Fitness guru got staff to shape up in top chippy area
●●10 years ago TAFF at Highfield Hospital were put through their paces when exercise guru Mr Motivator dropped in to lead a work-out.
The fitness fanatic and one-time star of GMTV gave a team of nurses and physiotherapists two fastpaced workouts set to funky calypso music.
The special visit was a prize in an Observer competition won by Diane Reid.
STHE north-west was named the number one region for fish and chips – and one Rochdale owner said he knew exactly why it battered the competition.
Simon Pilkington, of Mr Thomas’ chippy at Hollingworth Lake said: “We know traditional fish and chips are delicious and nutritious and one of the healthiest fast foods around.”
According to figures released by Seafish, organisers of the Fish and Chip Shop of the Year competition, there were more fish and chip shops in the north west than anywhere else in the country. HISTORY was made at Rochdale fire station when its first female firefighter was appointed.
Joanne Musgrave was one of four recruits to get a warm welcome from station ●●Zoe Lowe, Andrew Pilkington and Catherine Barlow at St Thomas’s chippy as the north west was named as the top area for fish and chips commander Kevin Talbot.
Her fellow new recruits were Jonathan Clarke, Patrick Elsworth and Scott Ellidge.
Mr Talbot said he was hopeful Joanne’s appointment would encourage other women to apply for the service. A NEW baby is always a cause for celebration but the Gradwell clan hadn’t banked on two arriving within a few minutes of each other.
Cadena Gradwell, 23, went into labour in the early hours of January 5 – the same day her brother Callum’s girlfriend Kaylee was booked in for a caesarean section.
Little Megan Leigh Cassinelli had been expected on January 3 but decided to hold out until the arrival of her cousin, Reece Connor Gradwell. A HIGH-FLYING pilot from Rochdale was giving Ugandan orphans a helping hand.
British Airways pilot Ibrar Ul-Haq applied to his company’s voluntary fund to help the Rochdale Greenland Orphanage.
About 24 children lived in the orphanage which was set up near Kampala by Rochdale businessmen.
Mr Ul-Haq handed over £1,500 to the orphanage manager Tariq Mahmood. School and THINGS were looking up for creative people in Rochdale who wanted to get themselves noticed.
For Peopleprint Media, a not-for-profit organisation specialising in providing art services, launched a new project, posting weekly arts news podcasts online.
It featured interviews with people working in the industry in the hope of creating an online community for Rochdalians in the arts.
Since its launch the project had gone from strength to strength and talks were being held with the council to secure funding for the future.
●●30 years ago
‘A UNICORN’ was the outlandish answer given by one Observer reader in a bid to solve a riddle.
Readers wanted to know what a head carved in stone over the former lodge at Schofield’s Buckley Mill was supposed to be.
Puzzled people guessed the creature was meant to be a bullock, a sheep and a ram with one even claiming it was a unicorn, an animal more commonly found in medieval legends than in mill buildings. THE Observer’s music critic was impressed when he paid a visit to hear the Halle Orchestra.
The performance at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester featured works by Bartok, Elgr and Brahms.
Among the works sampled were the Concerto for Orchestra, dubbed ‘haunting’ and the Tragic Overture which also met with the critic’s approval.