up their nose will help stop their nose running? We aren’t buying it. Perhaps it’s due to this past experience but these days I never use nasal sprays in my clinic. Instead, I use herbs that work to address the underlying inflammation which causes the mucous production. When our mucous membranes are inflamed they are swollen and sore. Our biological response is to produce mucous to soothe the soreness and wash away any bacteria or allergens that are causing the inflammation. Unfortunately, this can become a self-perpetuating cycle. The mucous irritates, causing more inflammation which in turn creates more mucous. Therefore, if it’s possible to heal the sore mucous membranes, the cycle of continued mucous production should break.
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The first thing to do is avoid dairy foods and bananas. In my experience, these foods contribute dramatically to mucous formation. It may not be necessary to cut them out forever, but try reducing them for a few weeks to give your sinuses a break and see what happens. Have eggs at breakfast instead of cereal, choose fruit instead of yogurt as a snack and swap out the cheese on your sandwich for a different filling for a while. Next, drink water. Not just tea, coffee or sugary pop which will ultimately dehydrate you. Drinking 6 cups of water per day will have a multitude of health benefits as well as helping to thin down
Have eggs at breakfast instead of cereal
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mucous. Foods like chilli, garlic, onions and ginger will also help to break mucous down so try adding these foods to your recipes. When it comes to natural remedies I usually use a combination of two remedies for 2 weeks. The first remedy is Serrapeptase, an enzyme that digests and breaks down mucous from within the body. Serrapeptase deals with mucous no matter how deep it is within the sinus cavity meaning that it can get to the areas you can’t clear when blowing your nose. Serrapeptase works really quickly, which is why I use it for a short period of 2 weeks. Serrepeptase also deals with inflammation, so once the mucous is cleared it shouldn’t come back during those two weeks either, giving the nasal passages and sinuses time to heal.
nose or spraying chemicals up it seems to me like the equivalent of picking at a scab that won’t heal. Instead, the Serrapeptase and Plantago combo should offer protection, healing time and hopefully the key to breaking the cycle of constant congestion and/or a dripping nose.
Plantago Seeds
That’s where my second remedy comes in Plantago. Plantago is a common garden weed that has been approved by the German Commission E for respiratory catarrh although its benefits are not limited to the nasal and sinus region. Traditionally it has been used for the whole ear, nose and throat area. It’s my go to remedy for glue ear in children or for people that regularly need their ears syringed due to too much wax production as well as addressing the over production of mucous. While Serrapeptase should give a quick fix to a sinus problem, Plantago helps long term to restore sinus tissue to a healthy state. In herbal medicine, it’s what we call a trophorestorative because it ‘restores’ health to the tissues, rather than simply opening up the airways or drying up mucous. Just like a scratch on the skin, sore tissues need time to heal and constantly blowing your
For more information of to make an appointment with Nicola, contact her clinic on 01524 413733.
Nicola Parker MNIMH has a herbal medicine clinic located on the picturesque coast Morecambe Bay where she offers face to face and virtual appointments. For more information on the topics she writes about or to book an appointment, contact her clinic on 01524 413733 or via email at helpmebehealthy@gmail.com.
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Exotic Pets on the rise in Cheshire – are you living next door to some of the world’s deadliest creatures? ● OFFICIAL: New data confirms nearly 4,000 dangerous wild animals are being kept as pets in UK ● 59% increase in exotic pet ownership since 2000 ● Born Free calling for immediate over haul of legislation
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new survey conducted by Born Free has revealed that nearly 4,000 dangerous wild animals are being privately kept in Great Britain – 70 of which are living in Cheshire. The international wildlife charity is calling on the UK Government to immediately review the law and put a stop to some of the world’s most remarkable, but often deadly, creatures being kept as ‘pets’ in unsuitable captive conditions.
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4 cats including a Cheetah and Servals
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16 venomous snakes including a Saw-scaled viper, an Indochinese spitting cobra, and a Western diamondback rattlesnake
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36 Wild Boar
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3 Lechwe
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2 Ostrich
Born Free’s research reviewed the number of Dangerous Wild Animal (DWA) Act licences granted by local authorities in 2020 across England, Scotland and Wales, and the variety of species being privately kept. Local authorities in Cheshire revealed that the licences granted cover 70 dangerous wild animals residing in the area, of which there are at least:
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2 Ring-tailed lemur
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2 Spectacled caiman
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2 Scorpion - a Fat-tailed scorpion and a Death Stalker
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3 venomous lizards including a Gila monster and Beaded lizards
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Shockingly, the entire combined data across all authorities highlighted that a total of 210 DWA licences were granted for the keeping of 3,951 individual wild animals including: ● 320 wild cats (including 61 big cats – 11 lions, 8 tigers, 11 leopards, 18 pumas, 10 cheetahs, 2 ligers and 1 jaguar) ●
274 primates (including over 150 lemurs)
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158 crocodilians
● 508 venomous snakes (including 57 diamondback rattlesnakes) ●
332 scorpions
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106 venomous lizards
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2 elephants
Other species on the DWA list that are being kept as pets or in private collections in the UK include zebras, camels, fossa (a kind of civet), hyaena, sun bears, wolves, and otters. Dr Mark Jones, Veterinarian and Born Free’s Head of Policy, states: “Born Free has been collating and analysing DWA data for over 20 years. Since the millennium the wild animal welfare and conservation charity has seen a dramatic increase in the number of exotic pets in private ownership, including a 94% increase in the number of venomous snakes, 57% increase in wild cats, 198% increase in crocodilians and over a 2000%
Born Free believes that many additional dangerous wild animals are being kept without a licence
applicant to demonstrate that their animals are properly contained so as to prevent escape and protect the public, but this does little to ensure the welfare of the animals or the protection of the owner or anyone else visiting the property. While changes have been made to the schedule, Born Free is highlighting the fact that the Act itself has not been reviewed substantially for more than 40 years. This means, for example, that species such as Komodo dragons, other large monitors, and large constrictor snakes are not included on the schedule, despite the fact that they could pose a serious risk to their owners, and to members of the public, should they escape. Furthermore, there is long-standing concern about widespread noncompliance with the Act, especially with respect to venomous reptiles and invertebrates.
increase in scorpions. However, these figures are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg. They only record those animals being kept and registered with a DWA licence. Born Free believes that many additional dangerous wild animals are being kept without a licence.” Currently, under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, anyone in Britain can keep a dangerous wild animal as long as they obtain a licence from their Local Authority. The licencing process requires the www.lancmag.com
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