Mefite in Lancashire, UK has a few questions...

October 23, 2006 3:36 AM

Mefite in Lancashire, UK has a few questions...

Hey Gang! Me and my girlfriend are travelling around the UK and Europe for the next few months, and we're based out of Accrington, where we're staying by ourselves in a family home. We're almost spoiled for choice as far as where we can go and what we can do, so I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations. We're into everything, really: art, castles, theatre, restaurants, churches, city tours, shopping, kid's & family stuff and whatever else.

Can you recommend some places to go or see in Lancashire specifically, and how long we should plan to spend there, or explain why we shouldn't bother with something?

Can you do the same for any other counties in the UK?

Can you recommend any good websites to visit for travel tips?

I've done lots of research myself - I'm not just being lazy asking here, but I'd enjoy some personal annecdotes and recommendations that might help me decide where to start in this lovely area.

Thanks in advance!

posted by chudmonkey to travel & transportation (12 comments total)

Can you recommend any good websites to visit for travel tips?

I recommend getting a good guidebook instead. You might get a Rough Guide, pick some of their recommended top sights to see, and pick other things on the way.

I'm fond of Cambridge obviously. If you come we should have a MeFi meetup.
posted by grouse at 3:47 AM on October 23, 2006

Liverpool - you've gotta do it. The architecture is worth a wander round - make sure you see the Liver birds and the catholic cathedral ("Paddy's wigwam"). And you must must must go and see another place by Gormley before it closes. That website says its a quid to get in but that is a lie. It's on the beach. It's free. It's just north of Liverpool. Whilst you're in Liverpool go to see the Williamson Tunnels (link to mefi post) because they're surreal, and have a pint in the Philharmonic pub (link to BBC site panorama) about 10 minutes walk from the tunnels. Then down the hill to chinatown for tea. Or something. Anyway you must see the Gormley sculptures.

If you've got access to a car, the Yorkshire Sculpture park isn't too far away and is a magnificent day out (YSP website).

Hebden Bridge is quite a lovely quaint town which has a reputation for being overrun by hippies - it's good for strolling around and there's some excellent hill walking and cool hippy type shops. It's just on the Yorkshire side of the Yorks/Lancs borders.

I'm in Leeds, which is probably about 1.5hrs on the train from you - good theatres (Yorkshire Playhouse, Grand), good shopping, good nightlife, and some great industrial museums (Thwaites Mill, Armley mills, the Thackeray medical museum) and churches (St. John's, Leeds Parish Church). Not to mention some wonderful curry houses and other restaurants.
posted by handee at 4:23 AM on October 23, 2006

At least half a dozen great castles in North Wales: Harlech, for example. Anglesey is close by with good Neolithic monuments. Wales is really great, especially north Wales. There are some very cool historical museums of the slate industry there. I really enjoyed the Llanberis hydroelectric tour -- a hollow mountain, in effect. The UK is really good for industrial history and tours of old factories and whatnot - e.g., Ironbridge Industrial Museum in Shropshire. Also in north Wales, the town where they make Portmeirion pottery is a bizarre italianate village set down in the grey country -- it's where The Prisoner was filmed. It makes a good surreal outing and the pottery is quite nice too.

North Wales is not a million miles from Lancashire. Do you have a car?

The National Museum of Film etc. in Bradford is also quite close to you. The atheist in me loves the ruined abbeys even more than the cathedrals in the north of England such as York Minster.

Anyway, you could spend a lifetime exploring around those parts. Have fun!
posted by Rumple at 4:29 AM on October 23, 2006

Also you can get to some great countryside if you've access to a car - the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District are both within fairly easy reach. The Settle-Carlisle railway is a cool way to see some of the sites.

The Keighley & Worth Valley steam train is a good weekend outing especially if there are kids involved (although the real ale on the train makes it worthwhile for parents too!). It goes through the station where "the railway children" was filmed, and Haworth if you want to do the Bronte tourist thing.
posted by handee at 4:33 AM on October 23, 2006

Chester

York Minster
posted by DelusionsofGrandeur at 4:54 AM on October 23, 2006

I have to second the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford and a climb to the top of York Minster is worth the extra £7 as long as it isn't pissin' it down with rain.
If you're heading south, the Cotswold's are worth a visit but perhaps a let down if you've already done the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District.
posted by medium format at 5:41 AM on October 23, 2006

Haworth is just over the border in W Yorks. Tourist-tastic in the summer, but if you can avoid the throngs and the Emily Bronte tea shoppes, the moors are beautiful and bleak.

Oh, and go to an Accrington Stanley match. ('Who are they?' 'Exactly!') They returned to the Football League after many decades of non-league play, and there's something special about watching in a tiny stadium, stripped of the glitz of the Premier League stars.
posted by holgate at 6:04 AM on October 23, 2006

If you go to Bradford to see the National Museum of Film Photography and Television, be sure to go across the road for a curry. Omar Khan's (pretty much opposite) is near the top end of the Bradford curry range, and the Kashmir (just up the road) is a more "traditional" bradford curry-house with plastic dishes, formica tables and no alcohol license (so take your own if you want it). Omar Khan's and the Kashmir from the Bradford curry guide.
posted by handee at 6:37 AM on October 23, 2006

I second Chester. If - as I presume - you are American, you can't help but be fascinated by the sheer age of the place - from Roman Amphitheatre to Medieval walls to Tudor buildings. Handel's Messiah was first performed there (or at least the dress rehearsal for the eventual first performance in Dublin was, depending on who you believe).

I was going to say go and see a football match too - in Lancashire and the North West in general you can't really miss one of the great, historic (or both) teams. Accrington Stanley, as suggested, would be a great day out, but also try and see a top-level game.

Take the ferry from Livepool to Dublin for a weekend and do some touristy things there too.
posted by Sk4n at 1:57 PM on October 24, 2006

Not sure if it's your bag, since you mention family and shopping-type activities, but I've always wanted to check out the Scottish wilderness. Might be pretty cold and wet this time of year.
posted by ajp at 5:26 AM on October 25, 2006

For the curious, I'm Canadian. So yes, I am knocked out by the age of everything here. What an awesome place.
posted by chudmonkey at 6:05 AM on October 25, 2006

Reminds me of a walk in the Yorkshire dales with a visiting canadian post-doc: he says "Why are all these wall just stone? Why don't you guys use cement or mortar, eh?" He wouldn't believe it when we told him that some of these walls were 16th century... (drystone wall history).
posted by handee at 6:15 AM on October 25, 2006