Business has been so good for a local food firm that it has now opened its doors to a new deli within Oswaldtwistle Mills. Olivia Ryan, home to a butcher, baker and sandwich-maker in Clayton le Moors, has been serving tasty treats to satisfied customers throughout East Lancashire since 1997, trading so successfully recently that it has embarked upon big expansion plans. The new deli counter is the latest outlet for Olivia Ryan and Gourmet Catering whose main site is in Clayton le Moors, and has a café bar within Blackburn’s Evolution Park business centre, this latest concession means the operation has now grown to such a size that it has been able to bring its butcher and baker in-house. And overseeing the quality of the food is a brand new head chef and manager, Neil Hogg, who cut his teeth working alongside Nigel Haworth of Northcote Manor. Proprietor Ian Baker-Smith said: “There have been some mouth-watering changes to Olivia Ryan in recent times and our produce has been snapped up by a whole new audience. “We built our name serving the business community, catering for conferences and sportsman’s dinners, and our customers have been telling us for some time that if we opened a shop the public would love us.” Ian added: “It seemed like a brave move, but we went ahead and did it and the response has been fantastic. This has been our busiest year in memory and there are now so many options open to us that we can’t wait to get stuck in.” Gourmet Catering had been providing catering for the new Oswaldtwistle Mills Business and Conference Centre when they first found out about the opportunity of a new offer at the Mill. He said: “We met Boyd Hargreaves of Oswaldtwistle Mills earlier in the year, and he was fantastic in making the move and the expansion as pain free as possible. Now we have an idealic location with fantastic clientele. “Also, being able to bring the butchers and bakers under our own roof at our Clayton site means that we have much greater control over the quality of the food produced and that will help everything run all the more smoothly.” The new deli sells a range of cooked treats, salads, soups and cakes to shoppers, and complements Olivia Ryan’s existing cafés and Gourmet Catering’s offerings. Boyd Hargreaves said: “We were familiar with the catering done by Gourmet, they have a good reputation for food in the area, and we were delighted when they approached us about moving into our premises. “We know pretty quickly if new concession ventures are going to be successful. Olivia Ryan has started very positively and complements our exiting food retailers The Crumbly Cheese Deli, Ye Old Sausage shop and Rainhall drinks.”

Top April Fool Pranks. You didn’t fall for that one?

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It showed footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers called the BBC asking how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in tomato sauce and hope for the best."

UFO Lands in London

1989: On March 31, thousands of motorists in London looked up to see a glowing flying saucer descending on their city. Many of them pulled to the side of the road to watch the bizarre craft float through the air. The saucer finally landed in a field near London where local residents immediately called the police to warn them of an alien invasion. Soon the police arrived on the scene, and one brave officer approached the craft with his truncheon extended before him. When a door in the craft popped open, and a small, silver-suited figure emerged, the policeman ran in the opposite direction. The saucer turned out to be a hot-air balloon that had been specially built to look like a UFO by Richard Branson, the 36-year-old chairman of Virgin Records. The stunt combined his passion for ballooning with his love of pranks. His plan was to land the craft in London's Hyde Park on April 1. Unfortunately, the wind blew him off course, and he was forced to land a day early in the wrong location.

The Body of Nessie Found

1972: On March 31 a team of zoologists from Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo, who were at Loch Ness searching for proof of Nessie's existence, found a mysterious carcass floating in the Loch. The zoologists placed the body in a van and began to transport it back to the zoo. However, the police stopped them under a 1933 act of Parliament prohibiting the removal of "unidentified creatures" from Loch Ness. The story received world wide attention and the press dubbed the creature “ Son of Nessie.” The body was then taken to Dunfermline for examination, where scientists identified the creature as a bull elephant seal from the South Atlantic. The next day John Shields, Flamingo Park's education officer, confessed to the prank as an attempt to fool his colleagues, but it all got out of hand when the police became involved.

Metric Time

1975: Australia's This Day Tonight news program revealed that the country would soon be converting to "metric time." Under the new system there would be 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days. One frustrated viewer wanted to know how he could convert his newly purchased digital clock to metric time.

Less 10%

With this advert

New Delicatessen at Oswaldtwistle Mills

Offering Quality home made produce. Cakes and puddings, fresh bread, ready meals, and family pies, Salad bar and much more.

Operation Parallax

1979: London's Capital Radio announced that Operation Parallax would soon go into effect. This was a government plan to resynchronize the British calendar with the rest of the world as it had become 48 hours ahead of all other countries due to the constant changing to British Summer Time. To remedy this situation, the government would cancel April 5th and 12th that year. Capital Radio received numerous calls as a result, with one employer wanted to know if she had to pay her employees for the missing days, and another woman asked what would happen to her birthday, which fell on one of the cancelled days.

Bearskin Helmets Need Trimming

1980: Soldier magazine revealed that the fur on the bearskin helmets worn by the Irish guards while on duty at Buckingham Palace keeps growing and needs to be regularly trimmed: The most hair-raising fact about the bearskins has been discovered by scientists recently. The skins retain an original hormone, which lives on after the animal has been skinned. Scientists call it otiose and it is hoped it can be put to use in medical research, especially into baldness. The story was picked up by the London Daily Express and run as a straight story.

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One-way Motorway.

In 1991 the London Times announced that the Department of Transport had finalized a plan to ease congestion on the M25, the circular highway surrounding London. The capacity of the road would be doubled by making the traffic on both carriageways travel in the same direction. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the traffic would travel clockwise; while on Tuesdays and Thursdays it would travel anti-clockwise. The plan would not operate on weekends. It was said that the scheme was almost certain to meet with the cabinet's approval, despite voices of protest coming from some quarters. One of the protestors included a spokesman for Labour Transport who reportedly warned that "Many drivers already have trouble telling their left from their right." Also, a resident of Swanley, Kent was quoted as saying, "Villagers use the motorway to make shopping trips to Orpington. On some days this will be a journey of two miles, and on others a journey of 117 miles. The scheme is lunatic." Thankfully, the scheme existed only in the minds of the writers at the Times. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36