Your original home town.

[Jenkins]

Still in my original hometown so it can't be that bad.

Snap - almost. I'm in what was the first village inland from Felixstowe, but thanks to the expansion of the docks and being a feeder area for Ipswich all the spaces have been filled in (the last big open area/field has just had building started) so it's almost become one complete town up to the A14 junction to the west of Trimlet St. Martin. There's still the main part of town and not much has changed along the seafront, but the docks and associated industries have build on any spare part of land that they could get their hands on.

The only thing that provides a distinct dividing line between Felixstowe/Walton and the Trimleys is the A14 dock spur road which was built during the years that I was at the villiage primary school.

 

[OldShep]

It is small for a county town, having little more than 50,000 people... plus a good fifteen thousand students to give the locals fifteen thousand things to constantly moan about. As for selling a city to someone... i can't. It has my friends and my mother here and I guess that's all that's kept me. I think I like the area more than the city (it's small so there's little on offer).

The seaside is that way⬅️, the Lakes are just up there↖️, the Dales are over that way↗️, Bowland is literally over that hill➡️ Pendle and the Pennines are down yonder↘️ and the pancake flat Fylde is just down there↙️ so for cycling, it's a flat or as hilly as i want and I'm out in open countryside in minutes. I wouldn't want to live anywhere bigger than the little city.

Monty has covered everything I would have said I’d also add. It has excellent connections by rail and getting your bike on a Northern train.
Not only do they constantly blame everything on students ( constant running joke on Lancaster past and present). There is also the bus lane over Skerton bridge which is to blame for every bit of congestion.

 

[Noodle Legs]

Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

Born and bred in “Robin Hood country” but left in 2007 due to my first marriage breaking down and starting over again. I go back to pick up my kids and to pop in to see my folks, but that’s about it.
Everytime I go back there or its surrounding villages it’s like going back 40 or 50 years in time- I’ve never known such narrow minded, backward thinking communities as round there. A complete hatred/suspicion of anyone who wasn’t a miner and kept to themselves and deep resentment for those who do alright for themselves or god forbid “had a bit of money.” Because they had a nice car or lived up “t’posh end” which meant not in one of the pit houses. Primary school stuff really and it still goes on to this day!
Everyone was two faced- slagging each other off but nice to their faces. Some people to this day don’t speak to or still fight each other because of the miners strikes that happened nearly 40 years ago. The ins and outs of that I’m not really old enough to remember, nor understand completely but what I do know is that the pits are all closed and it’s time to move on. Sadly people round here haven’t.
I could go back to my village (Clipstone) tomorrow and see the same old people, doing the exact same things at the exact same time in the same order. It’s like being in Gilead.

Glad I got out.

 

[yello]

There is also the bus lane over Skerton bridge which is to blame for every bit of congestion.

Yep, like I mentioned up thread, some will see something and it kops the blame for everything. As if nowhere else has issues with congestion, primarily caused by the number of vehicles on the road. So a bus lane is provided to get people to work etc and discourage car use (i.e. reduce congestion) yet gets seen as the reason for something that was already evident.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I returned after a gap of 30 years or so. It was a bit tatty and a lot smaller than I remembered it. Not very interesting. There was an event there that I was attending. I wouldn't go out if my way to go there again unless I had a particular reason..

 

[Sterlo]

I was born In Hull but more by accident than design - Ma and Pa Bollo are both proud Mancunians but Pa B was serving at a base on the east coast when I popped out. Family legend has it that there was snow on the Pennines so my mum had to give birth in “Yerksher”, much to my dad‘s distress. My family nickname has forever been “the Tyke”.

We were posted away when I was only three so I’ve no connection to the place and haven’t been back - the closest I’ve managed is a weekend away at a hotel on the south side of the Humber near the bridge.

You're not missing much. Lived in Hull for 50+ years, moved to a village outside Hull a few years back, looking to move to North Yorkshire and can't wait to get away.

