Life in Northern Towns

The last time we went to Ulverston it was on a Sunday afternoon and the town was dead.   As it’s just outside of the Lake District, it doesn’t operate on the same opening hours.   This time we went on a Tuesday and the shops were open, so it was a good start. Parking was very straightforward as we got a space in the little car park just off the main roundabout in Ulverston.   It was a pay and display car park, but it was cheap for two hours. Ulverston is your typical stone built Cumbrian town.   Some of the narrow cobbled streets in the centre of town have been pedestrianized.   At the centre of the town is a sort of cobbled square up a hill with a monument to the soldiers who died in the First World War at the top.   I like the hodge- podge architecture in Ulverston as it gives the place an identity and real character. Ulverston is jam packed full of little shops and as a result you don’t get many high street chain shops cluttering up the stre...

As always with driving through the A roads in the Lake District it takes longer than anticipated to get to your chosen destination.   From Grasmere we took the A591 to Keswick and it’s a joy to drive through wonderful scenery especially in the autumn when the landscape turns to red and gold.   We’ve been to Keswick on a number of occasions as it’s a nice place.   I find visiting it on a weekday is much more preferable than on the weekend when it’s mad busy.   This time I remembered to avoid the expensive car park at the Pencil Museum and parked at the pay and display behind the main town square.   Keswick is an excellent base for exploring the northern Lake District.   I keep promising to stay here for a weekend as there is plenty to do in the evening in terms of restaurants, pubs and cultural activities.   Plus there is an absolutely lovely lake, Derwent Water , on the edge of the town. On the charity shop front I swear there are fewer ...

Grasmere is known for its association with William Wordsworth, but the first time I’d ever heard of the place was in the lyric of another poet, Morrissey, from The Smiths song ‘Panic’.   So the phrase ‘Hopes may rise on the Grasmere’ always runs through my head when I think about the place.   I first came to Grasmere in the early 90s with my parents for my birthday and I found it a really peaceful and beautiful place, so I like to pop there whenever I’m in the neighbourhood. Parking is very straightforward in Grasmere, turn off the A591 and to the right is a big pay and display car park with space for coaches.   I did take the liberty to park next to the most glorious vintage silver Bentley.   There were teddy bears on the back seat which was cute.     It’s such a delight to see these cars out and about. It makes such a change from the hordes of Ford Focus’s and Vauxhall Corsas on the roads.   There is a free public toilet next to the car park, but...

We have a soft spot for Ambleside having stayed in the place 9 years ago.   I consider it to be one of the key tourist towns in the Lake District.   It’s only a short drive from Windermere Town and is just a mile or so north of Lake Windermere.   Driving through Ambleside is a bit confusing as there are lots of one way streets so you need to keep your wits about you to pick up the road signs.   Parking is also a bit tricky, but we tend to use the car park behind the library as there is usually plenty of space.   Although if you have trouble walking up hills this car park is one to avoid as it’s very steep. There are lots of B&Bs in the town and you can understand it with all the cafes, restaurants and pubs in the town.   You are spoilt for choice and can easily spend a few nights here sampling what it has to offer. The Sunday when we   visited was mad busy with walkers and tourists.   If you are looking to buy walking or mounta...

Up the road from Bowness-On-Windermere is WindermereTown .   Whereas Bowness is the main tourist trap for Lake Windermere, Windermere Town is more of a proper town with train station and supermarkets. Parking in Windermere is easy with a car park close to the town centre and plenty of free on- street parking.   As it was a Sunday we managed to park on the street.   The good thing about the car park is that there are public toilets, which is handy after a long drive.   It may be 20p for the privilege of using them, but they didn’t smell and were well maintained. The town itself is fairly self-contained with a one-way system, which helps the traffic as the streets are not wide. Windermere has quite a few independent shops.   However as it was a Sunday and not a tourist trap half the shops were closed, including most of the charity shops.   Neil was somewhat disappointed by this fact. Then again visiting northern towns on a Sunday is always a lo...

You have to remember there are two towns by Lake Windermere - Windermere , which isn’t on the lake side but up the hill near the train station and Bowness-On-Windermere which is by the lake.   This fact has confused me before. If you are looking for some retail action on a Sunday in the Lake District, Bowness-On-Windermere is one of the best places to go.   Everywhere is open and it’s always jam-packed full of people. First and foremost, parking in Bowness-On-Windermere can be a pain.   We tried to get parked in the car park near The World of Beatrix Potter and failed miserably.   Bowness is a very popular destination and you really need to get here early.   In the end we drove up the hill towards Windermere and found a very tight spot on a side road at the edge of Bowness.   On the plus side it was free parking, on the down side it took me ages to squeeze into the space. As we wandered down the hill the shops tended to be independent...

