Topic: Our UK Towns & Cities

QUOTE:

Maybe as Gordon has done such a good job on Chester we should all include a little something about the town from which we come / inhabit.

Many places have a few hidden historical facts or gems that are overlooked and as was said this would make a happy and non controversial topic.

Enjoyed reading that Shelley & a good idea, so here is my bit on Lymington, not as interesting as yours & with a bit of help from Wikepidia!!

Lymington is a port on the Solent in the New Forest district of Hampshire. It faces Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and has a car ferry, operated by Wightlink. We have a large tourist industry, based on the proximity to the New Forest and the harbour. It is a major yachting centre with three marinas, could be four now, keeps expanding!

Lymington is also famous for its sailing history, and in recent years has been home to world famous regattas such as the Royal Lymington Cup. The strong tides make it a challenging race track, and together with the shallow depth of the river has resulted in Lymington losing a lot of regattas to the Central Solent, principally run from Cowes. But on Thursday evenings, racing takes place with up to 100 boats registered, during the summer, hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club.

The town has many shops, catering for tourists and sailing folk alike. There is a local market every Saturday, which is very popular and takes place in the main High Street.

Lymington is recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as "Lentune". About 1200 the lord of the manor, William de Redvers created the borough of New Lymington around the present quay and High Street whilst Old Lymington comprised the rest of the parish. He gave the town its first charter and the right to hold a market.

From the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century Lymington was famous for making salt. Saltworks comprised almost a continuous belt along the coast toward Hurst Spit (worth visiting Hurst Castle).

From the early nineteenth century it had a thriving shipbuilding industry, particularly associated with Thomas Inman the builder of the schooner Alarm, which famously raced the American yacht America in 1851. The wealth of the town at the time is represented in its architecture. Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian with narrow cobbled streets, leading off of it, giving an air of quaintness.

Lymington particularly promotes stories about its smuggling history; there are said to be smugglers' tunnels that run from the old inns to the town quay. It is also mentioned in The Children of the New Forest by Captain Marryat In Tom Clancy’s patriot Games a Wightlink ferry heading from the Lymington ferry terminal is intercepted and a prisoner is extracted in heavy seas. Several men on board the ferry are murdered. (Can’t verify – haven’t read it yet!)

Well worth a visit if you are near to Southampton, if you come via Cadnam, Lyndhurst & Brockenhurst it is a twisty but attractive drive through the New Forest.

See thumbnail pictures

Regards Lizzie.

QUOTE:

Enjoyed reading that Shelley & a good idea, so here is my bit on Lymington, not as interesting as yours & with a bit of help from Wikepidia!!

Lymington is a port on the Solent in the New Forest district of Hampshire. It faces Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and has a car ferry, operated by Wightlink. We have a large tourist industry, based on the proximity to the New Forest and the harbour. It is a major yachting centre with three marinas, could be four now, keeps expanding!

.

Lizzie my father lived in Lymington for a while before buying in Barton Upon Sea. He moved down when they put a Scapa Tapes in the new forest.

Didn't it once hold the record for the dearest ex-council houses ever to come to market?

I just remember it having a very nice harbour (which I think is where the houses were located ) and a book shop ~ Otakers? which contained a Terry Pratchett book I didn't have.

QUOTE:

Maybe as Gordon has done such a good job on Chester we should all include a little something about the town from which we come / inhabit.

Many places have a few hidden historical facts or gems that are overlooked and as was said this would make a happy and non controversial topic.

In this vein:
Stalybridge
is a small town in the north-west of England. Lying at the foothills of the Pennines, which are also known as the backbone of Britain, 8 miles east of Manchester.

Stalybridge is famous for several things....the most spectacular one being the song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", which was written in the town by Jack Judge And not forgetting our very own world famous Stalybridge Brass Band, which is the oldest civilian Brass Band in the World!

Beatrix Potter's family came from Stalybridge, and lived in an area known as Castlehall. Beatrix was born in London but her mother Helen Leech came from Stalybridge and her parents lived at Gorse Hall until 1884

The artist L.S.Lowry lived at Stalybridge Road, Mottram,Stalybridge from 1948 until his death in 1976Also the the film 'Yanks' starring Richard Gere and Vanessa Regrave was filmed in Stalybridge in the '70's

Stalybridge is mentioned twice in the Guinness Book of Records - for having the shortest named pub in Britain, namely 'The Q Inn' and the longest named pub in Britain, namely 'The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn

Lancashire dialect poet Samuel Laycock lived an worked in Stalybridge and wrote the poem "Boltons Yard" about some houses in the Castle Hall area (These were demolished in the 1960's)

