Life in Northern Towns

The base we chose for our South Wales excursion was Hay-on-Wye .  Obviously I’d heard about it due to the annual book festival, but also because my friend is a book fanatic and has visited this place to stock up his library. Getting to Hay-on-Wye from anywhere is a chore as it’s in the middle of nowhere, well, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons close to the English border.  As we were coming from Manchester we had the choice of three routes – the A5 through the west of Shropshire, the A49 through the east of Shropshire or the longer route via the M6/M5.  Unfortunately the first two routes were ruled out for us due to the Creamfields festival in Cheshire, so we had to take the M6/M5 route.  All I’m saying is: don’t be fooled into thinking that driving on a Sunday down the M6 will be a breeze – roadworks plus Birmingham equals traffic hell.  That’s before the random cross country journey that involved finding an alternative route because of a car accident....

All I knew about Chepstow was that it had a racecourse and that’s it.  I didn’t know it was in Wales as its name sounds English, but apparently Chepstow is the English name for the place. We took the scenic route along the River Wye from Monmouth  to Chepstow along the A466.  It’s only 16 miles, though as it’s a winding road it took much longer than anticipated and not good for passengers who get travel sick.  The plus points of choosing this route is that it’s pretty and you pass Tintern Abbey.  Sadly we didn’t have time to stop, but it did look good. Parking in Chepstow is straightforward as there’s a big car park behind the main shopping area which costs £1 for 2 hours. Chepstow is quite a compact town and certainly not as busy as Monmouth, but that could be just the time of day.   The architecture is rather mixed with new developments amongst the medieval and historic buildings.   At the top of the hill there is the Town Gate which dat...

Monmouth had been recommended to us as a place to go in South Wales by a friend who knew about our weakness for visiting towns and charity shops. Traveling across South Wales is not like traveling across a city or between urban conurbations where the roads are straightforward and speedy.  The 33 mile drive took over an hour from Hay-on-Wye to Monmouth which I couldn’t believe.  This was not helped by Neil as he’s not a fan of winding roads, so I had to take them at sane speeds to avoid that inevitable phrase “Are we there yet?  I feel sick”.  All the same it was a pretty drive and we took a route along the B4348, A465 and A466.  We parked up in a car park behind the main shops in the town centre.  It was a very busy car park and people were hovering like vultures trying to nab a spot.  We were very lucky to get a parking spot quickly and paid £1.50 for 3 hours. Monmouth is a busy town and I’ve never seen so much traffic pass through one pl...

We took a few days off work and decided to take a road trip to South Wales as we’d never been together before.  We were staying in Hay-on-Wye for three nights and that provided a great base to explore the surrounding area. It was Bank Holiday Monday and we weren’t too sure whether any of the surrounding towns would be open.  So we had a look on the map and found Brecon was about 16 miles away.  The plan was if it was closed then we’d have a drive around the Brecon Beacons.  It took us about half an hour to drive there and we took a route along the B4350, A479 and A470.  We parked up at Lidl where you get 1.5 hours of parking for free. On first impression, Brecon seemed like a tidy Welsh town built on a hill.  Whilst the majority of buildings are modest, often colourfully rendered, there are some fine architectural buildings.  The Greek revival Brecknock Museum, whilst undergoing renovations, looks really grand with its imposing columns and stu...

Following a recommendation, we went to Morley in West Yorkshire.  It is a suburb of Leeds , on the south side of the city, so very easy to get to from the M62 - just exit junction 27 and follow the signs. Driving into Morley, I noticed there was a new leisure centre, a concrete skate park and a newish play area with space nets.  To be honest the space nets impressed me most.  Ever since my days working on council play areas, I’ve always had a soft spot for space nets as they look great and have a hint of danger.  Perfect for a play area in my books as lots of playgrounds nowadays are really safety conscious and have become really dull places.  I was brought up in the 1970s where every playground had at least one piece of equipment with health and safety disaster written all over it that was so much fun to play on.  How I managed not to break a bone on one of these things was a miracle – OK, I did chip a tooth and split my knees open on countless occasi...

