Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
There were two hilly areas we wanted to be near, one for definite the Trough of Bowland, and the other to the south of it - Pendle Hill. Today we would get acquainted with the latter. Our first stop would be lunch. The countryside we drove through was beautiful and quiet just like Bowland. We only saw the odd car, a few walkers and a farmer or two. When we reached our lunch destination The Assheton Arms, it proved to be an idyllic spot with views to die for. My mobile phone pics fail to do it justice. In many ways Bowland and Pendle are like an unspoilt Lake District with moors, uplands, woods, rivers, stone villages, welcoming pubs, friendly folk and terrific food as we were to find out. The Assheton Arms gets good reviews and is one of esteemed food critic Grace Dent's favourites. It has everything you could wish for in a pub - amazing location, great building, stone flag floors, real ale, fires, very friendly staff, a lack of pretension and top-class food priced very reasonably indeed. And the village it is in- Downham - is special. Downham beck runs through the village green and there are no street signs, telegraph poles, advertisements or road signs. This is all due to the Assheton family. You can criticise patriarchal land ownership all you like but it does have its benefits... We were spoiled for choice on the menu, but had a terrific meal and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We then set off for our drive over Pendle moorland, not as forbidding as some moors, although the weather was a bit dramatic at times! We then drove through Nelson which was an eye-opener to say the least. I expected dereliction in this old spinning town, but it was full of Indie shops, restaurants, delis, stone houses, good buildings, and we decided that this too could be the sort of place we could live and so it was added to our list. Next stop was Towneley Museum in Burnley which I had always wanted to visit. As Pevsner says 'the outstanding monument in Burnley, a building of exceptional interest with some of the finest eighteenth century plasterwork in North Lancashire. It stands in a large park.' Indeed. The grounds were beautiful, and although we didn't have time to visit the inside, we were not sorry to have called and noted it for a future visit. There are houses which come available overlooking the grounds, but we could see at a glance that Burnley was a bit of a dump, so not somewhere for us to put roots. It was on then to Southport where we knew there were lots of lovely Victorian houses in our price range. But what would Southport itself be like? The well-known arcaded Lord Street is of course still splendid if getting a little frayed around the edges....... ....but when towards tea time we visited the posher area of Birkdale to see what it was like, we were pleasantly surprised. Nice houses, nice bars and pubs.... The next day was a bit grey and blustery, but having shopped on Lord Street (buying a bargain three suitcases in the independent department store for less than £100)....... we decided we couldn't not go down the pier. It is a mile long, but unfortunately the little train wasn't running which F. hoped to catch back after a nice cup of coffee in the cafe at the pier end. That was shut too. Still, it was an enjoyable walk...... and on the way back we were astonished to see what we thought was the very rare sight of a parhelion (such as occurred to the Yorkists at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross). The phone camera doesn't pick this up, but we could see what looked like three suns in close proximity. I have since researched this and we didn't see a parhelion - which is where there appear to be three suns rising at different points on the horizon. Nevertheless it was quite a thing to see. Also shut was the Atkinson museum and art gallery which I had wanted to visit.... But the bar/cafe right outside was great... with good views of the Christmas tree...... ....and the sunset..... What I felt like was a pint and a gingerbread man......so that is what I had. Southport, although it has its pluses (lots of splendid buildings including the houses), is still a typical British seaside town with the centre a bit hollowed-out, and tatty round the edges. And the countryside is very flat round about which I don't like. We concluded that, living here, you would believe you were at the end of the line rather as the characters in Alan Bennett's 'Sunset Across The Bay'. Not for us. All in all at the end of our trip we felt excited about the possibility of moving to Clitheroe, Whalley, nearby Mellor, or even Nelson.....plus we still haven't ruled out Sandbach in Cheshire. Those places have everything we want. Walks from the doorstep, excellent pubs, good public transport, nice houses, brilliant views, lots of historical interest, nearness to Manchester and accessibility to London and Edinburgh where our children live. Can't wait....
