Life in Northern Towns

Salford gets a bad rep from time to time. However there are some nice little neighbourhoods across the borough and Monton is one of those. Monton is tucked away on the leafy edges of Eccles, next to Ellesmere Park .  Ellesmere Park is a rather desirable area to live in Salford with lots of Victorian villas on sizeable plots of land.  If you were brought up in Salford and came into some money, Ellesmere Park would be one of the places you’d consider moving to.  Although in recent years some of these houses have been demolished and flats built.  As a result of this affluent neighbourhood,  Monton has become an up and coming des res for people who can’t quite afford Ellesmere Park prices, but like the association.  I would liken it to the Didsbury / Chorlton experience, but on a dinkier scale. Anyway, Monton.  I have come to know Monton reasonably well over the years, partly due to friends living there and partly because Monton has the nearest...

It had been quite a few years since we last visited Urmston and as we didn’t want to go far on this Saturday afternoon we thought we should reacquaint ourselves with the place. Urmston is tucked away in South Manchester near Trafford Park and Stretford.  The easiest way to get to it from North Manchester is to go on the M60 and get off at Junction 10.  However this can be problematic at times as it’s also the junction for the Trafford Centre and traffic can be backed up over Barton Bridge especially on a Saturday.  A quick tip for day trippers to the Trafford Centre: a good time to go is on a sunny Saturday.  If it’s bad weather the place will be rammed and the M60 anti-clockwise south bound will resemble a car park.  Back to Urmston – as it was a sunny day it was a breeze getting off at junction 10 and we headed on the B5214 into the town centre. Parking was straightforward as we parked up in Sainsbury’s multistory where there is three hours free parki...

Just a short drive from Shipley Town Centre is Saltaire.   Technically Saltaire is a part of Shipley, but in reality it seems a world apart economically and socially. Saltaire is a UNESCO world heritage site , which is a special accolade.   There are only 28 UNESCO world heritage sites in the UK and 981 in the world.   It became a world heritage site because the place was built as a model village for the salt mill workers by Sir Titus Salt and is an example of 19 th century paternalism. Back to our visit - parking in Saltaire is easy as there is a free car park at the Salt Mill .   However you can visit here by train too and the station is on the other side of the salt mill. I love scale and the Salt Mill is mighty in this regard.   Half of the mill is designated for businesses and the other half is retail space.   One of the biggest draws to the Salt Mill is the David Hockney permanent exhibition here.   I adore Hockney and he’s my favour...