Giant spiders emerge from Colne's infamous tunnels in time for Hallowe'en

Super-sized spiders have emerged from deep below Colne just in time for Hallowe'en...
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Talk of what lies beneath Colne’s cobbled streets has gripped the town for decades. Some say the tunnels, which are said to criss-cross the High Street and Windy Bank, were dug by an eighteenth-century vicar of St Bartholomew’s who also bought The Red Lion in 1793.

Fast-forward several centuries and present-day Colne company XLCR, whose HQ is sited within this prime area, first noticed a problem with super-sized spiders coming up from its cellar some years ago.

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Lee Duerden, XLCR’s chief executive, warned: “We don’t know whether it is a co-incidence that it is almost Hallowe’en, but we are glad to have been of assistance in this difficult year. We have managed to trap the largest example in the Glass Box outside the town’s market. We are making a plea to people in the town centre not to venture into their cellars.”

The spiderThe spider
The spider

If people want to see what XLCR staff have captured, they can view the monstrous arachnid in a socially distanced way from Market Street.

Supremely "Instagramable", the horrific spider, nestled on a bed of what looks like pumpkin shaped spider eggs, is especially scary at night, as it appears to have “other worldly” luminescence.

Residents and visitors to Colne on October 29th will note that the façade of the XLCR building, Colne’s former Post Office, is festooned in spiders, with another giant example squatting across its roofscape.

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Not only that, but other businesses appear to have been plagued by their own spider invasion.

Ash Sutcliffe, proprietor of Live Like the Boy, has also captured his own mini monster in a cage and has christened him “Hairy Harry”.

In lieu of a Hallowe’en event in Colne this year owing to COVID-19, XLCR collaborated with local artist Joe Hesketh to create the magnificent installation in the Glass Box in a bid to inject a little levity at what is a difficult time for us all.

It is hoped that next year, more businesses will join in with the Monster Takeover, using the hashtag: #ColneTunnels and display their own large scale installations to build on Pendle’s already formidable reputation in the Hallowe’en season as the home of the Pendle Witches.

The 100 pumpkins for the Glass Box Display were kindly provided by Colne Sainsbury’s, The Colne BID and Sarah Cockburn-Price.

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