Life in Northern Towns

Our final stop on our road trip was Northwich .  We have been to Northwich a few times now as it does have quite a few charity shops and can be quite good for shopping.  Parking in Northwich is relatively straightforward as there is a large car park behind the local Magistrates Court – free too which is a bonus.  On this visit we parked in the Cooperative Supermarket car park near the centre with 3 hours free parking.  I decided to park there for a change as we always get stuck in the traffic on the A559 turning towards Manchester. Northwich town centre doesn’t look good when passing through in a car, as the shopping centre is one of those damned featureless, concrete confections from the 70s.  Town planners from the 60s and 70s have a lot to answer for, including the pedestrian subway that tunnels underneath the centre of Northwich.  I have never liked pedestrian subways in general as they smell like toilets and are the home to muggers, skateboarding ...

Where do I start with Winsford ? First of all I'd never heard anything of interest about Winsford before this trip, except I'd seen it on the map years ago when I had to come up with a town name for a school essay. Secondly the Wikipedia entry did not really prepare me for the 'delights' of this place. Now having been to the place I can read between the lines of the Wikipedia entry: "local Salt Mines" means it's a working class area; "New Town" means it has appalling, concrete-based architecture from the 60s and 70s; and "population migration from Manchester and Liverpool" means there is a Chav element to the population. I am from Manchester and I have worked in overspill council estates like this place so I can legitimately point this out. However I digress slightly - after negotiating the numerous roundabouts to Winsford we ended up in the town centre, which consisted of a 70s style shopping centre with a multi-storey car park to ac...

After Holmes Chapel we headed off to Middlewich which is only three or so miles down the A54 on the other side of the M6. On first impression driving into Middlewich it is not as affluent as Holmes Chapel. Again the Church dominated the centre of the town and it appeared a little bit bigger than Holmes Chapel, but not much. We parked on the main shopping street as it has one hour free parking and given the size of the town I doubted whether we’d be there an hour. I had done my research and there were three charity shops on this road - Age UK, Cancer Research and St Luke's Hospice. Whilst I didn't find much in the charity shops Neil found a Kylie Greatest Hits album from 1992 - apparently vinyl albums from 1992 are much rarer to find due to the surge of CD sales from that year onwards and therefore more collectable, even Kylie’s ‘Greatest Hits’. He also picked up a Wonder Stuff album and both will be soon found on Vinylnet . Anyway the street was a mish-mash of shops...

Finally - a day where the weather was reasonable and both of us had a day off. Woo! I've been itching for ages to do a proper run out in my car to visit a few northern towns and villages. So I thought Cheshire would be good as it's a straightforward drive and there was no risk of freaky weather. We've been to Cheshire loads of times but there were still some places we haven't been and Holmes Chapel was one such place. I checked online and it did have a charity shop and it was also close to the other places we were going to visit, so it was the first on the list. M60, M62, M6, off at junction 18, turn left onto the A54 and we were in Holmes Chapel. It's quite a nice place - leafy, countryside, big houses. It's clearly a commuter belt village for Manchester, Liverpool and Chester. I thought it was going to be quite a small place and whilst the centre is there were plenty of houses and estates surrounding the village. The village itself is based round a sm...

There is something chav-bling-tastic about Wilmslow .  It's the way it is unashamedly rich, loaded, wadded - any adjectives that describe wealthy.  Whilst architecturally the Town is nothing special - any signs of its Cheshire gentry past have been well and truly excised, apart from the odd remnant on the edge of town like the Romany Caravan next to the library (quite bizarre).  It's truly a town of now and what counts is money. We've been to Wilmslow countless times over the years and I do have a soft spot for the place, partly as I like to bring down the tone of the car park with my 11 year old Lil'Princess - Nissan Almera (an old ladies car).  Its not often you can park next to a Porsche, Lamborghini or a Bentley, but you certainly can in Wilmslow. Firstly a parking recommendation is the Sainsbury's car park - it is quite funny watching flash sports cars negotiate the tight spots in the car park.  Also its £1 to park for two hours and if you shop i...

I'd never been to Ramsbottom , which is just north of Bury off the M66.   I'd probably driven through it a long time ago, but never stopped until this November and I can honestly say I was impressed with what caught my eye.   Ramsbottom is affectionately known as Rammy to the locals.   According to my other half, Ramsbottom was also the name of a snake in the Sooty Show .   But I digress… It was a bright November afternoon and I thought I'd squeeze in a quick visit to a northern town. Ramsbottom is not too far from us, just up the M66 off Junction 1. On the drive up the M66 you can see the wind turbines over on yonder hills. I know there is a lot of controversy about wind turbines, but the hills above Bury are not exactly spectacular - to put it bluntly they are dull. Before the wind turbines the only thing of interest on them hills was Peel Tower, which is another man-made object - I rest my case. When we got off the motorway we followed the signs to Ramsb...

Day 3 It was day three of our trip to the Yorkshire Dales and our final destination was Ripon . After a checking out of the B&B we did a quick tour around Grassington to pick up sweets for our folks and we found out: (a) there was a charity shop Age UK tucked down a side alley - blink-and-you-will-miss-it; and (b) the sweet shop near Spencer Davies Solicitors doesn't open on a Monday - shock horror for all the fudge lovers out there.  Thankfully Chocolace came to the rescue and we stocked up on the sweet stuff. With a car full of fudge we headed off to Ripon on the B6265.  Whilst I didn't expect much in the way of driving fun, this road was still a bit of a roller coaster ride - yay!  There were a few steep gradients to negotiate and some nice scenery to gaze at - albeit at high speed. When we were getting close to Ripon we noticed the outskirts of the town was getting quite posh - very nice houses, mani...