Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
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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Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
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