Lincolnshire’s Quirky Events could be the best in the UK!

Echoing those famous words of the 1914 recruitment poster I’d like to say….LINCOLNSHIRE NEEDS YOU!

The county’s been nominated for a national Enjoy England Award for Excellence 2010 and with your vote we can scoop gold!

A bit of background on how this came about: Two of Lincolnshire’s most unusual events, the Haxey Hood and the World Egg Throwing Competition have been nominated for … (drum roll please)… the new “Where Else but England” award which celebrates the quirkiest events in the UK.

The category is brand new for 2010 and celebrates English eccentricity (because that’s what we do best!). Whoever wins will be on the receiving end of some fantastic national media attention – which should result in more visitors flocking to these events or visit the host destination.

Thanks to local press coverage in the Lincolnshire Echo and also BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire’s two shortlisted events; the World Egg Throwing Competition and Haxey Hood won places in the national final.

The county now needs as many people as possible to vote for Lincolnshire’s quirky events to give us a chance to scoop gold in the national awards.

Vote here, it only takes 2 mins.

The winner will be announced on St Georges Day, April 2010.

Did you know Lincolnshire has Robin Hood connection?

It’s not long now until the release of the new Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe (sorry, but I can’t get the vision of Robin Hood, Men in tights out my head).

In anticipation on this, (the movie, not Russell in tights) we have been researching any connections Robin Hood had to Lincolnshire.

We’re doing this because when the movie is launched it will get global promotion and Lincolnshire could get a little slice of the cake– like we did for The Da Vinci Code and The Young Victoria.

Although none of the movie was filmed in Lincolnshire, people following the Robin Hood Movie Trail or story of the man himself will want to visit places that have connections to him…. and Lincolnshire is one of them!

Work is been done by us, VisitEngland and Experience Nottinghamshire to develop movie trail maps. But in the meantime have a little read of these….

• To get a sense of how big Sherwood Forest really was go on a Lincoln Cathedral roof top tour and see the boundaries where the forest use to border Lincolnshire. Sherwood Forest came within 6 miles of the Cathedral!


• Lincoln Castle is the only place in the world where you can see the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forrest together.


• The material that his clothes were made of was from Lincolnshire, it was called “Lincoln Green”.


• The library in the Cathedral has one of the very first hand written rhymes of Robin Hood. Dr Nicholas Bennett resident at the cathedral said “Lincoln Cathedral’s Library is of major importance in Robin Hood studies. It has the first hand written rhyme / verse which refers to Robin Hood.
  The verse reads (In modernised form), ‘Robin Hood in Sherwood stood, hooded and hated, hosèd and shod’. This is the earliest surviving written rhyme of Robin Hood in existence anywhere. We display this in the Library exhibition every year.” See the copy on a visit to Lincolnshire.


• Robin Hood was known as ‘robbing the rich to feed the poor’ and it would have been Lincoln’s ‘rich’ he robbed at city events as it was the closest most affluent city to him.


• The Sheriff (or Shire Reive) of Nottingham administered Lincolnshire as part of his area of jurisdiction.

Fingers crossed for the Oscars

When we heard ‘The Young Victoria’ movie (partly filmed in Lincolnshire) had been nominated for several Oscars we excitedly dusted off our posh frocks and waited with starry-eyed hope…

Alas, our golden invitations failed to drop through the letter box. But if the Young Victoria were to scoop a little gold man this weekend it would, once again, put the movie and it’s filming locations into the global spotlight.

This would be fantastic news for Lincolnshire! We’ve already had one bite of the cherry when the movie was released, because people wanted to visit the set locations and follow the footsteps of their favourite stars - like Emily Blunt (who played Victoria in the movie).

Keren from our office spoke to Rod Whiting at BBC Radio Lincolnshire this morning on the subject - if you missed what was said you can hear it here on the stations ‘listen again’ weblink.

Useful links

• BBC Radio Lincolnshire ‘Listen again’
• Film locations in Lincolnshire

Move over Hollywood – Lincolnshire is now Film Friendly

Lincolnshire has joined the red carpet A-list stars by gaining official ‘Film Friendly’ status.

Could this mean (sharp intake of breath) we’ll be bumping into Brad Pitt on Lincoln’s Steep Hill, sharing the Cleethorpes Land Train with George Clooney or asking Jennifer Aniston if she has 20p for the car park in Stamford...?

And the answer is – maybe!

But more importantly, Lincolnshire being film friendly gives reassurance to directors and scouts that when they film in Lincolnshire they will get a certain level of service, help and advice – which is music to their ears.

The knock on effect of Lincolnshire’s film friendly status could potentially mean more movies are made here; which would have a fantastic effect in the local economy, especially tourism, as people love to visit their favorite film locations.

Remember The Da Vinci Code and The Young Victoria at Lincolnshire Cathedral? Pride and Prejudice at Burghley House? Or Atonement starring Keira Knightley and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, with Cate Blanchet. All of them helped shine the spotlight on Lincolnshire.

If you want to know more see the press release www.lincolnshiretourism.com/media-room/press-release/2009.

We’ll let you know when Steven Spielberg is on the phone...CG

Coast Magazine loves Lincolnshire...

I arrived at my desk this morning to see the latest copy of Coast Magazine – and turned straight to the four page spread dedicated to Lincolnshire’s Festival of Bathing Beauties, which takes place every September in Mablethorpe (18th-20th).

The festival is totally unique, and celebrates traditional seaside fun (something Lincolnshire is very good at!) with a quirky design twist. The article in Coast Magazine focuses on the design concepts of each artist when they sketched out the initial plans for their bespoke hut.

We love getting national coverage like this for Lincolnshire – it’s one of many ways we use to sing about what a great place it is to visit. If you want to know more about Bathing Beauties or attend the festival have a look on www.bathingbeauties.org.uk or pick up a copy of Coast Magazine! CG

Latest press coverage: The Times

Last month our media team were approached by respected walking guru and journalist, Christopher Somerville. After providing Christopher with some routes and ideas it seems our ever persuasive approach did the trick - with an article in last weekends copy of The Times worth c. £25k in press coverage.

Happily for us whilst many of Christopher's friends have 'little love' for our fair county, it seems he was mesmerised by our 'undiscovered walking country'. Jolly good stuff we think.

Read the full article...

• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/walks/article6681379.ece