I obviously have to comment on this one...
Rigid Raider said:
The town is pretty in a Pennine way with all kinds of fascinating old buildings, the original 1500s bridge and some spectacular steep cobbled streets with five-storey houses perched on steep hillsides.
This one is a cycle path!
Rigid Raider said:
But apart from that it seems to suffer the same kind of human blight as all the other miserable depressed provincial towns in Britain. What a weird place it is; it has this strange kind of hippy chic character, which attracts all kinds of crusties and oddballs (ColinJ excepted of course!) There seemed to be a fair number of drunks hanging around the town centre.
Wait a minute, who are you
not calling an oddball! I stand by my oddball reputation!
Yes, there are usually quite a few drunks hanging about. I've lived here for 23 years (no connection!) and I've noticed more and more of this as the years have gone by. It seems to be the same in most places these days.
Also - you can't go far without smelling the fragrance of Skunk in the air (the kind that reduces otherwise potentially intelligent teenagers to automatons, not the smelly animal!). It is quite depressing listening to gangs of stoned kids standing around on street corners trying to communicate. They often really struggle to string a few sentences together.
The other depressing thing is how few young people from the town ever venture out to explore the wonderful hilly countryside round here. I've been walking, mountain biking and road cycling here for 20 years and have only encountered young people outside the town itself on a tiny number of occasions. It particularly struck me when fellow CycleChat member
Calum started coming along on some of my rides. He's a student and was the first person under 30 years of age I'd ridden with for about 15 years! Mind you, he's not from the town so he probably doesn't count.
Rigid Raider said:
I didn't see any obvious sign of any wealth-creating activity apart from pubs, cafes, a few second-rate shops, charity shops and a supermarket. What do people do there for a living? (Those who actually work).
The town was in a major slump in the 1950s and 1960s as all the local mills closed down, so property here became very cheap. Lots of hippy/arty types moved here to get away from the rat race. That began a slow regeneration of the town. Eventually it had become the kind of place that better-off city dwellers would like to move to, so they did - in increasingly large numbers. We had the housing boom here too. Most of those people had jobs in Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Preston (wherever) so they moved here and commute to work. If you go and stand by the A646 weekday mornings or evenings you'd soon see what was going on. We have good rail links to Manchester, Leeds and Preston so a lot of people commute that way.
I think there are an increasing number of people in the town trying to earn a living online - I'm one of them. Hopefully most of them are more successful than me!
Rigid Raider said:
Blazing Saddles the bike shop was nice with some tasty "gizzits" on display and a friendly mechanic.
Yes, I'm pleased that they moved to the town a few years back. They are a friendly bunch. I bought a crank puller in there yesterday
Rigid Raider said:
My visitor was fascinated to learn that HB is thought to be the lesbian capital of Britain, he assured me that the Catholic Church would never allow lesbians in Ghana and asked loudly why would women not want to have many children.
Not '
allow lesbians' - how would that work? Perhaps Catholics in Ghana have to apply for a relationship license and lesbians are not eligible for one?
Or do the lesbians just have their windows put through until they 'see the error of their ways'?
Perhaps they have to say 100 lesbian Catholic Hail Marys...
Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.
PS - I don't fancy you, honest!
There are plenty of lesbian families here. My stepdaughter went back home with a little schoolfriend once and was introduced to her mum and mum.
Rigid Raider said:
Also, why do crusties walk so funny? They have this kind of strange long pace with a sort of bouncing motion like they live in a house with low beams.
Spot on! I walked behind one into the supermarket last night and that's just how he walked. I think it is another way of saying "I'm weird, me!"
He was in the queue ahead of me and got a major strop on. Something to do with not being served because he didn't have enough money... He was berating the poor woman behind the counter, saying "I've got you spotted! You are bang out of order. I've marked your card. It won't be forgotten!" It's the Skunk, I tell you!
Rigid Raider said:
Strange place altogether.
The thing is, once you get used to it, 'normality' seems strange!
