Places to visit and things of interest in North West England. To many visitors, North West England means the Lake District; to others it is the home of the Beatles. Including the counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, North West England is a hugely diverse region of Britain. It has lively urban areas like Liverpool and Manchester, shaped by Georgian and Victorian trade and industry; attractive market towns; large country estates; ruined castles; a heritage influenced by Roman, Norse and Norman invaders (as well as border warfare); countryside ranging from lush farmland to fells, lakes and mountains and a varied, often unexpectedly beautiful, coastline that includes both brash resorts and barely visited backwaters.
There are two villages called Warton in Lancashire, both of them with connections across the Pond. One, just west of Preston, is known for the airfield used by the United States Army Air Forces during World War Two. Further north, the other Warton nudges the border with Cumbria. And there, inside the medieval parish church […]
Imagine if George Washington had been Lancastrian Read More »
The River Eden begins life high on the moors above the valley of Mallerstang. It’s a remote place, harshly beautiful. The water bubbles northward on its journey to the Solway Firth, flanked in these parts by Wild Boar Fell to the west and Mallerstang Edge to the east. Alongside the Eden in the valley bottom
Castle of the Pendragon? Read More »
You can have a cup of tea (“the sugar’s in the spoon”), or more, sitting in the very spot where Laura and Alec fell in love. Carnforth Railway Station was ‘Milford Junction’, location for much of the action in the classic 1945 film, Brief Encounter. The war was still on, but the small Lancashire town
Have a brief encounter at a railway station Read More »
You’ll find the small village of Dent, sometimes known locally as Dent Town, on the western edge of the Yorkshire Dales. This was once part of Yorkshire’s West Riding but is now inside the county of Cumbria. The narrow roads through achingly beautiful Dentdale seem never-ending; it’s almost a relief to arrive amongst Dent’s old
The Vampire of Dent (and other stories) Read More »
This was the opinion of Thomas West (1720-1779) when referring, not to a lady of his acquaintance, but to Levens Park, in Cumbria. The quote appeared in West’s ‘Guide to the Lakes’, allegedly, the first tourist guide to England’s Lake District, published in 1778. Levens is in the south of the county, just outside the
The sweetest spot that fancy can imagine Read More »
They seemed an unlikely pair. That wise-cracking, aggressive, scruffy teddy-boy Lennon was a world away from the demure, composed, Cynthia Powell, who came from Hoylake ‘over the water’ on the Wirral and spoke posh. It started in the lettering class at Liverpool College of Art. John Lennon’s speciality was cartoons – often cruel caricatures –
When Cyn and John got it together Read More »
We Brits appear to be obsessed with plant nurseries, or, more accurately, ‘garden centres’. Garden centres are essentially department stores with a section, somewhere, that sells plants. They will flog you anything from greetings cards to kitchenware, jewellery to twee ornaments (tree ornaments too), with clothing from Barbour and Burberry. The earthy-chemical tang of fertilisers
A different garden centre Read More »
We all know what a national park is. Although definitions vary, they are usually rural areas of natural (or naturalised) beauty designated as ‘special’ in some way by their national governments. Normally, the environment within a national park, including its flora and fauna, are protected and there are particular rules about what you can, and
Britain’s National Parks Read More »
North West England extends from the attractive market towns of Cheshire, through the vast urban areas around Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Blackburn and Burnley, to the wilds of Cumbria in the north – the ancient kingdom of Rheged, where place names reflect its turbulent, multi-racial, past. For many, the North West means the English Lake District,
A bit about North West England Read More »
Here is your mission today, should you choose to accept it: take the ferry across Ullswater from Glenridding to Howtown and walk back. It’s a low-level stroll of about 7 miles (11km), so you don’t need to be Sherpa Tenzing to tackle it, but you do need to be able to cope with the distance,
