Sunday 5 February 2012

Frodsham

Ooh! Frodsham is a lovely place to visit.

Before going to there all I knew about the place was that Gary Barlow was originally from here and my Dad recommended it.  My Dad's recommendations have been known to be misses rather than hits, especially after the Morecambe debacle, but this time he came up trumps.


Off the M56 at Junction 11 we turned left and headed to the 'Historic Market Town' of Frodsham.  Driving into town the houses looked rather nice and well turned out.  On entering the town we had a choice of parking either on the main stretch of road where there was plenty of on street parking, by the station or at Morrison's (left at the junction).  We decided to park at the station, although we shouldn't have as it was just for rail passengers - well it was a Saturday, there were plenty of spaces and it was free.

Anyway we walked into the town and we were pleasantly surprised.  All the pubs had plenty of character - the Cholmondeley Arms, the Bears Paw (yes - it is correct as there was no apostrophe on the sign) and the Queen's Head sprung out.  We thought if we ever came back we would definitely have a pub lunch here.  I reckon Frodsham must haves quite a lively night life as we noticed one of the pubs had regular live music and a Karaoke night with 'Barry Oke.'  There was even a Holiday Inn on the edge of town, so this must be quite a popular place.

On the charity shop front we were spoilt for choice - five charity shops: Barnardos, Oxfam (reasonably priced for once), Cancer Research, The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and Halton Haven Hospice.  I did buy a couple of things - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and a little Holly Hobbie plate (turquoise and cats and I'm sold).  There was some nice quality stuff too and the shops were well organised, which made it an interesting browse. We also spotted a gorgeous caramel and white sheepdog with amber eyes tied to the lamp post outside of one shop - I could have taken it home it was so cute.  Thankfully for its owner I took a picture instead.


There were lots of interesting shops in this town - a nice looking fruit and veg shop; delis; restaurants; gift shops; a pet shop called 'Paws and Claws'; clothes shops including 'Elegant Lady' and 'Classy Rags; a few outdoor activity shops; and surprisingly a tattoo parlour too.  There were plenty of coffee shops to choose from including a chocolate shop-cum-cafe, coffee and cake shop and a tea shop.  Under the bridge on the left hand side there was a little precinct area, which had a factory outlet shop and some standard small town shops.  Obviously with the recession there were a few empty shop fronts, but on the whole this town appears to be surviving.  There were plenty of well-turned-out ladies shopping in the town,which is always a good sign.

I did notice Frodsham had won a number of awards for best local town and such like.  Clearly this place likes to make an effort.  I did notice in the estate agents windows the prices in this town were still pretty high and with its location between Chester and Liverpool it's definitely a place where the well-heeled live.

There were plenty of heritage notice boards dotted about for passing tourists to learn about the town's history.  Some houses were really quite old and a set of thatched terrace cottages caught my eye.
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This is quite a lovely place to visit and it reminded me of a prettier version of Didsbury.  I definitely recommend Frodsham as a place to visit, as it is nice with plenty of shops to potter round.  With our visit complete, we retrieved our car from the station and headed off to Chester on the A56.

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