Life in Northern Towns

Haworth is nestled in the hills of West Yorkshire and is a gorgeous suburb of Keighley.   We’d been before but Neil hadn’t been that impressed.   He mustn’t have been feeling too well that day as I’d liked it. First thing first, Haworth is really awkward to get to from Manchester.   We’d been here before and had taken the M60, exited junction 23, drove through Hebden Bridge and picked up the road to Haworth.   It was a ball ache, although the road from Hebden Bridge to Haworth is absolutely lovely as the road hugs the hillside with beautiful views of the valley.   This time I had a ‘bright idea’ to take the M60, M66, A56, M65, A6068 and School Lane.   Firstly we got delayed where the M66 goes into the A56 as there was some road works going on.   Then we hit Colne.   I’d forgotten we had to go through Colne and I’ve never managed to get through Colne without some delay.   The problem is at the lights into Sainsbury’s as traffic always ...

I’ve been meaning to go to Kirkby Lonsdale for some time.   It’s in Cumbria and borders both Lancashire and North Yorkshire.   Handily it’s just a few miles from junction 36 on the M6.   I’ve been recommended this place by colleagues and since it was on our way home from our weekend in the Lakes I thought we should pop along. We parked on the edge of the town in a one hour parking zone, so our trip was going to be brief.   I really didn’t know what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised.   It’s a picture postcard English town built from Lakeland Stone with tea rooms, gift shops, restaurants, pubs and an art gallery.   Kirkby Lonsdale is very much geared up for the tourist market.   The town was covered in hanging baskets and flags – both St George’s flags and the Union Jack.   If I was to give a guess there must be some military link to the town especially as they have an army surplus store called GR & RD Taylors . In the heart of ...

We’ve travelled to Keswick before as it’s a good place to go in the Lake District.   This is the main market town for the northern Lakes so you find lots of locals shopping for supplies as well as tourists.   We parked in the Pencil Museum car park as the usual car park was closed for a conference.   I did think the cost of parking was overpriced, but with the level of traffic you get in Keswick on a Saturday you have to take a parking spot where you find it. It was mad busy that day and the market was on too.   It was so difficult to pick our way through the crowds and the market stalls.   It was hard to tell whether the market was good or not with the throng.   Although standing above this melee was the Moot Hall, which is the home of the Tourist Information centre.   It’s also hired out over the year by a variety of people selling gifts and art works, so you never know what you will find there.   Keswick is a great place for that memb...

Having learnt our lesson to take in more towns on our journey, we made a detour on the way to Keswick from Whitehaven and ended up in in the delightful Cockermouth .   Parking in Cockermouth is a bit of a pain.   Although cars can park on the main street, you need a special residents pass to park.   So we ended up having to park in a nearby pay-and-display car park on the edge of the town. Cockermouth is absolute ly lovely and was a genuine surprise after Whitehaven.  It’s a well-to-do place with lots of nice independent shops and restaurants.  It looks as if there has been some regeneration work in the town with new pavements and street furniture.  This care and attention to the town really makes a difference and as a result gives the town an air of calmness which is soothing.  I have a real problem with visual clutter in towns, by which I mean where signs, street furniture and bollards are placed haphazardly in a town without thought to the vi...

Just to let you know I've entered the Barrel Hopping travel article competition.  My travel article is called The Cheshire Set and funnily enough it's about my travels in Cheshire.  If you could spare a moment and a couple of mouse clicks and vote, retweet, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest.  Here is the link to The Cheshire Set - http://barrelhopping.com/england-cheshire-northern-towns/ .  The voting button is a little gold star at the bottom of the article - please click. Thank you kindly for your help!

I should have really checked the distances and times properly before driving up to Whitehaven from Grange-Over-Sands . We should have really stopped off at a couple of places on the journey up. I should have really tried harder to over take the Danish car in front of me which was going terminally slow.  Then again it is hard to find a place on the A595 to overtake with all the twists and turns on the road. I practically punched the air when they finally turned off at St Bees. Then again we should have turned off there too as St Bees is supposed to be a lovely place.  On the plus side of the one and a half hour journey it was a pretty drive.  The A595 harks back to 60s and it's scenery you'd find in an episode of "Heartbeat".  The weather was also good with pretty blue skies.  At Egremont I did find the cheapest petrol in Cumbria,  Although passing by Sellafield was a bit spooky for obvious reasons. Whitehaven is a harbour town o...

Todmorden is nestled in the Pennines on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire.   Over the years it has been in both these counties at some point.   After the last boundary change Todmorden is now in West Yorkshire under Calderdale Council.   Over the years I’ve been known to pop by Todmorden when in the neighbourhood.   I have had ambivalent feelings towards it, but finally I’ve begun to warm to the place.   Its neighbouring town is the rather quaint and middle-class Hebden Bridge.   The gentrification effect of Hebden Bridge has begun to make inroads into Todmorden and it has begun to polish up its act.   Whilst it doesn’t have the quaint prettiness of Hebden Bridge, it has an eccentric element to it which may explain why the locals nickname it ‘Oddmorden.’   One thing which is distinct about the town is the large railway bridge that cuts through the town. Apparently it used to have lots of railway stations around the town as it was...

