Life in Northern Towns

We hadn’t been to the Wirral for a while so as it was a nice day we thought we’d pay another visit.  Our main destination was the affluent Heswall – birth place of John Peel and home to lots of nice charity shops.  However our first port of call was Neston, which I was surprised to find was not in fact part of the Wirral, but on the very edges of Cheshire. Normally getting to Neston from north Manchester is about an hour via the M60, M62, M6, M56, A540 and B5134.  However, due to road works we ended up going via Widnes / Runcorn, which wasn’t much better either as we got stuck in more road works.  Hopefully when they finish the bridge works over the Mersey it might be a better route.  At least we found free parking in Neston, which is always good.  Neston itself is a quiet well-to-do town.   Architecturally small scale with some nice red brick buildings, interspersed with black and white rendered buildings with a hint to the 20 th century wit...

We’d been meaning to go to Brighouse for a while as we know some people who live just outside of the town.   It has to be said that Neil was excited to go because of the Brighouseand Rastrick Brass Band who reached number 2 with “The Floral Dance” in late 1977. As you’d expect their albums can be found cluttering up the vinyl section of many a charity shop in the area. The route to Brighouse is very straightforward from Manchester – M60, M62, exit junction 25, A644 and follow the signs to Brighouse.   We parked for free in Tesco which is at the edge of the town centre.   Although, note to self – must remember in future to turn off car lights, otherwise will end up needing to get new car battery. The weather wasn’t too great in Brighouse - it was a bit overcast and drizzly. However it was much better than Manchester which was experiencing a monsoon that day. Brighouse is typical of your Yorkshire town, sturdy and squat buildings made of local Yorkshire stone...

We hadn’t been to Accrington before and I had heard scary stories about the place from a former manager who lived there, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. The drive from Manchester to Accrington is straightforward - M60, M66, A56 and A680.   It takes about 30 minutes from north Manchester.   We found free parking behind some shops which is always good. I was surprised to find there is some nice architecture in Accrington – the Town Hall and the Market Hall are fine examples of 19 th century architecture with their solid stone facades and symmetrical design.   It was great to see the Town Hall was being used to host weddings.   There is also a lovely arcade which has seen better days.   It has a lovely sweeping curve and light streamed in through the ceiling windows.   However the fine stained glass panels, high up on the shop windows are obscured as the shops have installed suspended ceilings so the stained glass colours can’t be seen.  ...

Despite the miserable weather we ploughed on, over the county border from Derbyshire to Staffordshire.  Uttoxeter is 14 miles from Ashbourne and it takes about 25 minutes, driving via the A515, A50 and A518. Before this visit I had very little knowledge of Uttoxeter apart from the many signs I’ve passed over the year on the A50, the film director Shane Meadows is from here and the Starbucks drive through at the Uttoxeter service station.  We parked up behind the little precinct and wondered why there was a queue at the ticket machine.  Apparently people were waiting until 3pm to get a free ticket for parking, which is always good to know as these things aren’t always widely signposted. As we walked through the little precinct, the song “Ghost Town” by The Specials went through my head.  It was a rather bleak concrete place from the 60s with lots of empty units. There was a handful of shops still open but mainly charity shops.  When we made it...

I discovered Ashbourne in Derbyshire through taking detours back to Manchester when the A40 or M6 had been jammed with traffic.  As I passed through, I noticed the town seemed rather nice and I made a mental note to return here to visit. Getting to Ashbourne from Manchester takes about an hour and a half to drive.  There are several ways to get there and the route I took was the M60, M62, M6, A50, B5030, B5032 and A52.  I think there are better ways to get there, that’s for sure, and Neil was getting queasy on the B road part of the journey.  We parked up in Sainbury’s car park and you have to pay to park for a maximum of 2 hours, but you can get the parking fee refunded in the supermarket. It was a grey and drizzly kind of day - not the best to go visiting towns, to be honest with you.  After parking up, the first order of our day was to get food.  As we didn’t want a pub lunch, we found Billy’s fish and chip shop in the centre of town and thankfu...

The first time I came to Knaresborough was on a school trip to visit Mrs Shipton’s Cave and the Dropping Well where you could, at the time, petrify your handbag on the little waterfall.  The tour guide took great pleasure in telling us 10 year olds about how people used to get hung, drawn and quartered, with their bodies being left on display by the river as a lesson to others.  I’m not sure many of us had pleasant dreams that night, but that piece of knowledge has stuck with me ever since.  This time, we had just visited nearby Wetherby and so decided to go to Knaresborough.  There is supposed to be a B road route between the two towns, but as ever I missed the right road and ended up doing a detour via the A1.  When we got there we found a little car park behind the main shops on Chapel Street - £1 for 2 hours.  Knaresborough is a pretty little town packed full of characterful buildings, dating back hundreds of years.   One thing I did not...

It was our first road trip of the New Year so where do we go?  We’ve been to loads of places in the North over the years, so finding somewhere new to go that’s nice can be more miss than hit.  So to ensure a hit on our day out, I wanted to go to Knaresborough as we’d been there before but I hadn’t written about it.  However, to make that journey worthwhile we needed to visit another town. I dusted off the atlas and found Wetherby, which is about 8 miles from Knaresborough – well, that is if you take the right route. Getting to Wetherby from Manchester is straightforward enough – M60, M62, M1, A1, exit junction 45 and then follow the signs into Wetherby on to the A168 and A661.  I was very pleased to see on the way into town, a sign stating “Historic Market Town” – Wetherby looked to be a promising visit after all.  As for parking, I got a little confused and ended up going through the town.  Luckily we found 2 hours free parking on the edge of Wetherby...

The final stop on the Welsh part of our road trip was Abergavenny , on the edge of the Brecon Beacons.  We had no clue what to expect there and were curious to find out. We parked at the local car park on the edge of the main shopping area – it was £1 for 2 hours, but on a market day it’s better to get the £1.50 ticket for 3 hours. Abergavenny is an old-school sort of town and very down to earth.  The central shopping precinct is a typical, functional concrete mid-20 th century building with many high street names.  However surrounding the precinct is where you will find more interesting shops and some interesting period buildings.  Many of the buildings are in typical Welsh style with painted rendered walls – all of which add character to the town.  The two buildings which stood out for me were the Abergavenny Baptist Church and Abergavenny Market Hall.  Both buildings used dark rough-hewn stone and sandstone in their construction to create a dis...