PalenQ

Last night on Coronation Street Hailey, recently diagnosed with deadly pancreatic cancer and facing a 4-week delay in potentially life-saving surgery from the beleaguered NHS was convinced by Mary - Buddinski Mary to take some time off working two jobs and go on holiday in Mary's huge RV - Mary suggest a counter-clockwise tour of British cathedrals - when someone suggested that a 'Clockwise visit to Britain's cathedrals was daft, Mary not understanding that the whole idea of a relaxing holiday was to visit one cathedral after another, said 'no it was really daft to do them clockwise and that only counter-clockwise was the way to do it>

No what possible difference could visiting Britains feww dozens of so cathedrals clockwise or counter-clockwise make as it seems to be so vital to Mary who insists only a counter-clockwise visit would be the sane way to do it.

Remember they are starting from Manchester in the English Midlands.

Anhy insights?

hetismij2

I think Mancunians would be very upset to be told they are in the midlands.
Otherwise I have no idea what you are on about.

PalenQ

Oops - Northern England?

Morgana

North West.
Mary is, of course, completely barking.

flanneruk

Like 90% of the British population, I never watch Coronation Street, so I've no idea what you're talking about (except that a 4-week wait is a huge improvement on average waiting times for most of the past 64 years)

But a clockwise tour means starting off getting progressively colder and moving into progressively wilder territory. An anti-clockwise tour (as the scriptwriters must have written, unless they've started speaking an obscure foreign language) means starting off getting closer and closer to the warmer bits of England's coast (Truro), via the cuddly stuff in Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford.

Anti-clockwise also means a far denser immediate concentration of proper medieval stuff. A clockwise tour (assuming it's restricted to cathedrals in the Anglican communion) means you've got to get to Carlisle before hitting a real medieval cathedral (Manchester Cathedral was just a parish church till 1840, and Liverpool was only finished in 1978), then it's a ton of dull Scottish places till you get to Durham and York, yonks later.

annhig

Barmy.

I knew that there was a good reason not to watch Corrie.

flanner - forgive me, but if you treat Manchester as 12 o'clock, isn't Liverpool the first place you get to, going anticlockwise? and if you go clockwise, don't you hit Lincoln first? Then Norwich, Ely, Cambridge, Canterbury, Winchester, Chichester, Exeter, Truro, Wells, Bath, Bristol and Gloucester.

not a bad selection.

annhig

oops - worcester and Hereford too.

but Truro doesn't really count - it's only 125 years old. this year, in actual fact.

PalenQ

Like 90% of the British population, I never watch Coronation Street>

gthen why ha sit been, I understand, the most popular or one of the very top popular tellie shows since just about when it came on air about half a century ago - when flanner was still in that Catholic school in Liverpuddle.

Anyways flanner sincerely thanks for as usual erudite spellbindingly well written answer - makes sense - you and Mary are on the same page!

anicecupoftea

I will stand up and declare myself a Corrie addict. It's on series record on the Tivo, so I never have to miss an episode. I've watched it since I was a child, as granny was a fan. Unlike other soaps, it's full of humour and wit, courtesy of characters like Mary and Norris.

ira

Hey PQ,

Since one drives on the left side of the street in the UK, one would naturally drive clockwise, wouldn't one?

tarquin

So would you get to Southwell and Lincoln before or after York? I would look at life expectancy for pancreatic cancer before deciding.

PalenQ

I would look at life expectancy for pancreatic cancer before deciding.>

well maybe praying in each cathedral could extend the 'dead' line (no pun intended!)

PatrickLondon

>>Anti-clockwise also means a far denser immediate concentration of proper medieval stuff. <<

Especially if you're aiming for Mornington Crescent.

(Really, PQ, haven't you got it yet? Hayley, nice as she is, is clearly only at home among mildly off-kilter people whose obsessive interests are played for comic effect. Corrie dropped any pretensions to social realism decades ago).

Heimdall

There are so many good documentaries and current affairs programs on British television, I never have time for the soaps. In my 40+ years of living in the UK, I've never once watched Coronation Street. I did watch a few episodes of East Enders when a friend of my daughter's was in the cast, but couldn't stand the shouting, so have never watched again. ;-)

P.S. A good recent addition to satellite television: PBS America.