The ballroom at the George Hotel in Penrith was the stage for the first Christmas panto in over 100 years.

On Thursday 23rd December, the George Hotel Penrith saw Red Riding Hood performed to almost 100 guests. Sitting on cushions at the front of the stage were a host of young children who screamed at the wolf and laughed at Granny Hood.

Grannies, Granddads and young Mums all gave a glowing festive verdict on the performance, suggesting it was the best panto they had seen this season. Mrs Powley from Penrith brought their granddaughter and her friend, she said “It was simply fantastic. Just the right length for little ones and it was great to see the actors interacting with the audience so well. It was miles better than the one we saw in Carlisle.”

The idea of the pantomime came from General Manager Justin Wales who felt something magical was needed for little ones to celebrate the arrival of Christmas. “Mums must have taken chance to prepare for Christmas Day because there were so many grandparents at the performance. They all wanted to know if we are going to do another next year and that is a definite yes. The children all received gifts of a balloon and a decorated gingerbread man as a parting gift from the George Hotel.

Extra Infomation:
The panto performance allowed the ballroom to relive its day as a theatrical location and heart of community life in Penrith. In the 1860’s the Assembly Rooms (now the ballroom) was at the core of community activity – it played host to famous theatricals  that included ‘Signor Boscow from the London Theatre.’ Since this main function room in this Penrith hotel has become home to local groups and playing host to entertainment celebrities like Lenny Henry and Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Paula Yates and Jooles Holland.

For more information of upcoming Lake District Hotels Ltd events visit http://www.lakedistricthotels.net.

High performance seals specialist, Precision Polymer Engineering (PPE) is now offering chemical engineers an independent materials consultancy and laboratory service for seal selection and testing.

The rapid pace of elastomer development often means that an engineer’s knowledge of sealing materials and customisation techniques is sometimes not totally up to date. Using the PPE service, the chemical engineer is able to draw on PPE’s extensive purpose built Material Characterisation Centre (MCC), equipped with the latest testing apparatus, PPE’s facility is one of the leading resources in Europe for the development, characterisation, testing and analysis of polymeric materials.

Typical analytical techniques include:  chemical compatibility testing, failure analysis, microscopy
thermo-mechanical evaluation and physical property determination.  Until now, these in-house services were only offered as part of PPE’s extended customer service. Now the MCC is available for use by the wider chemical and processing industries.

Combining this state-of-the-art facility with the specialist application knowledge and expertise which PPE has acquired in chemical and pharmaceutical processing over many years, this offers chemical engineers constructive assistance and problem-solving data on any polymer issue.

“Our MCC is one of the most practical in Europe, offering a variety of services and “hands- on” support at very competitive rates”  Dr Vincent Ng, Head of PPE Materials Technology.

“We are completely independent and can respond quickly and knowledgeable on all polymeric material issues“ he added.

The MCC compliments PPE’s range of on-line elastomer vs chemical compatibility selection tools and technical specifications for over 300 elastomers and rubber o rings. For more information on PPE’s MCC service http://www.prepol.com.

Cypher Digital Imaging Ltd are pleased to announce their latest piece of environmentally friendly equipment.

To continue their aim of reducing the impact of printing on the environment, Cypher Digital have invested in the latest state of the art 60″ wide HP large format printer which uses water-based latex inks, which as well as producing better quality prints than ever, offers outdoor permanence and durability. The inks are non-flammable and unlike solvent based or UV inks which are typically used for this kind of outdoor print they are not potentially harmful to the operator and emit no harmful VOC’s (Volatile organic compounds), so do not need special ventilation during production (which pumps it into the air we all breathe anyway!) – more importantly for you or your clients they do not smell strongly of solvent.

This also means Cypher can now offer a new wider range of media for outdoor and indoor applications such as banner material, backlit film, fabrics and self adhesive vinyl which are scratch, smudge and water resistant and ready to use right out of the printer.

These include a number of materials that are fully recyclable through our take-back programme – simply return them to us when you are finished with them and we will ensure they are recycled properly. These include: Heavy textile banner fabric, light textile banner fabric, flag material, HDPE reinforced banner material.

Plus Cypher can still mount prints onto a wide range of boards up to 1500mm x 3000mm to suit all your requirements – foamex, dibond, MDF, aluminium, correx, or print and apply graphic wraps to vehicles, walls and windows.

Go green with your exhibition stands and advertising graphics including Linx exhibition systems. Contact Cypher now for further details or quotes at http://www.cypherdigital.co.uk

Staff at a Lake District hotel are celebrating after winning a national green award at a major prize ceremony from some of the best businesses in the country.

The Langdale Hotel And Spa won the coveted “Green Hotel of the Year Award,” at the annual Hotel Catey’s – the hospitality Oscar’s, held in London held on Friday Nov 12.

Others to make the shortlist, included the capital’s famous Marriott Hotel in Marble Arch; Jury’s Inn, Liverpool; The Park Royal Hotel in Warrington, and the Premier Moor Hotel and Spa in Sutton Coldfield. But it was the work of The Langdale Hotel and Spa which most impressed judges.

It crowns a successful year for the 35-acre Langdale Estate, which runs a luxury Lake District 4 star hotel and spa, timeshare and over 100 self-catering lodges based in the spectacular ruggedness of Langdale Valley near Ambleside.

As well as having large-scale recycling schemes for its thousands of annual visitors and low energy lighting systems, its approach to the environment doesn’t stop there with home working policies for staff reducing the need for car journeys, biodiversity plans, visitor payback and other schemes to minimise and reduce the impact of the hotel’s activities.

It’s also a goal of the company to have a long-term commitment to sustainable tourism and to be an ethical employer.

Just over a year ago, the hotel introduced a ground-breaking high-tech boiler which is fuelled by woodchip. The system means millions of gallons of water used annually by the guests, spa users, restaurants, swimming pool is heated environmentally and using a clean, efficient and renewable energy source – reducing the hotel’s dependency on liquid propane gas

In 2009 the Estate won the Sustainable Hotel prize at the annual Cumbria Tourism Awards and prides itself on its commitment to all things green and encouraging environmental practices among its guests.

There are just 16 awards given out at the Hotel Catey’s, which were launched in 2007 and are recognised as the hotel industry’s only truly independent benchmark of operational excellence.

Nick Lancaster, Director of Resort Operations of Langdale Hotel and Spa, said: “It is the people at Langdale that make the difference. All decisions and actions which are “green” and “sustainable” are also considered for their commercial benefit and we do not do things just because they are green but always make business decisions on a commercial and sustainable business logic.”

Joe Longmuir, Managing Director of Langdale 4 star Hotel and Spa, said: “The whole team at Langdale are delighted to receive this prestigious award. Sustainability and a green ethos is part of our company DNA at Langdale and all business decisions consider the impact on the environment, along with the commercial benefit to the business. Langdale is proof that you can be green and successful.”

Ian Stephens, Chief Executive of Cumbria Tourism, commented: “This is a significant result for the area and we send our congratulations to the Langdale Hotel and Spa. The Lake District must lead the way in green tourism and it is businesses like this that raise the bar for the industry here.”

For more information on The Langdale Hotel & Spa 4 star hotel in the Lake District , visit http://www.langdale.co.uk