Watch the enchanted gardens grow!
The appeal of the beautiful Stydd gardens at Ribchester continues to grow, with new craft and retail opportunities now becoming established. With much more to attract visitors, Stydd is home to numerous outlets, each housed in a beautifully quirky cabin, including Maison De Lamond gifts and antiques, the Wine Shed, the Bee Garden, Rosie Duck’s exquisite coffee and cake shop, and of course, the renowned Stydd café bar, located in a glasshouse, where you can relax amongst climbing grape vines, jasmine, old roses and shabby chic items. www.stydd.com Stydd Gardens, Stoneygate Lane, Ribchester, PR3 3YN
Dog Walking Specials
The Aspinall Arms’ monthly pub walks have proven extremely popular, providing complementary refreshments and nibbles to both humans and their four-legged friends. The Mitton-based pub prides itself in its warm welcome to canines, allowing them to curl up in a cosy corner as if they were at home. Walkers, cyclists and foodies alike flock to the gastropub all year round to enjoy an everchanging menu of dishes comprising not only British culinary classics, but also exotic cuisine from around the world.
Accolades for Assheton Arms
The Assheton Arms, one of the top Gastro Pubs in UK was recently reviewed by respected Guardian Food Critic Grace Dent. Grace recalls her visit… ‘We visited the Assheton Arms in Downham on an autumnal Wednesday evening. This former coaching house sits at the foot of Pendle Hill, in many square miles of silent, light pollution-free, starry-skied countryside. It’s hard not to fall completely in love with it, I found myself checking for New Year’s Eve availability in their rooms within 10 minutes of arrival’ This is a glorious, stone-fronted building from the early 1800s with a neatly kept front terrace full of wooden tables that I imagine would be joyful in summer. Inside, there’s a log-burning stove and flagstone floors, then a welcoming, more modern dining room on a separate level. Grace extols the virtues of the wider Ribble Valley concluding ‘the Ribble valley is a nook of northern England where life seems simply to move more slowly. It may not be on many people’s bucket lists, but that’s what makes it all the more blissful’. www.asshetonarms.com visitribblevalley.co.uk | Love Ribble Valley | 17