At number one, i' Bowton's yard, mi gronny keeps a scoo, But hasn't mony scholars yet, hoo's only one or two; They sen the'owd woman's rather cross, - well, well, it may be so; Aw know hoo box'd me rarely once, an' pood mi ears an'o

At number two lives widow Burns - hoo weshes clooas for folk; Their Billy, that's her son, gets jobs at wheelin' coke; They sen hoo coarts wi' Sam-o'-Neds, 'at lives at number three; It may be so, aw conno tell, it matters nowt to me

At number three, reet facin' th' pump, Ned Grimshaw keeps a shop; He's Eccles-cakes, an' gingerbread, an' treacle beer, an' pop; He sells oat-cakes, an'o, does Ned he boath soft an' hard; An' everybody buys off him 'at lives i' Bowton's Yard

At number four Jack Blunderick lives; he goes to th' mill an' wayves; An' then, at th' week-end when he's time, he pows a bit an' shaves; He's badly off, is Jack , poor lad; he's rayther lawm, they sen, An' his childer keep him deawn a bit - aw think they'n nine or ten

(If required I can translate this, as it's how my Grandmother used to talk and my daughter is nearly as broad)

About the same area in 1844 Frederick Engels wrote
"On first entering the town the visitor sees congested rows of old, grimy and dilapidated cottages.... most of the streets run in wild confusion up, down and across the hill sides. Since so many of the houses are built on slopes it is inevitable that many of the rooms on the ground floor are semi basements. It may well be imagined what a vast number of courst, back passages and blind alleys have been created as a result of this wholly unplanned method of building .... of this disgustingly filthy town"

Greetings Shelledpea of Stalybridge.

We may have exchanged 'opinions' during the long-running contentious debate to which I referred on creating this subject as intended to be, 'non-controversial.'

At first sight I immediately thought of Stalybridge as being part of Cheshire swallowed up by Greater Manchester, as many 'upmarket' towns such as Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, appear to be more related as being 'on the outskirts of Manchester' when in fact their residents would prefer the more sedate Cheshire address as a prime location, as witness the number of merchant bankers and famous footballers who can afford to live in their opulent homes in that neck of the woods.

Stalybridge in fact is quite close to Saddleworth Moor which invariably is associated with the infamous 'Moors Murderers.'

I am so glad that the Stalybridge Brass Band still exists and, if anything like our local bands up here in north Wales, depends more and more upon junior members for continuity.

Of course your part of the country boasted several famous brass bands in former years such as 'Besses 'O the Barn' and 'Black Dyke Mills' etc.

I have memories of sitting with my bandsman Grandfather, in the Queen's Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, listening to several brass bands all playing the same competition piece one after each other.

Beethoven's fifth symphony being the test piece one year, with its distinctive Churchillian V for victory and morse code opening of (...-)
It's a good 'tune' but after listening to it played over and over by multiple bands is testing, even for the most enthusiastic.

The competition used to be a two horse race between Foden's Motor Works Band (Sandbach, Cheshire) or Fairey Aviation Works Band of Manchester.

I was interested in the poem about Bolton's (Bowten's) Yard which seems to be one of the Yorkshire dialects.
It is not dissimilar to the local dialect spoken in Buckley (Flintshire) where I was born, and received my primary education.
I can recognise most of the words used, but with a little variation of inflection.

Our local dialect was the result of a diverse mixture brought about by an intake of Lancashire colliers and Staffordshire pottery workers plus the resident Welsh, which resulted in the unique 'Buckley dialect' that sounded a little biblical, as we addressed each other as thee and thou and - as residents of that area, became very 'clannish' and quickly closed ranks, and which comradeship prompted an often-voiced, "If you kick one of them, they all start limping," by non-Buckley-ite visitors.

The dialect, to all intents and purposes, has vanished except for use more elderly residents of 70+ and has been mostly absorbed by the immigration and dialect of our neighbours from across the Mersey - some of whose parents were evacuated here for safety during the bombing air-raids of Liverpool during WWII - many of whom remained and married here.

I was once asked, by an educated company secretary of a south Welsh organisation, whose meetings I used to attend on behalf of our local authority, as a councillor, "Tell me Gordon, what is that peculiar language spoken in your part of the Principality"? to which I replied, "Scouse" - he expostulated, "What do you mean, 'Scouse' - I replied, "From Chester to Llandudno, is regarded as, 'Costa del Scouse,' which amused him, but I doubted his understanding of it.