On our trip we have been revisiting different places and Kendal is one of those places. I do worry about the town, in recent years it has become much quieter.   It was the last Saturday of the month and I was hoping to see a bustling town, but sadly not.   Where do the shoppers go if they don’t go to Kendal?   I’m mystified. We parked in our usual pay and display spot near the Abbot Hall Art Gallery .   There was a bit of a nightmare with the pay and display machine as it wasn’t issuing tickets.   On previous visits we did notice they were very sharp with the parking tickets.   After an abortive attempt at phoning through to pay on the automatic payment system we just got tickets at the art gallery car park and hoped the parking attendant wouldn’t notice. As ever there were plenty of charity shops, but they contained nothing too exciting.   We have noticed that a number of vintage / antique shops have sprung up and I can’t help but think ...

I can’t believe I’ve made it to blog post 100.   So it’s quite apt the place I’m blogging about is my favourite place in Cumbria – Cartmel . We’ve been to Cartmel before just on day trips, however we’d always promised ourselves to stay here.   So this year I booked Holly Cottage for late September, which is always a tricky time weather wise. Getting to Cartmel is straightforward from Manchester – M61, M6 and A590.   Once you turn off the A590 to Cartmel it’s just country roads, not even B roads.   You do have to have your wits about you as there are twists and turns and the roads narrow on occasion.   I was nervous the first few times driving on these roads, but once you get used to them they are easier to navigate. Our cottage was on the edge of Cartmel near Cartmel Priory.   It’s a beautiful location and the cottage overlooks a field.   The only problem was that it only had on-street parking and Cartmel can be really busy especially as the...

Last year we had a brilliant holiday in New York, so when organising this year’s holiday I knew it was never going to meet the same level of fabulousness.   So what do you do after visiting the best place ever?   In our case, we headed off to the Lake District for the week. For the past couple of years we’ve spent time in Grange-Over-Sands , which is a perfectly pleasant place.   However this time we decided to stay in Cartmel, which is apparently the most beautiful village in Cumbria. Our first port of call was Grange-Over-Sands.   Astonishingly for the end of September in Cumbria the weather was beautiful.   Looking back at our other trips this was the first time I’ve ever seen the place in nice weather and it really makes a difference. We did the charity shops and whilst they weren’t exciting I noticed one of the charity shops had closed since our last visit.   It’s always sad to see, but I remember from previous visits it was always a case o...

Technically it’s not the north, but Leek is only 13 miles from Macclesfield so we are back in Life in Midland Towns territory for this week’s blog post. We took the A523 from Macclesfield to Leek.   It was a nice journey through the Staffordshire country side with spotted sheep scattered across the undulating hills.   I can’t ever remember seeing spotted sheep before.   We passed some cyclists clogging up the country lanes.   They were channelling their inner Bradley Wiggins on their high spec bikes and bedecked yellow lycra tops – never a good look on a middle aged man. Leek is surprisingly industrial when you hit the outskirts of town with a chemical works and the disused mills.   In Cheshire or West Yorkshire those mills would have been converted into fancy flats, however in Leek the mills had broken windows and young saplings growing out of the roofs.   There was also a football club having a home game in a random football league I’ve neve...

We’ve been here a few times and probably due to laziness I haven’t written about the place.   So I’m rectifying the situation. Macclesfield is in that part of Cheshire that is a ball ache to get to – not close to any motorway and a myriad of ways to get there.   This time we went M60, A34, A555, A5149 and A523.   Sometimes I’ve come through Wilmslow and even travelled via Buxton on the A537.   The A537 is special, it’s nicknamed the Cat ‘n’ Fiddle and probably one of the most dangerous roads in the country.   Needless to say I loved driving down this road and it’s the kind of road that demands you to drink a gin and tonic at the end of it to celebrate completing it in one piece.   This is definitely a road for a person wanting to experience a Top Gear moment. Back to Macclesfield – I’ve always had a mixed experience of the town.   Often it has been the last town on a day trip when half the charity and interesting shops have closed.   Thi...

A Northerner in London Town makes a brief return to Life in Northern Towns.  We took a weekend trip to London recently to visit my cousins from Canada and my brother and his partner who normally lives in Dublin. It was my cousins’ first trip to London so obviously they wanted to do the tourist version of London.  When we first started to visit London we used to do all the tourist haunts.  However the more you visit London the more the city unfolds its secrets to you.  So it was a really nice change for us to see London again through the eyes of first time visitors. The one thing a first timer needs to do when visiting London is not to use the Tube where possible.  It should only be used when you need to travel more than two miles.  Also you will not jump out of your skin at Chancery Lane tube station like I did when a rat scampered across the platform.  My preferred way to view London is on foot, however after four hours of consta...