The first time I went to Bradford was on a Saturday in the 1970s, driven by my Dad in a mustard yellow van.  Bizarrely he wanted to show Bradford to me and my brother as it had a large Asian community and looked so different to other places – apparently the advertising hoardings were even in Arabic.  As we lived in Cheetham Hill at the time, my brother and I were well versed in multiculturalism so it wasn’t a big deal.  However I think my Dad was having a culture shock moment and was fascinated by it all. We’d already visited some of Bradford’s suburbs for the blog including Shipley , Saltaire and Keighley , but never quite got around to the city.  Having had a drunken conversation at a “do” recently with someone who works in Bradford, I knew I had to go and see it for myself. Getting to Bradford from Manchester is straightforward – M60, M62, exit junction 26 onto the M606, exit junction 3 onto the A6177 and headed down the hill towards the city centre....

I’d been to Shrewsbury numerous times in the 1990s to visit a friend, but this was the first time I’d ever been there sober and without a hangover. This time our trip to Shrewsbury was a pit stop on our way back to Manchester to grab a bite to eat and stretch our legs. We parked in St Julian’s Friars car park on the edge of town.  It was £2.70 for 3 hours – as you would expect for a busy town.  I believe in the winter time these car parks are allowed to flood as the River Severn flows through the town. As I learnt with Ludlow , Castle equals hill, and so it was with Shrewsbury.  Needless to say, if you struggle with walking, Shrewsbury can be problematic on that score. If you like historical cities like York or Chester , then you will love Shrewsbury.  Although technically Shrewsbury isn’t a city, but a town, which is surprising given its long history.  Shrewsbury is packed full of gorgeous architecture and you just can’t help yourself from taking p...

We were meant to go to Leominster (pronounced Lemster by the locals), just a 25 minute drive from Ludlow , but when we got there it was closed as it was a Sunday.  Therefore we just popped into to a Wetherspoons and had a very functional Sunday lunch.  Our plans were pretty much scuppered, so after a quick look on Google maps, I found Worcester was a 45 minute drive away (A44). The drive to Worcester was quite eventful for all the wrong reasons.  Firstly we were running low on petrol and the petrol station in Leominster had run out of unleaded petrol.  We had no idea where we could get petrol and hoped that we had enough to take us to Worcester.  So I decided to drive at a sensible speed and turn off the air-con to Worcester to conserve petrol, which is a complete anathema to me.  Thankfully there was a petrol station Bromyard, so crisis was averted and I could drive at my usual just-legal speed.  The other event was the terrible thunderstorm we h...

We were meant to go to Hay-on-Wye for a couple of days but couldn’t get booked in anywhere, so I looked at the map and spotted Ludlow . There were two things I knew about Ludlow – one, it has a castle and two, it has a reputation for good food. I thought we might as well give it a go just for the food.  Getting to Ludlow requires a bit of a trek on the A roads as there is no direct motorway route to the area.  So after having a pit stop in Whitchurch , we continued on the A49, zooming past Shrewsbury and onto Ludlow.  It seemed to take forever, but our patience was rewarded with a nice cottage in a lovely country town. We’d booked a cottage called Bromley Court for a couple of nights.  It was a mini cottage as the building had been split into two apartments of sorts.  Our apartment had a kitchenette and lounge, with stairs to a roomy bedroom and bathroom.  It had low beams and as we’re both tall we had to be careful not to knock ourselves out....

We’re taking a detour for a few weeks and resurrecting Life in Midlands Towns – our first stop is Whitchurch in Shropshire. I’d been meaning to go to Whitchurch over the years as many of our road trips have taken us through Cheshire, just over the border, but none of the roads ever led through Whitchurch.  As we were going to Ludlow for a couple of days, I made sure our route took us through Whitchurch so we could stop off and have lunch. Getting to Whitchurch means getting on the M62, M6, M56, exit junction 10 onto the A49 and keep on going until the B5476 which takes you into Whitchurch.  There is another route that takes you by Chester which is 5 minutes quicker but 10 miles longer.  As I spend far too much time on the motorways these days, I opted for the pretty route instead. We took advantage of 2 hours free parking in Iceland’s car park on the edge of town.   It’s only a short walk into Whitchurch town centre so it was fine. My first impressio...