What I didn't confuse him with, was the parlance used by the CB enthusists who dubbed Buckley as, 'over-spill' (for Liverpool) in the days when real names, personal or place, were concealed.

Best wishes to you and success to Stalybridge Brass Band.

Gordon

Hi Gordon,

I used to do a raring trade on E-bay in old brass band records ~ the Japanese loved them.

My brother used to play the cornet for Stalybridge and I only live two minutes walk from where the Whit Friday Band Contest is held, Tamesides contest is quite leisurely compared to that of Oldham and Saddleworth but it still a good evening out if the sun's shining (rarely in the past few years).

Hyde the next town along from us is infamous for the Moors murderers and also Dr Shipman. He was known to his friends as Fred not Harold and when I purchased my restaurant we were informed that the table in the back corner was the "Shipman Table" as that's where he always sat on a Saturday with his wife.

I think this could turn out to be an interesting thread ~ thanks for introducing it

Shell x

Living in Dukinfield, I often find myself in Stalybridge, in fact many of my customers come from there. Its not the place it used to be, but tell me somewhere that is! I pass Shipman's old surgery on my way up to Werneth (what a fabulous view) when we take the little one to feed the ducks at Etherow Country Park. We still often take walks around Stamford Park and sometimes Manor Park. Still brings back memories from when we used to travel there on the bus. It will soon be summer.

QUOTE:

Hi Gordon,

I used to do a raring trade on E-bay in old brass band records ~ the Japanese loved them.

My brother used to play the cornet for Stalybridge and I only live two minutes walk from where the Whit Friday Band Contest is held, Tamesides contest is quite leisurely compared to that of Oldham and Saddleworth but it still a good evening out if the sun's shining (rarely in the past few years).

Hyde the next town along from us is infamous for the Moors murderers and also Dr Shipman. He was known to his friends as Fred not Harold and when I purchased my restaurant we were informed that the table in the back corner was the "Shipman Table" as that's where he always sat on a Saturday with his wife.

I think this could turn out to be an interesting thread ~ thanks for introducing it

Shell x

Hi Shell

My that was quick - at first I thought it was another volley from a bloke I've got tangled-up with on a 'disability discriminating' thread - me being the 'Knight in shining armour, mounted on a white horse, waving the banner of the oppressed, as usual, well it keeps the old adrenalin flowing.

You appear to have had music passed on to you via other family members and I owe my musicianship to my old cornet playing Grandad, who insisted I be taught music - apart from him none of the other members of my extended family had a note of music in them.

I know Saddleworth has a band as it was featured in a TV programme a while back, and I'm not sure if they haven't a male voice choir also.

Interesting your mention of Harold (Fred) Shipman and his favourite dining table - I had him down for Stockport for some reason and, in one TV shot of him regularly used, walking towards the camera, the location for all the world looks just like an area of Chester with the city walls visible in the background.

We were returning from a weekend in Malton/York, north Yorkshire a few years ago, and I decided to stray off the beaten track in order to visit Holmfirth, where they shoot some of the scenes used in 'Last of the Summer Wine.'

The Cafe is genuine, but with another name of the real owner of course and is in a small square and faces a large chapel which can be seen from the front window of the cafe.

The other scene is the lane leading to Nora Batty's house and Compo's where a pair of his wellies are displayed.
Both have to be 're-arranged' for filming, particularly the one used as Nora's.

The actual row of houses includes a genuine cafe, just two houses down from those used in the film set.

To reach the cafe, as in the case of 'Nora's' house, you have to climb up several steps which arrive at front street-level, the others being the back of the house and, as in the case of Compo's, at a lower split-level, or basement.
The main road passes the 'proper frontage' of the terraced row.

We went in for tea and cakes, it only consisted of a few tables which the lady proprietor pointed out as the particular ones used, during breaks from filming, by both 'Nora' and 'Compo' who, she said, never exchanged a word with each other during their break.

I am fascinated by the mention of your next cruise X018, Oriana, on 17/12/2010.

Is it by any chance a Caribbean one from and back to Southampton?
I am interested because we had to cancel a good deal offer lst year because of travel insurance difficulties which have since been resolved and will now allow us to book one without the imposition of a high premium for 'existing medical conditions.'

Regards and best wishes
Gordon

What fantastic insights into so many places, I'll give a brief outline of Pershore, in south Worcestershire where I grew up, and Harrogate in North Yorkshire where I live now.

Pershore in those days, the 1960s, was a small market town bounded by the Avon and had a population of around 6,000 who were all related to each other.

