April 11 Chorlton Wanderings and a Shopping experience
It’s sunny today, still cool but a little warmer at least. We had to get up about 9:30 because of the plumber. A bit of a crisis too, as we discovered the back garden had had vandals in overnight at some point. The laundry was scattered around the place, a couple of the wires to the marquee were cut, and a garden hose has gone missing. Annie borrowed a car on which she shares the insurance and we drove to the Bowling Green, a pub near the Chorlton Green. Chorlton is a lovely village, parts of which are quite trendy. There’s a park and quite an old village green and nearby, next to the Bowling Green is the remains of an old churchyard where the foundations of St. Clement’s church and some old graves marked by both headstones or flat paving stones can be seen. The entrance to the churchyard is a lychgate. The old green has several lovely old houses and some old pubs surrounding it. There are old photos and information about the area here and here, including some of the lychgate and the church.
The pub is beside a little bowling green, hence the name and we had a nice lunch in there. The gang used to go to pub quizzes there but now I think they attend the one at the Southern, close to where John and Nikki live. Back to the house to get my luggage and over to the Bed and Breakfast, the Woodstock on Wilbraham Road which is run by Mike and Linda, a lovely couple. It’s a very relaxed establishment and breakfast is a serve yourself cold breakfast in a small dining room. The lounge is a bit bizarre though, decorated in early hunting lodge. It’s full of heads and carcasses of stuffed animals and birds, some of which were looking decidedly scruffy. The stag head seemed to have a bit of silver duct tape on his ear and a bit of fur missing on his jowl lol! Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to take a photo! You’re probably glad aren’t you?! :)
Annie and I arrived at the very moment Jane was getting out of her taxi from the train station so very good timing there. Our room is a family room, with a double and two singles and an en suite bathroom and we are still only paying £20 per person. Jane stayed there before and they were very pleased to see her again. We had a cup of tea in the lounge to get properly acquainted, as we had only ever chatted on the computer in the past. We decided to take the bus to the Trafford Center, a large and fairly new mall in Trafford.
This is the most amazing shopping mall I’ve ever seen. It was built about 5 years ago, has two “wings”, a market type area of merchandise in stall formats, and a wing that is set up for food and entertainment called the Orient that contains a bowling alley, a movie complex, fast food and restaurants over two floors, decorated in various styles. Sections that look like New Orleans, Chinatown, Aztec Mexico, Ancient Egypt and New York. There are restaurants of many different ethnic choices as well as fast food joints like KFC and McDonald’s. Outside of the restaurants, on the ground floor, the seating area sort of looks like a cruise ship décor. Theexterior of the building has Greek columns statues scattered along the roof area, and a huge glass dome. Inside there is marble, statues, a fountain containing statues of swordfish and frescos and paintings that line the domes. There is also a small pool inside near the food court and an outdoor ice rink for skating. You can get there by the tram but the bus was more convenient for us in Chorlton rather than going all the way in to Central Manchester and back out again.
I left 6 films in Boots to get developed and we set out exploring the center and shops. We had a hard time deciding what sort of food we wanted to try and wandered the Orient looking at menus but in the end Jane really fancied fish and chips and a pint so we went to the English pub and had a fine feed. The last bus to Chorlton left at 8 so we decided against a movie and came back to the B&B. We had a drink of Columba cream to celebrate our finally meeting in person. Jane declared it the most amazing nectar she had ever tried so we were in full agreement there. The photos turned out great, too, especially the ones of Iona and the blue, blue sea.
It seems like intermittently sunny today, could go either way. We had toast and tea and a lovely chat with our hostess, Linda this morning. She sounds very much like the actress that plays Eileen on Corrie, has a similar build and looks as well though she’s a little older.
April 12 Wandering around Manchester
We walked up to Barlow Moor Road, one of the main thoroughfares of Chorlton, and caught the bus into St. Peter’s Square. I got hold of Margaret who, with her husband, has come up for the weekend from London to see us and we’re meeting them later for lunch. I picked up some Corrie souvenirs in the tourist info booth in St. Peter’s Square for the ping in Halifax and we walked into Chinatown to see the arch. We continued over to the Rochdale Canal by Gay Village. This canal was finished in 1806 and is part of a series of canals that link the east and west coasts of England!
There is a park here, Sackville Park, with a statue of a man named Alan Turing. Turns out he is the acknowledged father of computing science. In 1936, at King’s College, he wrote a paper on “computablenumbers” and devised the theory for the universal computing machine. He was a great thinker and mathematician and during WW2 he created the Bombe machine that broke the German Enigma code. He was also gay and let it slip to a detective who was investigating a burglary. Homosexuality was illegal in the UK until only about 30 years ago and he was subsequently prosecuted as a “security risk” and made to have hormone injections to “cure his perversion”. He was prevented from continuing his work and was found dead in 1954 after biting into an apple laced with cyanide. Suicide? Seems so, and a tragedy.
His statue sits on a bench in Sackville Park by the canal in the area now known as Gay Village. There is also an AIDS memorial, a tall pole with hearts cut out which, when lit up at night, beam out into the darkness. It’s called the Beacon of Hope.
We walked back to Piccadilly Gardens and stopped for a coffee before meeting Margaret and Wayne in Exchange Square behind the new Marks and Spencer and the Selfridges stores. On the square in the old Corn Exchange building are designer shops and also in the square is one of the oldest pubs in Manchester, the Old Wellington and the Sinclair Oyster Bar. We circled around the buildings pas the PrintWorks entertainment center (arcades, pubs, IMAX theatre) which is across the street from a brand new building called Urbis. It’s a triangular glass structure, 6 storeys at one end, that houses a museum about city and urban life, not just in Manchester but other large cities around the world. We didn’t have time to go in and we weren’t keen to pay the £5 entrance fee either.
Margaret and Wayne were a bit late arriving due to a miscommunication about *which* M&S store we were meant to meet behind. I should have told them Exchange Square but I didn’t realize there was another M&S handy the center! We had a lovely long lunch at the Mitre Café in the building that is the Mitre Hotel which backs onto the Manchester Cathedral gates. We went our own ways after lunch, and will see them later at John and Nikki’s party. Jane and I shopped a bit on the way back to the bus and got some drink at the off license to take to the party.
After a rest we put on our party faces and off out again. John and Nikki have a really nice house, just built last year. It has three levels, with a huge dining room on the main floor and a modern kitchen with beautiful fitted cabinets and a stainless steel fridge. The first floor has a large lounge/living room and a bedroom they’ve set up as an office and the other bedrooms are on the top floor. Phil came over from Liverpool, so great to see him again as well! The party was relaxing and the food was great! They had huge baked jacket potatoes with John’s chili and other toppings for them, lots of pate and sweets as well and the fridge was wall to wall beer! Alan drove us home about 2:30.
To Cardiff
Photos here
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