 

[Electric_Andy]

My home town of Buckfastleigh, population 3500 was ok (it was 2 miles from my house), I went to primary school there and used the barbers etc. When I was of age, I sometimes went into one of the 7 pubs. There are now only 3 left. The post office, bank, butchers, green grocers and other corner shop have now gone. Everyone uses the Co-op. I knew a lot of people becasue I worked in the co-op from age 16-21. I very rarely go back there now, and when I do I hardly recognise anyone under the age of 50.

Of my primary school year group (approx 60) I don't know of anyone who still lives there. Maybe 2 or 3. The pasty factory closed down, as did the tanyard, so a lot of local employers were no more.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Grew up in a coastal village in Cornwall, go back every year to see family. The only significant thing is the local post office has closed and some of the houses nearer the coast have been demolished and larger posher houses have replaced them. Most are holiday homes which cost a fortune ( the old chalet house next to my mothers was bought for 650K at auction, they are waiting for planning permission to demolish it and put up something far grander ) . This of course pisses of the locals who have no chance of affording one. Its a similair story throughout Cornwall.

 

[byegad]

I grew up on the Isle of Wight. Nothing ever changes there…

Just you wait until it gets into the 20th century!

 

[GetFatty]

Nelson of course had an incredible number of cotton mills for a place of such a size and the cotton business was declining 100 years ago.

oh - which are the pubs?

The Shooters Arms and the Pendle Inn

 

[MontyVeda]

... There is also the bus lane over Skerton bridge which is to blame for every bit of congestion.

Greyhound bridge ...but that was typical of the mindset; outrage when it was announced the bridge would be closed for repairs, even more outrage when it was due to be reopened.

 

[Blue Hills]

The Shooters Arms and the Pendle Inn

Pendle Inn in Barley?
If so, yes, great pub and nice outside space with a bike - far preferable to the pub opposite which went somewhat poncified, though the company that owned it for a while recently went bust I think.

 

[ColinJ]

Pendle Inn in Barley?
If so, yes, great pub and nice outside space with a bike - far preferable to the pub opposite which went somewhat poncified, though the company that owned it for a while recently went bust I think.

By a strange coincidence... I was doing a crossword yesterday and wanted to check the history of the Quakers. A quick search revealed THIS article on the Guardian website. I didn't know that George Fox was inspired to dream up the Quakers on a walk up Pendle Hill!

"It’s all almost as exhilarating as walking into a fresh gale, as I did at the end of that first short hike. Even the peewits at the bottom of the hill seemed stunned by the sudden gusts. Down in Barley, the village closest to Pendle, returning walkers were having alfresco pints and lunches at the newly reopened pubs. The umbrellas were flapping about even more wildly than the peewits."

 

[Blue Hills]

By a strange coincidence... I was doing a crossword yesterday and wanted to check the history of the Quakers. A quick search revealed THIS article on the Guardian website. I didn't know that George Fox was inspired to dream up the Quakers on a walk up Pendle Hill!

"It’s all almost as exhilarating as walking into a fresh gale, as I did at the end of that first short hike. Even the peewits at the bottom of the hill seemed stunned by the sudden gusts. Down in Barley, the village closest to Pendle, returning walkers were having alfresco pints and lunches at the newly reopened pubs. The umbrellas were flapping about even more wildly than the peewits."

yes indeed - there's actually a religious retreat of some sort in the states named after Fox's vision on Pendle.
Rural lancashire is a hotbed of religious debate and foment - everything from stubborn catholics to independent minded alternative folk. Look up the "primitives" - there's an old place of theirs in Barley.
(but my favoured stop would still be the Pendle Inn - a really nice bits of 1930s recreational architecture - and simple straightforward beer - really rather annoys me when the bus through there namechecks the Barley Mow rather than Pendle Inn)
Lancashire folk are of course the source of most insights into the human condition.

 

[Moon bunny]

I went to my old home town a while back. I hardly recognised it, not so much as a broken window to be seen.