All the town's social life went on in Pershore Abbey where I was married 30 years ago today and which has a long association with my family, my father is buried by the north door and my son was baptised there. My sister and I were confirmed there and I was in the abbey girls' choir and the town's choral society and all the concerts took place in the abbey.

The Abbey was largely demolished by Henry VIII's mob but the townspeople kept a small fragment which remains and it is a building special to everyone. Stone from the abbey is now in the foundations of most of the shops and homes in the High Street.

The houses in the High St have Georgian facades but they are medieval behind that and heavy traffic hasn't done them any favours really. There is an excellent small museum which has pictures of my father and sister in it standing next to an aeroplane, the airfield closed down some years ago.

The river is close by and there is a swimming pool paid for by the townspeople. A very historic packhorse bridge was partly demolished in the battle of Worcester.

Most children, including me, earned pocket money by plum, apple and pea picking and the Pershore Egg plum is good for bottling and canning. There is now a new plum called the Pershore Emblem which I think was found in Tiddesley Wood a few years ago.

When someone asks where you are from you have to reply: "Pershore, God help us". I think that is in one of the abbey windows. The abbey also has a very unusual Gilbert Scott cats cradle ringing chamber. My sister wanted to be a bell ringer but the then vicar told her she wasn't reliable enough.

Harrogate is more modern, being founded thanks to the number of wells which dispensed pungent water to the well off and foreign royalty.

It has open spaces called The Stray which are currently covered in crocuses. There is the lovely Valley Gardens where Elgar used to walk which is full of roses and other nice things in the summer. It has a boating pool where people take things like aircraft carriers and yachts for regattas on Sundays in the summer.

About half a mile from my house I am out in open countryside and you can head north to Ripon or west to Skipton and the Dales.

Best of all is Bettys tearooms in two locations in the town, I am at the one at Harlow Carr once a week. Harlow Carr is a botanical garden owned by the RHS and is well worth a visit. I have been angling for a long time to get a trip around Bettys factory at Starbeck because I have eaten my way through the menu and it is also the home of Yorkshire Tea, my favourite drink, well, apart from the hard stuff, obviously.

We also have a conference centre which was supposed to cost £1m to build but ended up costing about £30m. I think we might still be paying for it. There are good concerts on there, Halle orchestra etc.

Harrogate is very nice to live in, good schools, York just 18 miles away and Leeds where I work just 17 miles away.

Liz

I've lived in too many places to write about, but the ones I still think of as "home", are Wakefield, Whitby and Wasdale.
Wasdale, Cumbria was voted as "Britain's Finest View" by a TV programme, which brought an amazing amount of visitors to the narrow road up the valley. My church, St Michael's, Nether Wasdale, dates from the C14th, and was an outlying chapel from the Priory at St.Bees- all these places were badly damaged by Scottish raiders. 2 years ago, my church was damaged even more severely, when a vast oak tree fell on it, breaking the spine of the roof. Although covered by insurance, an amount of age-damage was discovered in the ceilings and walls, and the tiny community had to find £22,000- from a community of 27 scattered farms and cottages. We did it, although we still have to fund minor repairs. We collect sea glass from the beach each day to sell on the internet, and OH and I both go round speaking for a small fee.
Visitors are the life-blood, along with the hardy Herdwick sheep, but I know the secret places, where the wild daffodils are in abundance, where to see a badger, and the deep pool for the salmon.
Jo.

QUOTE:

Lizzie my father lived in Lymington for a while before buying in Barton Upon Sea. He moved down when they put a Scapa Tapes in the new forest.

Didn't it once hold the record for the dearest ex-council houses ever to come to market?

I just remember it having a very nice harbour (which I think is where the houses were located ) and a book shop ~ Otakers? which contained a Terry Pratchett book I didn't have.

Hi Shelley,

Does your Father still live in Barton-On-Sea? I was born there! Moved around the New Forest before settling here!

Prices in Lymington are pretty high! But I think those in London, that were sold off would have been much higher!

Mind you, Christchurch in Dorset, where I have also lived, holds the record for the most expensive Beach Huts in the UK at Mudeford!!

Ottakers is now Waterstones, have to admit never go into a Bookshop now, do all my browsing and buying on Amazon!

Regards, Lizzie

QUOTE:

Hi Shelley,

Does your Father still live in Barton-On-Sea? I was born there! Moved around the New Forest before settling here!

Regards, Lizzie

No, he moved back up here, then moved upto Crail in eastern Scotland but my stepmother couldn't live with the boredom and lack of mobile signal so now they're up the road in Greenfield.
Instead of the sea view they had in Barton & Crail they've got a view of the village cricket pitch!