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Both Clitheroe and Whalley are on the edge of the Trough of Bowland, which is unknown to most people, but somewhere the Queen would like to retire to (apparently!). It's The Telegraph's 'answer to Tuscany' too. I knew it from childhood, Frances had never been. We set out to explore. .......we arrived at our lunch destination, one of the great hotels of England, The Inn At Whitewell. The location and views were sublime. It sits above the River Hodder and in summer how nice would it be to sit on the terrace..... The food was really good and very reasonably priced too. Unusually I had a home-smoked kipper with crusty brown bread for my lunch, and Frances seems delighted to have her pie! The real ale was good, the fires lovely, and everyone was very welcoming. What more could one ask? Next stop was Slaidburn right in the heart of Bowland.. .....with its cosy tea shop...... and brilliant pub......the Hark To Bounty.... The Trough of Bowland is a fantastic mix of moors, woods, rivers, beautiful valleys, villages you want to capture in photos and, of course, good pubs. Moving nearer to home I particularly wanted to visit Waddington and here it is.......the pub (one of three excellent ale houses in this village) ....the Manor House......... and the beautiful Millennium Gardens created and looked after by the locals. It's amazing what people can do...... Nearby Cromwell's Bridge once carried a packhorse trail over the River Hodder, about a mile from its confluence with the Ribble. It earned its name after Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary army crossed the bridge on their way from Gisburn to where they fought the King's men in the Battle of Preston. It is said that he ordered the dismantling of the parapets to ease his army's crossing.......... Now to Clitheroe. We couldn't stay and not visit the castle, Norman, and said to be the smallest keep in England. We hadn't time to visit the on-site museum, but the views were splendid.... It was also interesting to see the intricate and ornate stone pinnacle from the Houses of Parliament bought by Sir William Brass MP and presented to the town for George VI’s coronation in 1937. The pinnacle, or turret, originally formed part of the roof of the building that had had to be rebuilt following the Great Fire of 1834. Sir William paid for the pinnacle to be transported and installed in a rose garden he also created at Clitheroe Castle. I mentioned that Holmes Mill had a cinema. One evening we went. It was expensive but worth it. Very stylish indeed. Here's the bar... .......the entrance to Screen 2......... and the amazing cinema........very comfy indeed...and drinks and meals served at your seat should you wish...........
Today we were off to scout out Macclesfield and Bollington which we didn't know. Nice to see a traditional artist in the station.... Macclesfield was impressive in its way, and again the people were super friendly. It was also very hilly.... Unfortunately at the end of the day hardly anything nice comes up here in our price range....we then caught the bus to nearby Bollington which we had just skirted on a previous occasion and found it to be a lovely, hilly village with views, and its fair share of pubs and restaurants... Whilst in Bollington we took the opportunity to call on a friend of mine from University, also a book dealer, George Longden, and we had a nice cup of tea and a chat with him and his wife. He was kind enough to give me one of the books he has written on the area. Again Bollington, although terrific in many ways, just like a pretty Derbyshire village (it is on the borders of Derbyshire and Cheshire), is probably outside our price range. Never mind. Back at our place on Salford Quays we enjoyed walking though the night-scape of Media City..... Next day we walked past the Helly Hansen watersports centre to The Lowry ....where we spent a pleasant hour or two.... it's a great gallery and lots of social history to pick up whilst you're there... The next part of our trip was to the Ribble Valley where we stayed in a lovely little cottage in Chatburn, just outside Clitheroe. Our two 'targets', as it were, were Whalley and Clitheroe. First Whalley. A delightful place with everything you could want. Apart from delis, shops, restaurants, and much else, the old church is certainly worth a visit.... Whalley also has one of the nicest bus stations I have ever come across.....unbelievably this is it - a beautiful large round garden with bus stops on its circumference..... Here's the view back across to town.... Everywhere in Whalley you were surrounded by countryside and hills And of course one of the major attractions is Whalley Abbey One of the antique shops in Whalley had a marvellous pink aeroplane in the window....I couldn't resist taking a picture. Our conclusion? We would absolutely love to live here, but yet again hardly anything in our price range. This seems to be a recurring theme! Back in Clitheroe who could not like Holmes Mill - a hotel, beer hall, deli, food store, restaurant, cinema and goodness knows what else.... The horseshoe shaped bar is reputedly the longest in the country...they certainly kept a goodly range of real ales....very pleasing! On one of our days we had a property to see in Wilpshire which is to the South of Ribble Valley....beautiful countryside... but the hotel was closed, and it didn't seem there were many, if any, facilities.....
