Friday, May 25, 2012

One horse town

This Hepworth craze with narrowboat holidays has led us into lots of little towns I didn’t even know existed, or towns that were just names in my head – Northwich, Middlewich, Whitchurch, Llangolllen, Tewkesbury, plus lots of other places we visited that didn’t leave a lasting impression. As well as expanding my knowledge of the UK, it’s made me appreciate that phrase “the death of the high street.” So many of the little towns we’ve seen consist of a high street with a dozen charity shops, a WHSmith, a Boots, Tesco, an electrical shop, and no little grocers, bakers or butchers. Such towns have had the hearts ripped out of them. I won’t say which was which – if you live there, you’ll know.

There was one village on the Weaver River where all the houses and gardens were beautifully kept, but where the playground looked like this –

May 2012 trent and mersey canal 161

Is it a one horse town? Is it a result of the cuts? What’s going on?

No comments: