Life in Northern Towns

Although I’ve lived in Manchester for over 40 years Rochdale has been a bit of a mystery to me.   The first time I went it was just to Rochdale Infirmary as my Dad needed a spot of day surgery.   Otherwise Rochdale to me was the last town before Yorkshire. The day we went wasn’t the best.   The weather was your stereotypical Manchester day – wet and grey.   Getting to Rochdale is straightforward – M60 clockwise, straight onto M62 towards Yorkshire, exit junction 20 and follow the signs for Rochdale town centre. We ended up parking in a little pay and display car park up a cobbled hill, somewhere behind the Town Hall.   The parking was cheap, but after we paid, a lady pointed out that parking was free.   We had missed the free parking sign completely as it had been obscured by a rubbish bin. One thing to visit Rochdale for is the Grade 1 listed TownHall , which is a brilliant example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture.   It was...

The story of why we ended up in Ellesmere Port was a suggestion from Neil to go to Ed’s Diner at Cheshire Oaks. Whenever we are in London we always end up at Ed’s Diner for a burger and a hotdog.   The food from this American styled diner is always good and it was great to find out recently that they are now opening branches across the UK.   Neil was keen to sample the pulled pork hot dog again so we trotted along to Cheshire Oaks via the M60, M62, M6 (damn the road works on the Thelwall Viaduct), M56 and M53.   Parking in Cheshire Oaks on a Saturday is a nightmare.   I really didn’t know what to expect to see at Cheshire Oaks and there were car parks in front of the shops.   However, ignore this and head for the multi storey car park. It saves a world of pain of cruising around the open air car park looking for a precious space.   Cheshire Oaks is really a large, nicely built precinct with some top name designer outlet shops.   It attr...

We hit the road from Workington to Maryport and took the coast road (A596).   It’s a rather bleak industrial route as we passed lots of large factories.   The view of the sea was obscured in part by the railway which hugged the coast side and it was a very grey and drizzly day. We followed the signs for the car park, which was conveniently behind the main street in Maryport.   It was a pay and display car park but seemed reasonably cheap.   A dog was watching us intently from a nearby car and a local cat managed to evade our clutches as it passed through the car park.   There was a little alleyway that took us through to the main shopping street.   Our main priority was to look through the charity shops first as it was getting late in the afternoon.   I noticed most charity shops closed at 3.30pm and we literally had 15 minutes to do them all, which we managed by the skin of our teeth as there was nothing much to see.   After our mad cha...