I took the A451 from Stourbridge to Kidderminister , which was a lovely leafy road through the countryside.   I managed to hit three counties on that road: Staffordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands.   It’s a beautiful run with a few pubs en route offering lunches.   The roadside borders were alive with elderflowers and poppies punctuating the hedgerows.   It was a perfect example of the English countryside. Somehow I managed to take the wrong turning and ended up in Wolverley.   So a quick spin round on a roundabout and I was back on the right route. I don’t know what I was expecting from Kidderminster, but it wasn’t this.   The name Kidderminster sounds quite affluent and leafy, but in reality it wasn’t a well-to-do place.   On the route into the town centre there was a really scruffy row of shops with dodgy looking shops.   One shop was called Amsterdamned – I can only assume it was a hydroponics shop. I parked at the Swan Shoppi...

Neil was going to the annual Kaleidoscope meet up in Stourbridge and I didn't want a repeat of last year.  He managed to get on the wrong train home and ended up going south instead of north.  Only by the miracle of Blackberry, when I was at my friend’s fortieth birthday party, I got him on the right train home.  This time I was driving, so if we got lost, we’d be lost together. Before the journey had started I was having problems with Google maps and iPhone maps as they were giving me some torturous route through Wolverhampton centre.  “Sod that” I thought as it was a sure fire way of getting lost.  I wanted lots of motorway with minimal A routes.  Indeed I found a route that was five miles longer, but five minutes shorter with little chance of getting lost – perfect! Anyway M60, M62, M6 (a road I have always called the work of the devil and which most people would agree with), M5, Junction 3, A456 and A491.  Apart from the varia...

Wow! Such a blast from the past - from 1990 to 1992 I spent two fantastic years here. It was a roller coaster ride and I had a memorable time here: City Road, Tavistock Road, the Leadmill, Cario Jaks, Nelson Mandela Building, the Yorkshire Grey, The Crucible bar, The Porter Cottage, the Nursery Tavern, the Frog and Parrot, The Damned, stupidly missing out on seeing Pulp and Blur, The Stag, the Howard Hotel, Sheffield City Poly Drama Society, Abbeydale Road, Sheffield Library and fines, Ecclesall Road, The Moor, Endcliffe Park, Boddington the Hamster and the list goes on. I studied at the Poly doing a Public Administration degree, but got sidetracked by the Drama Society and eventually dropped out of Poly.  No regrets, apart from not transferring to the History of Art, Design and Film course. Twice I ended up in casualty: nearly breaking an ankle in a nightclub and as a result ended up on a drugs trial - pharmaceutical not judicial; and then chinning it down a dry ski slope alm...

Matlock is only a 15 minute drive from Bakewell. I really didn’t know much about the place apart from it being a former spa town and I have a fondness for spa towns – so I was hopeful this would be a good place to visit. We managed to get parked up at the pay and display car park at the Coop, which was above a small market. Matlock is a pretty town and someone we knew said it looks a bit like Switzerland in parts. I’m not too sure about that myself, but it was a rather hilly town. There was a rather imposing house on the top of the hill overlooking the town – there must be rather fab views to behold up there. There are plenty of shops to browse round in Matlock. I liked the old-school art supply/stationary shop with its vintage double fronted glass windows.  You still can get Basildon Bond paper in there, which was the writing paper of choice in my day. I do like a good wool shop much to Neil’s annoyance. Lately I’ve been on a mission to find a teal/purple shade of ...

Bakewell was the base for our mini break. I’d been to Bakewell years ago on a random drive with my mates from Sheffield. On that trip I discovered I didn’t like Bakewell tarts, but I don’t hold that against the town as it's a very nice place. We found a nice place online called Bagshaw Hall which had Sleep Lodges. Our room was in the Sleep Lodges and whilst the name ‘Sleep Lodges’ doesn’t sound promising the room was lovely. All the rooms in the Sleep Lodge had names and we were in the Ray Mears Room. The room had a fab view of the countryside and wasn’t overlooked. The rooms were tastefully decorated with a kitchenette area with table and chairs. I really like the kitchenette idea as you can make small meals instead of having to eat out all the time. I wish more places did this and it did make up for the fact they didn’t offer breakfasts. The bathroom was nice with a full size bath, with heated towel rail. All in all it was a nice, clean and comfortable room with the benefi...

We decided to take a short break to the Peak District in Derbyshire and I had plotted a plan to take in three towns, one city and a suburb over our three day trip.  We don’t seem to go to Derbyshire at all - I don’t know why as it’s very pretty and on the door step to Manchester.  Anyway as luck would have it the weather forecasters had predicted rain, but due to the vagaries of the British weather we drove off in glorious sunshine. Our first port of call was the spa town of Buxton.  It was our journey to Buxton that made me realise why Derbyshire is not high on the ‘Life in Northern Towns’ agenda – the journey is a pain in the proverbials. The first bit is okay picking up the M60 and then exiting at junction 27.  The pain is the A road part through Stockport– you need to find the A6 which can be tricky and once you’re on there you are basically in normal urban traffic driving at 30mph if you’re lucky and if you're unlucky stopping at every traffic lights....

So heading north on the A639 for three miles we got to Castleford.  The sign said it was a 'historic roman settlement' - that sounded good. Apparently the place is known for having an indoor ski slope.  Not that we stopped as Neil is not known for his sporting inclination.  The last time I went skiing I ended up in casualty with a suspected broken finger and concussion. It wasn't looking great on the run into Castleford.  I was thinking I should write a letter of complaint to the Yorkshire Tourist Board at this point.  We parked up in a local pay and display car park.  It still wasn't looking any better. We headed into the town centre and all I could hear were the strains of a trumpeter playing the most mournful version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' I'd heard.  Given what I'd seen of the town so far, three click of my heels and I would happily be back in Manchester.  It's a tired town full of cheap shops that had seen better days...