Philosopher and Battleaxe have now been on our trip for a week… After an initial night in Birmingham, we went to Pugin’s amazingly ornate St Giles Church in Cheadle, then spent our first night in Southport, before going on to the Art Deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe. Then to Falkirk, for the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies, and we are now in Berwick on Tweed, via an unfortunate happening in Dunbar… What has it been like? Some wonderful sights and amazing moments, but also some hiccups on the way. Here are the Kelpies, one of the highlights so far:
Spent the first night with friends in Brum, and set off for Cheadle the next morning. The Staffordshire countryside is wonderfully lush and scenic – the first Mr Battleaxe’s parents used to live near Market Drayton and we often used to stay there, but somehow I didn’t appreciate it back then… Anyway, Cheadle is a nice little town that now seems miles from anywhere but had a much busier past as a staging stop for coaches between Manchester and Birmingham. The church is amazing, designed and decorated by Pugin in the 1840s. It is generally regarded as his masterpiece. Hint to any visitors – don’t neglect to put the lights on. Every inch is decorated… here are a couple of photos.
After that, we drove on up to Southport. Easy drive, except at one point on the M6 there was a torrential downpour. The carriageway was actually flooded which was quite scary.
Philosopher had wanted to go to Southport to admire the faded Victorian grandeur. There was certainly plenty of that. Poor Southport, it is sad. The most famous street is Lord Street, with its arcaded shops. The arcades are still there, but the shops were either vape shops, pound shops, junky clothes shops – or empty. Far too many of the residents were… how can I say – disadvantaged. But there were patches of hope – like the Atkinson Arts Centre in the centre of town. We stayed in a disappointing Premier Inn, built in a new ‘leisure’ complex on the site of the old Victorian pleasure gardens between the town and the sea. The room was impossibly hot, with no air conditioning, and because we were tired we ate in the attached Brewers Fayre – the food was really vile.
We didn’t see the actual sea once – you can see above the expanse of reedy grass, then sand… and there is the Blackpool Tower across the flat emptiness.
Next day we headed up to Morecambe – motorways were very busy, and checked into the iconic Art Deco Midland Hotel, right on the edge of the sea/sands. You can read about the hotel by following the link above. Here are a couple of deco-esque photos:
The wide horizon view from the hotel across the sands to the Lake District and the Peaks/Dales is just astonishing, and the light and shadows are constantly changing. We had splashed out on a sea-view room with a balcony. It was huge…
… but with a bathroom that Philosopher described as ‘a triumph of style over substance’. It was dark, with no light over the mirror, a shower with incomprehensible controls that leaked all over the floor, a loo that sort of disappeared into a wall panel…
We ate in the hotel – enormous portions.
But the views – fantastic… there was a stone jetty just by the hotel with bird sculptures etc…
We walked on the sands…
before we set off for Falkirk. We liked Morecambe – vowed to return when the fabulous-looking old Winter Gardens are open for an event. The drive up to Falkirk should have been easy but it took hours – one of the motorways was closed and we were sent on an endless and congested diversion through the Scottish countryside…
We were totally shredded by the time we arrived at our Premier Inn. Had been worried about it because had read some terrible reviews… tired, dirty, no catering etc. But although it was probably due for refurbishment it was fine… an old mill-type building, ideally situated on the canal between the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies. The Wheel was first – had been wanting to visit for years… and we had even booked a boat trip to go on it. Here ‘s Philosopher photographing it… and how it looks half way into its business of lifting and lowering boats from one canal to another. It is incredibly impressive and well worth visiting.
I took several videos but the Wheel moves so slowly they are not interesting. We learned quite a lot about how it works… I didn’t know enough about physics to understand the rules about displacement of water, but operating the thing, even with the huge weights involved, only takes the same amount of electricity as boiling six kettles…
The boat trip took us up to the top canal, then we chugged along the viaduct and through a tunnel, turned round and went back again, ending down where we started. It was excellent.
In the afternoon we went to the Kelpies. Philosopher said he’d always somehow thought he’d never get to see them in real life… but there they were, and my goodness they are massive, and stunningly beautiful. Once again, you can read about them via the link above. We went back again later to see them illuminated in the dark – chilly but fantastic.
We ate a meal in a very strange 70s-retro restaurant called the Copper Top. The food was fantastic!
Even though we are now in Berwick, I will end this post in Dunbar, where we stopped for lunch on our drive from Falkirk. More very heavy traffic – there is a daunting tangle of motorways south of Edinburgh. Dunbar is a pretty little place, off the tourist trail, with a lovely old harbour, and we found a great pub for lunch, but Philosopher left his phone on the top of the car when we drove off…
