Sad to see the demise of the Moorcock Inn

I have known it all of my life and remember my mum telling me of the old days when her family from the cotton mills over the hill in Brierfield and Burnley would go on a charabanc special day out to the Moorcock Inn. In those days it would be like an annual one-day holiday, as was the annual Wakes Week holiday of one week in Blackpool.

My mother, Emma Brown, had her 100th birthday event there at the Moorcock. And what an event! Susan and Peter Fillary were wonderful hosts and their 20-plus years at the Moorcock, with their fabulous cuisine, made it the place to go. How sad when they finally left and the place went to decline.

I well recall my horror and disillusionment on one Friday night, much later, when I went there intending to have dinner on my respite night off.

I was the only person there and this wonderful old inn had been stripped completely of the old familiar atmosphere. Gone were all the furnishings and replaced by cold “kitchen like” bare floors and square wooden tables and chairs.

The central pillared feature across from the open fire with the stuffed old game bird was gone. I never went there again. The old Moorcock Inn and the lovely old atmosphere gone forever.

So Susan and Peter, I say congratulations for the many years of happiness and excellent cuisine you supplied to all who went there.

And to the editor I say – sorry, but your photos of the current vandalised state of the old inn are sickening and were not wanted. You could instead have portrayed some of its “happy moments”.

Formerly of Whalley, now at Highfield Road, Clitheroe.