A LEIGH couple have been in and out of six asylums in the past couple of years in their quest for an alternative day out.

David Broad and partner Julie Kendall have enjoyed an adventure trail around England and Wales with some amazing twists and turns as they capture on film amazing relics of a bygone age.

David, from Windermere Road, who once worked on the Journal production team, explained how they are among a dedicated band of enthusiasts who search the country to photograph the weird and wonderful.

It might be the 'Jag Mansion' which is the hidden home to a yardful of old Jaguars and Daimlers, an abandoned asylum still with a collection of preserved brain samples, or a neglected mansion built on the site of poet John Milton's home.

Or it could be the underwater ballroom beneath a lake in Surrey.

"It's a billiard room really, a folly built by a mining magnate who built a lavish house in 1874 and employed 600 men to work on it. He lost his fortune, ran off to America but was traced by creditors and returned to England where he ended his life with a cyanide tablet!" said David.

The couple's work is so intriguing that on line videos on their website www.deadacefilms.com have had an amazing 36 million hits!

But plans to show their photograph art in their home town have been hit by budget cuts affecting Leigh's Turnpike Gallery.

Self-employed visual effects and short film producer David, who is in his forties, said he had an exhibition scheduled to open at the Turnpike Gallery in September but that had been cancelled.

"Art and culture have the power and potential to enrich people's lives, why should the people of Leigh be denied," he questioned.

"This is the last bastion of culture in town. The gallery will stealthily end up being an uncurated church hall."

Meanwhile David and Julie, in her late thirties, intend to continue to grow their mass of images from hidden locations, often in eerie and secluded countryside, sometimes on the doorstep of England's capitol.

"It's like a drug, you're always wondering what you'll find next - it's sometimes hazardous though because we are uninvited guests. We are a secretive band purely to protect the places we photograph, often we do this by misinformation," said David.