THOUSANDS of holiday- makers are getting the fright of their lives at Disneyland this year thanks in part to an East Lancashire engravers.

For Hitchens Engravers, based in Maudsley Mill, Maudsley Street, Accrington, has crafted the operator's control panels for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride at Disneyland's California Adventure Park.

But it's not the first Disney theme park commission for Hitchens the firm also engraved the control panels for the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland Paris.

Managing director Barry Wearing, who bought the business 14 years ago when it was based on Lomeshaye Business Park, Nelson, said the opportunity to work on the Tower of Terror came through Amot, an engineering firm that makes the control systems for theme park rides.

He said: "We started off doing little bits and pieces for them but they became more aware of the quality of our work and the kind of prices being charged up here compared to London firms.

"They were over the moon with what they were getting so they asked us to make the control panels for the Tower of Terror."

Mr Wearing said it was prestigious a small Accrington firm was working for Disney.

He said his wife, Christine, 54, who runs the trophy side of the business, was trying to talk him into a holiday in California to see the handiwork close up.

Mr Wearing, 54, who has been an engraver for nearly 40 years, said Hitchens was very much down-at-heel when he bought it 14 years ago and he has worked hard since then to build it up.

He said: "It started with just me and for six months I didn't take a wage. It has been an uphill struggle."

But the business now has six more employees, including his sister Pauline Rothwell, 50, and son Christopher, 24, who worked on the Tower of Terror panels.

As well as the jobs for Disneyland, Hitchens' other commissions include the lighting control panels for the Oscars ceremony and signs in Arabic for the Dubai royal family.

Closer to home the firm's engraving work can be seen in signs at Oswaldtwistle Mills and outside BBC Radio Lancashire's building, in Darwen Street, Blackburn.

And Mr Wearing is keeping another upcoming big commission under wraps... for now.