WHEN Burnley MP Peter Pike was evacuated to the town during World War Two he stayed in a two-up two down terraced house without a bath or hot water and with an outside toilet.

And he imagined that the Shuttleworth family enjoyed a life of luxury in Gawthorpe Hall near Padiham.

But this week the Labour backbencher learned that all was not as it seemed as he met Lord Shuttleworth at a school opening.

Mr Pike was attending the East Lancashire peer's opening of a new sports hall and fitness complex at Gawthorpe High School, built in 1967 on part of the Shuttleworth estate.

The Labour backbencher said: "He told us how he lived in Gawthorpe Hall until he was five. It's now a National Trust property.

"He said that life was not quite as we thought. The hall was cold and draughty and they lived close to the open-cast mines there. He said they were noisy and spread lost of dust and pollution into the house and grounds.

"I remember those open cast mines and they were dreadful - even if you didn't live next to them!

RIBBLE Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans has always fancied himself as something of a high-tech whizz-kid, until this week

He bought himself a wire-less mouse to use on his computer. But he found it would not work and the more he tried to charge it, the more frustrated he became.

In the midst of his rage at its uselessness, his Parliamentary Assistant Robert Rams came in.

As Mr Evans swore at the device, Robert asked if it would not be better to put he batteries in .

ROSSENDALE and Darwen MP Janet Anderson returned from San Francisco with two early Beatles posters for her two sons.

And her partner and fellow Labour backbencher Jim Dowd had also found a Dylan poster at a back street shop in the American city.

But sadly they left their prized gifts on the plane at London Heathrow.

They were half an hour from the airport when they realised and had to race back to recover them.