Last Updated on 10th October 2019The first sight of Gawthorpe Hall may strike a chord with fans of Downton Abbey, the period soap-opera that follows the fortunes of the Crawley family and those that serve them. I’m sure those of…
Hunting Hobbits in Lancashire
Last Updated on 21st July 2019Middle Earth is in Lancashire; it’s official. Just as Beatrix Potter was inspired by the Lake District, Thomas Hardy by his native Dorset and AA Milne, in a manner of speaking, found Pooh in Ashdown…
Our Brontë tour begins in Haworth
Who was the third Brontë sister? It’s a good question for quiz night down at the Olde Rupturede Ducke. There was Charlotte and Emily, of course – the authors of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights respectively. But who wrote The…
St Patrick’s Chapel, Heysham
Last Updated on 10th August 2019This is one of our friend Jeni’s favourite places and she said we should go; so of course we did. Heysham (pronounced ‘hee-shum’, not ‘hay-sham’) sits on Lancashire’s coast at the southern end of Morecambe…
The Great Stone of Fourstones
Up on the moors on the edge of the Forest of Bowland is a large, box-shaped, chunk of rock. It sits just inside North Yorkshire on the border with Lancashire. With characteristic English wit and imagination, it is known as…
Wandering around Rufford Old Hall
I found Rufford Old Hall rather like nouvelle cuisine; it looked interesting, but a little over-hyped. It was good, but there should have been so much more to it and at the end I was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied. I…
Imagine if George Washington had been Lancastrian
Last Updated on 6th December 2016There 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…
Have a brief encounter at a railway station
Last Updated on 8th December 2016You 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…
A bit about North West England
Last Updated on 29th September 2019Including the counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. North West England extends from the attractive market towns of Cheshire, through the vast urban areas around Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackburn/Burnley, to the…