Looking for a small village on a train line.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 06:55 AM
#21
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Thanks for all of the suggestions. To clarify, after my first two nights I will be off for a night or two for about 11 days. Not to visit castles or manors, just smallish places with perhaps a military or rail museum worth spending an hour or two.
Yes to a rail pass. Usually I validate it at Heathrow and once in London jump on the next train to where ever. Often, I do a shorter train trip the second day to see something of interest.
It looks like I could spend a couple of days in Chester, too large, but central to a day trip to Liverpool to visit the docks and Manchester for a visit to the IWM North.
Up to Aberdeen and then train/bus to Ullapool. Very possible that I will make my way South of London nd then to London for a night.
Yes to a rail pass. Usually I validate it at Heathrow and once in London jump on the next train to where ever. Often, I do a shorter train trip the second day to see something of interest.
It looks like I could spend a couple of days in Chester, too large, but central to a day trip to Liverpool to visit the docks and Manchester for a visit to the IWM North.
Up to Aberdeen and then train/bus to Ullapool. Very possible that I will make my way South of London nd then to London for a night.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 07:09 AM
#22
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chester is also a great base from which to hop into North Wales - Mount Snowdon Railway - ever taken it - steam train goes up a barren pile to the highest summit in England i guess (or south England?) or to Llandudnot and the Great Orme - here a vintage tram takes you up to the top of the famous sheep- and goat-ful Great Orme, for vistas miles around. Can stop at Conwy, a really authentic village and one of the nicest ones in the U.K. i've seen - the ultimate walled medieval-looking town with its own great castle - the station is right inside the walls.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 07:56 AM
#25
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hetismij - I suppose I should have written "Wantage Road", rather than "Wantage". Not quite as bad as those who write "Liverpool" when they mean "Liverpool Street".
All the intermediate stations between Didcot and Swindon were closed in 1964 - within living memory for some of us.
All the intermediate stations between Didcot and Swindon were closed in 1964 - within living memory for some of us.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 08:26 AM
#26
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rogeruktm,
You haven't given us a full itinerary yet, but I guess it's still early planning. By any chance will you be going through Rannoch Moor? I recommended The Rannoch Moor Hotel for your last trip, but I believe they were closed when you planned to be there. Any chance of a stop this trip? It is a special place IMO. There are also some small villages on the train route from Inverness to Thurso (and through out the Highlands) that might appeal.
You haven't given us a full itinerary yet, but I guess it's still early planning. By any chance will you be going through Rannoch Moor? I recommended The Rannoch Moor Hotel for your last trip, but I believe they were closed when you planned to be there. Any chance of a stop this trip? It is a special place IMO. There are also some small villages on the train route from Inverness to Thurso (and through out the Highlands) that might appeal.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 09:06 AM
#27
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"It looks like I could spend a couple of days in Chester"
In which case see whether Ledbury fits your timetable for your recovery base. You'll then be able to get the train onwards, changing at Hereford and Shrewsbury, up The Marches.
" a day trip to Liverpool to visit the docks "
Prepare yourself for a MAJOR letdown. Apart from a containerport 10 miles downstream, what were once the docks are now just one dirty great huge Victorian shopping centre, and a few mournful quays with great dumps of scrap machinery off to China. Liverpool's infinitely varied attractions don't include docks any more.
In which case see whether Ledbury fits your timetable for your recovery base. You'll then be able to get the train onwards, changing at Hereford and Shrewsbury, up The Marches.
" a day trip to Liverpool to visit the docks "
Prepare yourself for a MAJOR letdown. Apart from a containerport 10 miles downstream, what were once the docks are now just one dirty great huge Victorian shopping centre, and a few mournful quays with great dumps of scrap machinery off to China. Liverpool's infinitely varied attractions don't include docks any more.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 09:13 AM
#28
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Rogeruk, don't have anything to add to the many good suggestions above but am watching this thread as this is exactly what I enjoy doing also in winter, wandering by rail through small towns and villages.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 09:21 AM
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flanneruk - Port Sunlight (perhaps ill-named one time factory town i think but with impressive relics from its heydey?) and envrions has always been on my radar - do they count as Liverpool docks?
Nov 2nd, 2009, 10:56 AM
#32
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"Port Sunlight (perhaps ill-named one time factory town i think but with impressive relics from its heydey?)"
Is not a port. Or a dock, though Bromborough dock was built on the river to service it, and there's an inlet up to the old factory.
