Lanterns on the theme of a secret garden will be created in free making sessions ahead of the Stacksteads Lantern Festival parade in October.

Organised by Stacksteads Countryside Park Group, the seventh procession will be the culmination of four free-making workshops held at Globe Studios, Toll Bar Mill, Newchurch Road, Stacksteads. OL13 0NA.

Community Artist Ruth Evans said: “The workshops are very good for mental health, raising confidence, community engagement, forging new friendships, intergenerational connections and helping to work as a team.”

The workshops are a family activity that sees everyone from grandparents to grandchildren working together to create amazing lanterns that they can carry in the parade through Stacksteads and then take home to treasure.

The free workshops will be held on Saturdays September 21 and 28 and October 5 and 12 from 11am to 3pm.

SCPG Communications Officer Jackie Oakes said: “This will be our seventh lantern festival and it is a great way of getting people of all ages to create their own lantern which is then fastened to a stick and carried in the parade.

“Some people still do not realise that the lanterns we make are not Chinese ones, are not set alight and sent up into the air, instead ours are carried and have battery operated LED lights. We encourage people to take away what they make and recycle them each year.

“Every year we have lanterns left over, but these are all refurbished and recycled for the next year’s event.”