One of our criteria is to be near Manchester, my home town. So we stayed at Salford Quays and, having arrived, enjoyed the Christmas feeling in the whole area, complete with tat at the so-called German market.... We wanted to experience life in 'the big city' so we had a good look around. Our first visit was to the John Rylands Library where I had studied sometimes in the 60's whilst writing my essays for MGS. We entered via the shop and modern lobby. Very impressive. What a juxtaposition there was when we went through to the original building, which is cathedral-like.......it was founded by the widow of John Rylands in his memory. He had built up the largest textile business in the country, perhaps the world, and was a philanthropist himself....bearing in mind that his profits came from the savage labours of his 15,000 workers. ...and it was lovely to feel that you had access to whatever was there, priceless though a lot of it is. and not only adults were catered for! This automaton is actually the widow Enriqueta having tea with a dragon. The toilets are worth a mention too! The original Victorian fixtures and fittings and the oldest in Manchester.... Outside the Manchester rain just added to the atmosphere... and some window-shopping was in order whilst on our way to our next stop..... The People's History Museum. The PHM is the national museum of democracy, and I was keen to see it and the Anniversary Peterloo Exhibition. In truth this proved very disappointing. Both exhibitions were very flat, being mainly a series of display boards and seemed to have been put together by a local librarian with little cash or imagination. A great opportunity lost in my opinion. The cafe was another matter...stylish, good service, great choices....... and Frances said the Lancashire lamb stew was as good as anything she had eaten.... Outside, the new Manchester style was in evidence wherever we walked whether in central Manchester...... or our base of Salford Quays....... We met Katherine in the evening at the Principal Hotel, one of the many conversions of old buildings brought to new use....an epic building showing everything good about modern Manchester...... We retired from our bookshop life to Cornwall, and have loved a lot of our time here. However nowhere is perfect, and we (I should say I) have found that there are quite a lot of negatives. The weather for a start (although we knew what it would be like from our time in Devon). The lack of big sporting events....Premiership football, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket.... The fact that it takes a whole day to go to the cinema if we go by bus to Plymouth. The lack of decent big cities - yes Truro is nice but more than an hour away, and to be honest Plymouth is a bit of a dump. The lack of culture.....good theatre, big orchestras, great libraries, big museums, and more. The lack of footpaths from our village. The lack of a pub. The limited choice of buses to anywhere. And the cost of getting anywhere.....trips to our children in Edinburgh and London cost the earth. So, we decided after a few previous trips up North that it would be a good idea to explore Lancashire and Cheshire with a view to moving. Whilst our daughter was staying in Manchester for work we arranged a good fortnight up in the area...... We drove up via the old route through the border country and it was impressive and rather worrying to see the Wye, just after Tintern Abbey, in full spate. Our first stop was Chester, which we knew we liked very much indeed, and we had booked a riverside cottage in Handforth just on the opposite side of the River Dee to the city centre. It proved to be a great choice. and the cobbled street it was in was such a nice quiet backwater.....ideal for us? Having arrived late we couldn't wait to have a stroll across the bridge. The buildings of all periods in Chester are sensational..........day or night. The following morning was crisp and beautiful, and we were anxious to explore some of the areas we had researched. It was a matter of a few strides from our cottage down a cobbled street to the river. We then crossed by the medieval bridge of 1397. And the stroll by the side of the Dee is then pretty special. It led us to the equally impressive suspension bridge...... with adjoining bandstand....just imagine a summer's day, the band playing.... In order to get a good overview of the city we then walked the 2 miles around the city walls which, astonishingly, are virtually complete. This really is one of the great walks......with fantastic views everywhere..... Chester is nowhere near as spoilt by 60s and 70s buildings as other towns and cities. But here is one example. Which cretin of a town planner thought it a good idea to have a brutal concrete multi-storey car park right in the centre adjoining one of the historic buildings? We then visited a couple of suburbs. Here we are walking back from Hoole known presumably with tongue in cheek as 'Notting Hoole'. I didn't particularly like it, although there were some nice independent shops.... And there are still developments going on....here the Steam Mill is being converted into flats. and here the shot tower...great developments for young professionals as the estate agents say... Back in the centre we came across this mind-blowing statue made out of all the knives handed in to Cheshire Police in a short moratorium. Food for thought! Back to our place for a cup of tea and it was lovely to notice some of the detail around Chester that makes it such a special place. Here some railings by the river.... And just behind our cottage it was fascinating to explore the Roman shrine to Minerva. According to Historic England, it’s believed this is Western Europe’s only representation of a Roman goddess that’s still in its original location. As such, it’s the only shrine of its kind in the United Kingdom. We only looked at one property in our 2 days in Chester - a flat which was extremely good value - because we were really scouting areas and potential, but whilst we would indeed like to move to Chester, what a lovely city, it may prove impossible in our price range.
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August 2023
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