A working town in South Cheshire, Crewe was just a hamlet until the railway came through in the mid-19th century. The Grand Junction Railway chose this spot for its locomotive works in the 1830s, and a town soon cropped up at this crucial junction in England’s transport network. The Crewe Heritage Centre is set where …
Once a small village in the Windsor Forest, Bracknell answered England’s need for extra housing after the Second World War and was developed as a “New Town”. After a few decades of wear and tear the town centre has been reborn as “The Lexicon”. This entailed a massive regeneration scheme, building upmarket shops and eateries …
Always a textile town, Blackburn became the “weaving capital of the world” during the Industrial Revolution when the Leeds and Liverpool Canal unloaded a constant stream of raw cotton. Textile manufacturing went into sharp decline after the Second World War, but you don’t have to look hard to find examples of the wealth it created. …
With a granite-built townscape that exudes respectability, Bodmin owes its appearance to Cornwall’s tin-mining boom in the 19th century. This was also Cornwall’s county town until the late-19th century, and buildings like the Shire Hall and the ominous silhouette of Bodmin Jail point to that former status. Bodmin Moor is a haunting landscape of granite …
In Medieval times this Cambridgeshire town was on the Isle of Ely, a patch of high ground amid miles of watery fenland. Slowly the impassable landscape was conquered using ditches and pumps that were powered by wind and then diesel engines. The name Ely comes from eels, and for hundreds of years this creature was …
The seat of the second-oldest diocese in England, Rochester is at an ancient crossing on the River Medway, fortified by a sturdy Medieval castle that has survived in amazing condition. Rochester cathedral blends Romanesque and Gothic architecture, with a west front that dates back almost 900 years. Charles Dickens, who lived nearby in Higham, was …
If you have to choose one borough that epitomises the real London in the 21st century, Hackney may be as close as it gets. Vibrant and culturally diverse, Hackney in London’s old East End is scattered with social housing, so still has a working class spirit and a bit of an edge. But since the …
The neat and well-to-do town of Lewes is embedded in a gap in the South Down in East Sussex. Lewes’ Medieval streets are set off beautifully by the neighbouring green hillsides, and poking around the town you’ll come by independent galleries, artist studios and lots of shops you won’t find anywhere else. For a town …
On the western moors of the Peak District, Macclesfield is a market town that became the world’s largest producer of finished silk in the 19th century. In 1832 there were 71 silk mills in Macclesfield, and one has been preserved along with its jacquard looms as part of the Silk Museum. Macclesfield has a pretty …
On Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck, Swanage is a seaside town that will have people of all ages under its spell. Here you’re at the eastern gateway to the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Dorset and Devon coasts, inspiring wonder for its limestone formations and fossils. You can venture off to stunning …