It's an inland Model Village, built (on the model of many of Britain's other Model Villages, from New Lanark through Welwyn Garden City to Bournville) to house company employees (in this case working for Unilever, one of whose original products was Sunlight Soap)
There are no "relics from its heyday". It does have an art gallery in the middle with the Unilever founder's (and world's best,depending on whether Andrew Lloyd Webber's buying or selling this week) collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. The gallery is surrounded by very pleasant houses which are now much sought after and a few nice village greens: it feels more like a thriving, if over-managed and over-designed, Cotswold town than a monument to dead industry.
It's also the site of Ringo's first appearance with the Beatles.
Infinitely nicer and quirkier than the dull suburbs of Cincinnati, where employees of Unilever's rival, P&G, toil with teutonic predictability. The First Flanner, BTW, married his childhood sweetheart (who was in service for a Big Soap) a mile or so down the road.
Is not a port. Or a dock, though Bromborough dock was built on the river to service it, and there's an inlet up to the old factory.
It's an inland Model Village, built (on the model of many of Britain's other Model Villages, from New Lanark through Welwyn Garden City to Bournville) to house company employees (in this case working for Unilever, one of whose original products was Sunlight Soap)
There are no "relics from its heyday". It does have an art gallery in the middle with the Unilever founder's (and world's best,depending on whether Andrew Lloyd Webber's buying or selling this week) collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. The gallery is surrounded by very pleasant houses which are now much sought after and a few nice village greens: it feels more like a thriving, if over-managed and over-designed, Cotswold town than a monument to dead industry.
It's also the site of Ringo's first appearance with the Beatles.
Infinitely nicer and quirkier than the dull suburbs of Cincinnati, where employees of Unilever's rival, P&G, toil with teutonic predictability. The First Flanner, BTW, married his childhood sweetheart (who was in service for a Big Soap) a mile or so down the road.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 11:01 AM
#33
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thanks flanner for that.
And for villages or smaller towns accessible by train i enjoyed de-training at, on the East Coast mainline to Edinburgh Berwick-on-Tweed - a fortified military bastion town with still impressive Victorian fortifications overlooking the sea. A nice enough regional town in a sweet setting - i used it as a base to take buses to the Scottish Border Abbeys. I adtually stayed at the Station Hotel, smack by the station - kind of a nicer than normal B&B.
And for villages or smaller towns accessible by train i enjoyed de-training at, on the East Coast mainline to Edinburgh Berwick-on-Tweed - a fortified military bastion town with still impressive Victorian fortifications overlooking the sea. A nice enough regional town in a sweet setting - i used it as a base to take buses to the Scottish Border Abbeys. I adtually stayed at the Station Hotel, smack by the station - kind of a nicer than normal B&B.
Nov 2nd, 2009, 02:02 PM
#34
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Stopped twice at Berwick-on-Tweed and then bus to Melrose for the night, then off to Carlisle. Can't remember where I went after that.
If any interest, my last trip report is somewhere under "reports"
If any interest, my last trip report is somewhere under "reports"
Nov 2nd, 2009, 11:49 PM
#35
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You went up the west coast to Troon and Turnberry confusing half the taxi drivers in Ayrshire, as I recall.
You ARE coming here, then? Have you got dates yet? Can we sort this so you go to Ullapool at a weekend and we can come with you?
You ARE coming here, then? Have you got dates yet? Can we sort this so you go to Ullapool at a weekend and we can come with you?
Nov 3rd, 2009, 09:49 AM
#38
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"That's what nearly every Brit here says - a waste of money!"
Completely untrue. Passes are almost certainly a waste of money if you've got specific journeys in mind (Network cards save you more within 100 miles of London, and flying's cheaper beyond Manchester) and regard trains as ways of getting round.
Not necessarily always - but since the pass retailers consistently lie about point to point prices, you have to assume they're lying because they'd lose business if they told the truth, so THEY know their product's a ripoff, even if their mouthpieces on this site delude themselves
But if you come from some backward part of the world where trains are exotic, there's presumably some value in just turning up, getting on any train and seeing what happens. Just as most of us think the London Ritz is a waste of money if you just want a clean bedroom in central London, people prepared to pay through the nose for a bit of grovelling from a few dozen flunkeys aren't necessarily wrong.
Completely untrue. Passes are almost certainly a waste of money if you've got specific journeys in mind (Network cards save you more within 100 miles of London, and flying's cheaper beyond Manchester) and regard trains as ways of getting round.
Not necessarily always - but since the pass retailers consistently lie about point to point prices, you have to assume they're lying because they'd lose business if they told the truth, so THEY know their product's a ripoff, even if their mouthpieces on this site delude themselves
But if you come from some backward part of the world where trains are exotic, there's presumably some value in just turning up, getting on any train and seeing what happens. