Life in Northern Towns

Time 2020-10-18 13:04:50

Web Name: Life in Northern Towns

WebSite: http://www.lifeinnortherntowns.com

ID:86068

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Gosh, I m really struggling to find places I haven t been inthe North of England! I d heard of Longridge as it s a place for lots ofengineering and stuff like that. When IGoogled and discovered it was a medium-sized town I thought we d give it ago. If it s not so exciting we can go tonearby Preston.Longridge is about 8 miles north east of Preston and 30miles from Manchester. From NorthManchester take the M60, M61, M6 and exit junction 31A onto the B6242, B6243,B5269 and head towards Berry Lane. Thereis free on street parking in Longridge, which is always a plus.The town itself is a traditionally northern town built fromthe local sandstone. Berry Lane is themain shopping area with quite a few local pubs dotted across the town.It was a grey Monday afternoon, but Longridge did have agood deal to offer. First and foremostit has charity shops 5 in total including a Children s Barnardos. It made me chuckle to overhear in one charityshop, locals complaining that another florist was opening there are aboutthree in close proximity. Longridge has a mix of traditional and modern independentshops. I knew this was a classy townfrom the fact there was a designer dress agency there, unfortunately it wasclosed so I couldn t have a look. Therewere a few lovely looking café s which seemed to be the busiest places in town. One shop had a black and white dog resting inthe window so cute. I was thrilled to see a craft shop called Oh Sew Crafty so naturally I had to go in and have a browse.They do courses there too, which is always a joy to see.If you live in Lancashire and Cumbria, you will have heardof Booths supermarkets they are like the northern Waitrose. It s always a sign of a good neighbourhoodand it s always a lovely shop to potter around.Pricier than the Tescos and ASDA s of this world, but a much more interestingshopping experience with more locally sourced produce than the high streetchains.Longridge seems to me to be a nice commuter town for Prestonand Blackburn with good access to the M6.Plus it has the advantage of being close to a number of large businesseson the outskirts of town. It s the sortof place you would bring up your family where you have the convenience of beingclose to a city and some large industrial towns, but just a stone s throw fromthe countryside. It s a pleasant littletown and I d definitely stop off here again.We hadn t been to the Wirral for a while so as it was a niceday we thought we d pay another visit.Our main destination was the affluent Heswall birth place of John Peeland home to lots of nice charity shops.However our first port of call was Neston, which I was surprised to findwas not in fact part of the Wirral, but on the very edges of Cheshire.Normally getting to Neston from north Manchester is about anhour via the M60, M62, M6, M56, A540 and B5134. However, due to road works we ended up goingvia Widnes / Runcorn, which wasn t much better either as we got stuck in moreroad works. Hopefully when they finishthe 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 nicered brick buildings, interspersed with black and white rendered buildings witha hint to the 20th century with a small stretch of newer shops. There is a modern Sainsbury s hidden behindthe town hall, which helps to retain its small town charm. There are a number of period pubs you couldeasily spend a cosy evening in or have Sunday lunch. It seems like the sort of town you would liketo bring up a family in or retire to.Obviously we were there to check out the charity shops andwe toured the lot. These includedOakwood Animal Sanctuary, Age UK, Sue Ryder and Hospice of the Good Shepherd. I regretted not buying a cocktail shaker inone shop, but I eventually got one from Lymm.Neil didn t spot much, but then again we were heading off to nearbyHeswall which is great for charity shops.We were heading off to eat in Heswall, so we didn t get tosample any coffee and cakes here.Obviously there is a Costa here, although I d like to know where thereisn t a Costa these days. However if youare looking for a local independent alternative, Elephant Coffee looked like areally nice option.To be truthful we didn t stop long here as Heswall was ourmain destination, but people have since told us we missed out on going tonearby Ness Botanical Gardens, which is a shame as it was a lovely blue skyWhilst technically Neston isn t on the Wirral Peninsula, ifyou are planning a road trip around it, you should definitely take inNeston. It s a pretty little town andworth a quick detour, especially if you are going to charity shops or want to visita botanical garden.We d been meaning to go to Brighouse for a while as we knowsome 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 late1977. As you d expect their albums can be found cluttering up the vinyl sectionof many a charity shop in the area. The route to Brighouse is very straightforward fromManchester M60, M62, exit junction 25, A644 and follow the signs to Brighouse. We parked for free in Tesco which is at theedge of the town centre. Although, noteto self must remember in future to turn off car lights, otherwise will end upneeding to get new car battery.The weather wasn t too great in Brighouse - it was a bitovercast and drizzly. However it was much better than Manchester which wasexperiencing a monsoon that day.Brighouse is typical of your Yorkshire town, sturdy andsquat buildings made of local Yorkshire stone understated but classy. Although in Brighouse they have massive siloson the edge of town dominating the skyline.One of them has been turned into a climbing gym, which sounds like agood alternative to normal gyms which can be rather boring. A canal cutsthrough the town too - no doubt it used to service the huge silos back in theThe town itself is a mix of traditional and independentshops. Clearly it has been inspired bythe nearby Hebden Bridge and Holmfirth to up its game in terms of attractingout-of-towners into Brighouse with cafes and restaurants. But I do like to say it hasn t gone overboardin that direction too so it retains much of its character.At the back of the main shops there is an open airmarket. It wasn t that exciting as thatSaturday it was a second hand market with locals flogging off stuff they didn tneed. It reminded me of the flea marketin Huddersfield, which is on a much larger scale. The good thing I found about it was howfriendly it was with stall holders and locals chatting. Apparently there is a Foodand Craft market that pops up once in a while and dates can be found here http://brighousemarket.co.uk/. I did notice on Visit Brighouse website they do various festival weekendsthroughout the year and it s worth timing your visit to coincide with theseevents.There are quite a few charity shops in Brighouse andnaturally we toured them all. Thecharity shops were rather busy and Neil again was experiencing a severe case ofcharity shop blockers basically old men slowly browsing through all therecords Neil wanted to look at. If youare looking for wedding outfits or outfits for a fancy do, go no further thanOvergate Hospice designer wear shop on Bethel Street.As usual in Yorkshire we had our chippy lunch and we went toBlakeley s by the market. We both hadfish and chips which were great. Somehowwe missed the entrance to the restaurant and went to the takeaway bit. Thankfully they do have a sheltered outdooreating place overlooking the canal which was a nice place to eat. There was a mum struggling to make her kidseat their lunch as they kept wanting more tomato sauce, even though they stillhad some on their plates.If you are looking for a place to drink in Brighouse youwill be spoilt by the amount of pubs available here. Many are the old traditional style pubs withlots of original features and I can imagine you d be spoilt for choice doing apub crawl here. I was very surprised to findthe local Freemasons had put up a banner to recruit new members. I thought they were a rather secretiveorganisation, but clearly not in Brighouse.It was a pleasant trip to Brighouse, although the weatherwas a bit overcast. Brighouse is aninteresting mix of the traditional and industrial, as the silos and industrialbuildings do dominate the town. Itdoesn t lend itself to being a traditional pretty Yorkshire town, but great forphotographers who are looking for something different. Clearly the local town s people are takingpride in the place and put on events throughout the year to attract people intoBrighouse. We d definitely visit again,but will time it with the Food and Craft Market as I do love exploring thesetype of events.We hadn t been to Accrington before and I had heard scarystories about the place from a former manager who lived there, so I wasn t toosure what to expect.The drive from Manchester to Accrington is straightforward -M60, M66, A56 and A680. It takes about30 minutes from north Manchester. Wefound free parking behind some shops which is always good.I was surprised to find there is some nice architecture inAccrington the Town Hall and the Market Hall are fine examples of 19thcentury architecture with their solid stone facades and symmetricaldesign. It was great to see the TownHall was being used to host weddings. Thereis also a lovely arcade which has seen better days. It has a lovely sweeping curve and lightstreamed in through the ceiling windows.However the fine stained glass panels, high up on the shop windows areobscured as the shops have installed suspended ceilings so the stained glasscolours can t be seen. This place iscrying out for some TLC and some more occupants.The main shopping area is a 1960s shopping centre, whichisn t very exciting, although I loved the massive banner across the buildings forthe Accrington Pals as part of the WW1 commemorations. Across the rest of the town there are lots ofindependent shops and bizarrely quite a few wedding shops. There are plenty ofempty shops too, which is always sad to see.However there seems to be a lively night time economy with plenty ofpubs, bars and takeaways I think this was what my former manager was referringObviously we were here for the charity shops and there areloads. Other people had a similar ideaand these shops were busy. Neilexperienced a severe case of record section blockers. Most charity shops have their records underthe DVDs, so you often find people slowly browse through the DVDs whilst blockingaccess to the records. Then you find theolder blokes who look at every record with no intention of buying anything.Thankfully the larger charity shops were where he had less chance of trippingup old ladies whist he was on the floor looking through the records. For once I got lucky and bought some unusedplace mats for 1.99.The Market Hall seemed to be a popular place for the olderpeople of Accrington. I think the factit had lots of benches to sit on was part of the draw. The lady at the pet stall was very helpfulwith my kitten queries. I like these oldVictorian markets as they do give a place a sense of heritage and community.One good reason to visit Accrington is the pun names of thetown s shops. There s a fish shop called Passion for Sole and a cycle shopcalled Blood, Sweat and Gears . Mypersonal favourite was the charity shop called Only Foals and Horses - sadlyit wasn t open but what a fab name!We had a cake and a coffee in Costa. I swear Costa has become the new pub, so it squite apt the chain is owned by the brewery chain of Whitbread. It was full of old people catching up withfriends and collecting points on their loyalty cards. To be honest I d rather meet up in a coffeeshop with friends rather than a pub these days, but that s more to do with thefact I do fall asleep after a few drinks.Whilst it wasn t a very exciting visit, I was pleasantlysurprised by the place - the shop name puns alone put smiles on our faces. It s a down-to-earth working class town, whichhas seen better days and could do with investment. However it does have a sense of community andthat s always a good thing.Follow my blog with BloglovinDespite the miserable weather we ploughed on, over thecounty border from Derbyshire to Staffordshire.Uttoxeter is 14 miles from Ashbourne and it takes about 25 minutes, drivingvia the A515, A50 and A518.Before this visit I had very little knowledge of Uttoxeterapart from the many signs I ve passed over the year on the A50, the filmdirector Shane Meadows is from here and the Starbucks drive through at theUttoxeter service station. We parked up behind the little precinct and wondered whythere was a queue at the ticket machine.Apparently people were waiting until 3pm to get a free ticket forparking, which is always good to know as these things aren t always widelysignposted.As we walked through the little precinct, the song GhostTown by The Specials went through my head.It was a rather bleak concrete place from the 60s with lots of emptyunits. There was a handful of shops still open but mainly charity shops. When we made it out onto the main shopping street, thingsimproved. Firstly the street is pedestrianisedwhich always helps. Also the architectureis definitely market town, with many buildings dating back at least a couple ofcenturies. The butcher s shop on Market Street had a little brown plaquestating it was from Elizabethan times you could tell with its Tudor woodenbeamed structure. At least the townplanners have kept the newer developments behind the main shopping streets toretain the character of the place. Luckily for us, there were a quite a few charity shops toexplore in Uttoxeter. I m always a fanof good second hand charity book shops and the Katherine House Hospice had aparticularly good one plenty of books, well organised and reasonably priced. I bought Cheryl Strayed s Wild here, whichis a gripping read by the way. In theother charity shops, Neil was also having some luck with vinyl records and CDsand picked up some stuff even some sheet music which happened to be in goodcondition. On the mobile phone front, Neil was getting tetchy as thesignal for O2 was pretty patchy, whilst on Vodafone there was a betterreception. Thank goodness for tetheringis all I can say.There were a few independent shops in the town too, but itmust have been a slow day for them as the place was virtually empty as the wetweather kept most people indoors. Theonly place which was experiencing shopping action that day was the local ASDA.The main thing I really took from this place was the Staffordshireversion of the Midlands accent. It s notas strong as you d find in Birmingham or Wolverhampton, but it still has that burrwhich is captured beautifully by Shane Meadows in his films and TV programmes. It s fascinating how accents change withgeography and the first time I d spotted this accent was on a previous trip toLeek about 20 miles north west. I dothink it s one of the most interesting things about the UK how accents can beso radically different over relatively short distances, for example there areonly 30 miles between Liverpool and Manchester but the accents are poles apart.I m sure Uttoxeter on a race day feels like a differentplace, but on the day we went we found it to be a dull but functional place. I m sure it s a nice place to live thecountryside on the door step, but within easy reach of Stoke, Derby andStafford. I wouldn t be that excited tovisit here again, but as ever with certain places the weather can really temperyour experience of a place.I discovered Ashbourne in Derbyshire through taking detoursback to Manchester when the A40 or M6 had been jammed with traffic. As I passed through, I noticed the townseemed rather nice and I made a mental note to return here to visit.Getting to Ashbourne from Manchester takes about an hour anda half to drive. There are several waysto get there and the route I took was the M60, M62, M6, A50, B5030, B5032 andA52. I think there are better ways toget there, that s for sure, and Neil was getting queasy on the B road part ofthe journey. We parked up in Sainbury scar park and you have to pay to park for a maximum of 2 hours, but you can get theparking fee refunded in the supermarket.It was a grey and drizzly kind of day - not the best to govisiting 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 foundBilly s fish and chip shop in the centre of town and thankfully they had someindoor tables so we didn t have to eat them out in the rain. The fish and chips were nice which is alwaysa bonus.Ashbourne is a classy kind of town. Not only does it have aSainbury s and an M S supermarket in a nearby retail park, but it rocks theholy grail of middle class supermarkets a Waitrose. It also has an Edinburgh Woollen Mill, whichto me is always an indicator of a tourist destination. It s definitely upmarket with lots of lovelylittle independent shops too. Ashbournealso prides itself on being a fair trade town which is always good thing. If you like antiques and art you will findplenty of shops to your taste. In oneantique shop window there was a pair of glorious, white life sized greyhounds they were so lifelike and no doubt cost a small fortune. There is both an indoor and outdoor market inAshbourne. The outdoor market wasn tthat big or exciting, but I did like the upholstery stall where they wereselling footstools, which could be customised to your own taste. The small indoor market was hosting a craftday and it was very busy as the rain was driving people inside.Architecturally, there is a country market town vibe goingon and the sort of place you could spend a weekend soaking in the relaxingcalm. The gallows sign Green Man andBlack s Head Royal Hotel spanning St John s Street is a distinctive landmarkin the town and I couldn t help but think that some lorries wouldn t be able topass down this street because of it.In the cities and suburbs, pubs are closing at a rapid rate,but here I was surprised to see so many - apparently 1 in 4 of the buildings in thistown had been a pub. Many looked likethey had been here hundreds of years and it s a shame I was driving as it wouldhave been nice to sample a pint or two here.We were here obviously for the charity shops. One was particularly overpriced, but theothers were fine. In Oxfam I overheard aconversation where the volunteer was telling customers that the rain waskeeping people away from Ashbourne, but come on a sunny day and the place wouldbe teeming with folk. Neil managed topick up some CDs and vinyl and that always bodes well for a repeat visit.Bizarrely there were two religious speakers near the market proclaimingtheir stories of redemption to all who would listen. This was really rather strange andunexpected. You sort of expect this on abusy city centre street in Manchester, but not in a sleepy market town inDerbyshire.I can t quite understand why I d never really heard aboutthis place before my detours as I know Derbyshire fairly well. Maybe it doesn t have obvious lures likeBakewell (the Tart) and Buxton and Matlock (the Spas), but I m so glad to finallystop off in here and explore the place with Neil. It s an unassuming, but charming place tovisit and it definitely makes its way on the revisit and stay overnight list.The first time I came to Knaresborough was on a school tripto 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 howpeople used to get hung, drawn and quartered, with their bodies being left ondisplay by the river as a lesson to others.I m not sure many of us had pleasant dreams that night, but that pieceof knowledge has stuck with me ever since.This time, we had just visited nearby Wetherby and sodecided to go to Knaresborough. There issupposed to be a B road route between the two towns, but as ever I missed theright road and ended up doing a detour via the A1. When we got there we found a little car parkbehind the main shops on Chapel Street - 1 for 2 hours. Knaresborough is a pretty little town packed full ofcharacterful buildings, dating back hundreds of years. One thing I did notice about many of thebuildings was that they had three floors which gave the place a more imposingpresence. I liked the fact that thecentre of town was pedestrianised with car access for disabled parking. It is also a pet friendly town and we keptseeing posh pedigree pooches all over the place, which is always nice to see.There are so many independent shops in Knaresborough and I didnotice there were plenty of vintage style shops selling clothes, knickknacks andupcycled furniture. Definitely a placeto go to get vintage stuff and style ideas.I also love to visit stationery shops and I found two here which isalways great to see in this digital day and age.Neil is a fan of daft shop pun names and he remembered onour last trip there was a shop called Mungo Deli . Thankfully it was still open and Neil managedto get a picture of it for his Facebook album of silly shop signs.There are plenty of places to eat and drink here lots ofcosy old pubs, cute cafes and gastropubs.We had already eaten in Wetherby, but as we are greedy we did pick upcake from the friendly and down to earth Hurst s Bakery. I have to recommend the chocolate cream cake,especially as it had a surprise layer of black cherries in it and tasted greattoo. As ever we checked out the charity shops. Other people had the same idea and we keptbumping into them in every shop. Therewas a hospice charity shop which was really overpriced although in fairness, withthe proximity of so many vintage shops, they probably have a policy to mark upthe stock so the vintage shops don t profit on their donations. Neil managed to get locked in one charity shopwhen he was browsing through the records upstairs. I was a bit panicked and tried to phonehim. Thankfully the shop assistantchecked the shop before she left and Neil managed to get out. A practical point to note is that mostcharity shops in Knaresborough close about 4.00 pm so it s better to get thereearlier than we did.Knaresborough is a great little place to go, and one toconsider for a weekend away as it s close to the countryside, especially whenit s only a short drive from Harrogate too (fab place, you must visit). Our only advice is to get there earlier inthe day, as it begins to close around 4ish otherwise it s another fabYorkshire town to visit.It was our first road trip of the New Year so where do wego? We ve been to loads of places in theNorth over the years, so finding somewhere new to go that s nice can be moremiss than hit. So to ensure a hit on ourday out, I wanted to go to Knaresborough as we d been there before but I hadn twritten about it. However, to make thatjourney worthwhile we needed to visit another town. I dusted off the atlas andfound Wetherby, which is about 8 miles from Knaresborough well, that is ifyou 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 onto the A168 and A661. I was very pleasedto see on the way into town, a sign stating Historic Market Town Wetherbylooked to be a promising visit after all.As for parking, I got a little confused and ended up going through thetown. Luckily we found 2 hours freeparking on the edge of Wetherby town centre just off Crossley Street. We had to laugh at the name of the gymnasiumnext to the car park it s called Sunny Gym !Copyright Anne-Marie MarshallWe cut through the car park and found ourselves on Westgatewhere we found our first charity shop of the day. According to my Yell app, there were supposedto be 7 charity shops, but in reality there seemed to be many more. The shops were teeming with older peoplebrowsing and chatting to staff. Thereare some pretty good charity shops in Wetherby and Neil picked up some cheapvinyl records and CDs. Neil will definitely want to come back here again forthe charity shops alone.You will always find a place to eat in Wetherby with itswide selection of cafes, pubs and restaurants.As it was a cold day we wanted to eat indoors somewhere and we found theWetherby Whaler chip shop which had a restaurant upstairs. It s a nice, clean place and seemed to bepopular with the locals. Maybe it s becauseI m getting older and need them more often, but I noticed the toilets were wellmaintained and pleasant. The fish andchips we ordered were tasty and we d certainly come back here again.Copyright Anne-Marie MarshallWetherby is full of independent shops, which is always greatto see. I loved the pet shop with theanimal tableau outside and there was a pie shop that caught Neil s eye, especiallythe pies with black pudding in them. EachSaturday you can find in the local town hall an antiquesmarket. It s not a big market, butit was well organised and there was a camaraderie between the stallholders. I also noticed there s afarmers and craft market every second Sunday of each month. This town seems like it has got its acttogether with lots of activities planned throughout the year.The architecture in Wetherby is typically sturdy as it s madefrom Yorkshire stone. We did spot theodd building built in the 1960s and 1970s, but they look much more dated thanthe buildings which have been here for hundreds of years. The place is very well maintained and you cantell people here really take pride in the town.I wish this was the case everywhere.Copyright Anne-Marie MarshallWhilst Wetherby is not really a touristy type of place, itseemed to me to be a nice middle class commuter town (well it does have anM S supermarket after all) for people working in either Leeds or York. It s great to go to towns with noexpectations of them, as you come with no preconceptions and just see it forwhat it is. In this case we werepleasantly impressed with Wetherby and would definitely revisit.The final stop on the Welsh part of our road trip wasAbergavenny, 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 mainshopping area it was 1 for 2 hours, but on a market day it s better to getthe 1.50 ticket for 3 hours.Abergavenny is an old-school sort of town and very down toearth. The central shopping precinct is atypical, functional concrete mid-20th century building with manyhigh street names. However surroundingthe precinct is where you will find more interesting shops and some interestingperiod buildings. Many of the buildingsare in typical Welsh style with painted rendered walls all of which addcharacter to the town. The two buildingswhich stood out for me were the Abergavenny Baptist Church and Abergavenny MarketHall. Both buildings used dark rough-hewnstone and sandstone in their construction to create a distinctive look. Copyright Anne-Marie MarshallThe town was busy as the kids hadn t gone back to school yetand the pavements and side streets are quite narrow so you end up walking inthe road, trying to dodge traffic. The A40runs through the heart of the town too so there is always plenty of traffic andyou need to use the pedestrian crossings to navigate the town safely.First thing we did was to find food. We ended up at a little takeaway called theCodfather and had a generous portion of fish and chips - they were nice too. Then there was the mission to find the local toilets. I triedthe local public toilets which weren t great lack of tissues and theoverwhelming smell weren t pleasant. HoweverNeil on the other hand used the toilets in Nicholls department store which weremuch nicer.Obviously we were here to check out the charity shops andfound plenty to choose from. As we werein Wales it wasn t clear whether some were charity shops or just local independentshops. So I ended up being the Sherpa tryingto suss out what was a charity shop and what wasn t. Copyright Anne-Marie MarshallThere are plenty of independent shops in Abergavenny, which wasgreat to see. I did notice there were anumber of empty shop units in the town and also there weren t that many pubseither. The recession has clearly hitthis place, but the independent trade is keeping it afloat. I found a few craft shops, which is always ajoy for me. One shop specialised infabric and I picked up a few pieces in their sale. There was a good wool shop too, but sadly Icouldn t buy anything as I can t knit anymore. Neil found a house clearanceshop, but the owners were impatiently waiting for Neil to finish browsing sothey could shut up shop for lunch. It sdefinitely worth popping in Nicholls, which is a classy independent department store. We d seen one in Brecon and apparently theyhave a tiny chain of shops in South Wales.It s quite a pleasant upmarket place and the café seemed to be full offamilies and ladies-who-lunch.My favourite place was Abergavenny Market Hall as it washosting the regular Wednesday flea market, which proved popular with the localstoo. It reminded me of the Sunday fleamarkets you find in New York jammed packed full of interesting and quirky stuff. I loved the realistic looking flying pigswhich were hanging above the stalls and I had to take a few pictures of them. Neil found some record stalls and picked upsome nice 80s 7 inch singles. I didn tpick up anything, although a couple of the locals were commenting on my camera. They have a wide range of different marketshere over the month including a farmers, craft and antiques markets. If I lived near here I would definitely bevisiting this place on a regular basis.Copyright Anne-Marie MarshallWe had only planned to stay in Abergavenny for a couple ofhours, but now wished we d spent a bit longer here. I really didn t expect the place to be quiteas interesting as it was, because it didn t strike me as a tourist destination. Clearly the community likes to shop local andit s great to see a place like this teeming with people. If we were ever in the vicinity again, I ddefinitely pay another visit, particularly to the Market Hall.The base we chose for our South Wales excursion wasHay-on-Wye. Obviously I d heard about itdue to the annual book festival, but also because my friend is a book fanatic andhas visited this place to stock up his library.Getting to Hay-on-Wye from anywhere is a chore as it s inthe middle of nowhere, well, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons close to theEnglish border. As we were coming fromManchester we had the choice of three routes the A5 through the west ofShropshire, the A49 through the east of Shropshire or the longer route via theM6/M5. Unfortunately the first two routeswere ruled out for us due to the Creamfields festival in Cheshire, so we had totake 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 abreeze roadworks plus Birmingham equals traffic hell. That s before the random cross countryjourney that involved finding an alternative route because of a caraccident. It was one of the few times I wished for a satnav, as the iPhone was useless as the signal cross country was eithernon-existent or GPRS. It felt like wewere guided by divine intervention rather than anything else. So what should have been a three hour journeytook four hours instead. Hay-on-Wye itself is a lovely stone built town, full ofcharacter and rather well-to-do. At thecentre of the town, on a hill, is Hay-on-Wye Castle its remains overshadow thelittle town. These types of countrytowns have evolved over centuries and as a result the architecture is a realhistorical mixed bag. There s thedistinctive Clock Tower that overlooks the town. The small stone built Butter Market playshost to the various markets that pop up. I lost Neil to the Butter Market for a coupleof hours as there was a record fair going on. There are lots of places toexplore and if you are an architecture photographer get there early as thestreets get very busy late morning into late afternoon.We stayed in the Old Black Lion on the edge of Hay. It s a pub, restaurant and B B whichdates back from the 17th century, although parts of it date from the13th century. It s one ofthose characterful places with low beams and wibbly-wobbly floors, and it probablyplays host to a local ghost or two. Youfeel like you are drunk climbing the stairs to the bedrooms as the stairs areat an odd angle. If you are tall likeus, then be really careful as you could quite easily knock yourself out on thebeams. Our bedroom overlooked the car park and the fields beyond soyou really felt connected to the countryside.The room was decorated in red and gold and had an en-suite bathroom. As with these old buildings, en-suites can bea bit bizarre and our en-suite was split level with the shower on one level andthe toilet and sink on another. It wasalso dicey for both Neil and myself as you had to mind your head going down thesteps otherwise you could give yourself concussion. The breakfasts were really nice too withingredients sourced locally and I would wholeheartedly recommend the restaurantfor lunch and evening meals as they were the best we had on our stay. The Beef and Butty Bach was ace and the Chocand Port Cake is divine. If you arestaying Sunday in Hay it s best to book a table here as not all the restaurantsare open on a Sunday evening. I d definitelycome here again.Obviously Hay-on-Wye is known for books and we explored mostof the book shops. I was surprised howpricy some of the second hand bookshops were, but my book fanatic friend didsay later that he doesn t get as many books as he used to in Hay because of theprices. That said, my favourite bookshopwas the Hay Cinema Bookshop on the edge of town. It s massive and I don t think I ve been intoa larger bookshop you could lose yourself for days in here. The cheapest place to find books is at HayCastle which has an assortment of cheap books and you pay for them by leavingmoney in the honesty box.There is more to Hay than books and if you like your craft,vintage and locally-made stuff, this place will have something for you. It made me laugh to look in one vintage shop wherethey had a sign in the window with the words best quality old tat so true. Another vintage shop was called Nantique top name. The Old Electric Shop had theclassic combo of café, art gallery, upcycled furniture and vintage clothes - definitelya place to go to get inspiration for craft projects. A special mention goes to the Fudge Shop whomake their own delicious fudge and were very helpful too. They recommended the Thursday markets as youcan get really good sourdough bread from there.We did visit the local charity shops too. Plenty of books obviously, and Neil foundsome vinyl to rummage through. The StDavid s Charity Shop was particularly overpriced, but the rest were fine, evenOxfam to Neil s astonishment!There are quite a few pubs in Hay-on-Wye and as we werestaying three nights we managed to visit most of them. The Blue Boar seemed pretty busy doing mainlyfood. It was nice to see generations ofa family happy to be having a meal together.There was also an American couple giving a running commentary of theirtrip to everyone in earshot. The ThreeTuns, again another pub that specialises in food and in particularlypizza. They seem to attract a younger clienteleand it made me laugh to see the most sedate middle class hen-do known to man inthe pub. Honestly they were so tame thebride wore a classy sash and crown, her friends were dressed in sensiblewalking gear and they probably drank a maximum one bottle of wine between them. The Rose and Crown was a very differentaffair it seemed to be the only bar showing sport in Hay and was only everbusy when there was a match on. It had afunny smell and the barman looked as if he d been a roadie in the 1970s. We only had one drink in here, but the musicwas the best we had heard in Hay. TheKilvert was particularly quiet too as we were the only ones in there, but Ithink that was because it was a Tuesday evening rather than anything else. We did drink in the Old Black Lion too andthey have a nice back room which is lovely to relax in with a glass of wine ora pint. The locals seemed to hang out atthe local social clubs - the Conservative Club and the Royal BritishLegion. However we didn t go in there aswe were so occupied with the other places. The other place we ate in was Tomatitos, which is a crackinglittle tapas bar. It was very busy andit s good to get there early. The tapaswas the best I ve had for a long time the chorizo was lovely and tender, themeatballs were tasty and everything was absolutely spot on. My book fanatic friend really rates thisplace too and it comes up as one of the best places to eat in Hay according toTrip Advisor.Hay-on-Wye is a nice place to visit and clearly knows how torock its book angle for the tourists like ourselves. What impressed me most about Hay was not thebooks, but the place itself. It s such alovely part of the world and whilst the weather was not particularly greatduring our visit, we had a good time exploring the place, taking photos andhaving really good food. I d be backlike a shot and if you are ever in this part of the world, you must visit.All I knew about Chepstow was that it had a racecourse andthat s it. I didn t know it was in Walesas its name sounds English, but apparently Chepstow is the English name for theplace.We took the scenic route along the River Wye from Monmouthto Chepstow along the A466. It s only 16miles, though as it s a winding road it took much longer than anticipated andnot good for passengers who get travel sick.The plus points of choosing this route is that it s pretty and you passTintern Abbey. Sadly we didn t have timeto stop, but it did look good.Parking in Chepstow is straightforward as there s a big carpark behind the main shopping area which costs 1 for 2 hours.Chepstow is quite a compact town and certainly not as busyas Monmouth, but that could be just the time of day. The architecture is rather mixed with newdevelopments amongst the medieval and historic buildings. At the top of the hill there is the Town Gatewhich dates from the medieval times and in the car park you can still see theremains of the Port Wall which used to protect the town. There is also some random street art too witha surprising statue of a naked man complete with genitals.Obviously we were here for the charity shops and they didn tdisappoint. I found the shops wereparticularly good for books, especially newly published ones. I picked up the Amy Poehler book Yes Please for a song at 1.50. I d have boughtmore books if I hadn t already purchased them at full price. I also picked up a practically new clutch bagfor 2.99.There were some good overheard conversations to be had inthe charity shops and I spent far too much time eavesdropping on them. One was a lady who was discussing her careerchange she s so much happier now. Theother was the concerned grandparents who were hoping their grandson willfinally pass his driving test to improve his job prospects. I forget, living in a city, how important itis to drive when you live in the countryside.It s practically a rite of passage to pass a driving test where there svery little public transport available.There are a few antique / vintage places in Chepstow andNeil spent almost an hour trawling through them. He did pick up a good haul of vinyl recordsand CDs. I know he d happily come back here again just for these shops. As a result of this I spent quite a bit oftime looking through the craft shops, exploring the tiny shopping arcades andtaking photos. Damn the traffic in thistown though, as it makes it hard to take photographs of buildings without a blurredcar in shot.Neil noticed the WiFi was particularly good in Chepstow tooand you could get a half decent O2 signal (3G).He s rather obsessed with these things and mobile phone coverage it spossible he may have a social media addiction.Chepstow is definitely a good place to visit in South Wales;a bit quieter than Monmonth and easier to navigate without getting killed inthe process. We had already eaten butthere are lots of cafes and restaurants to get something nice to eat. If we are ever in the area again, we ddefinitely stop off and have a wander.Monmouth had been recommended to us as a place to go inSouth Wales by a friend who knew about our weakness for visiting towns andcharity shops. Traveling across South Wales is not like traveling across acity or between urban conurbations where the roads are straightforward andspeedy. The 33 mile drive took over anhour from Hay-on-Wye to Monmouth which I couldn t believe. This was not helped by Neil as he s not a fanof winding roads, so I had to take them at sane speeds to avoid that inevitablephrase Are we there yet? I feelsick . All the same it was a prettydrive and we took a route along the B4348, A465 and A466. We parked up in a car park behind the main shops in the towncentre. It was a very busy car park andpeople were hovering like vultures trying to nab a spot. We were very lucky to get a parking spot quicklyand paid 1.50 for 3 hours.Monmouth is a busy town and I ve never seen so much trafficpass through one place. How people crossthe main street without getting hit by a car on a daily basis is a miracle. This posed problems for me as I wanted totake photos of the buildings and kept getting random trucks and cars inshot. The street was busy too, with oldpeople, families and tourists. I wasgenuinely surprised how popular this place seemed to be. Given the amount of pubs and places to eat itseems to be a popular destination for tourists.Behind the main shops I did spot a gardening shop-cum-café called thePotting Shed. It was a nice little quietspot where you could enjoy a cup of tea and a slice of cake away from the hubbubof the town.Architecturally, Monmouth is a rather pretty mix of renderedbuildings which have evolved over the centuries. The baroque 18th century ShireHall is certainly the star of the town, with its perfectly symmetrical frontagelooking grand and refined overlooking Agincourt Square it s clearly wellmaintained by the local council. On theedge of town is the Monnow Bridge which is the oldest surviving medieval bridgewith a gate house in the UK. It scertainly worth a look and makes a good photo opportunity as well as a chanceto feed the local ducks who live underneath it.We were here for charity shops, and Monmouth did notdisappoint. Neil found a couple of CDsbut managed to get stuck in Mind behind a mum and her screaming child. The child wasn t impressed with the shop as shethought it was smelly . It wasn t bythe way, she was just tired and grumpy.I did have a charity shop regret here as I found a pottery goblet butdidn t buy it. As we walked around, Iwas bugged that I didn t pick it up, so I went back only to find it had beensold already. Damn I never learn!I was impressed that Monmouth had a few craft shops and Ispent some time browsing the fabrics. Inone shop the assistant was upcycling a chair with vivid red chalk paint as itwas a bit of a slow day. Needless to sayI ended up buying more fabric for my stash.Neil grabbed a bite to eat and had an uninspiring pasty,whereas I went to Caffe Nero and got a nice latte. It amused me to hear the staff discussing howwell other chains had done over the weekend.It s funny to see the competitiveness in the coffee trade. All in all, Monmouth was definitely a successful trip for us pretty, pleasant and some decent charity shops. The only downside was thetraffic and I was certainly happy not to get run over something from pastexperience I wouldn t recommend. This isthe kind of place you could easily spend a night or two in if you fancied ashort break in this part of the world.All content 2007-2014 lifeinnortherntowns.com. Travel theme. Powered by Blogger.

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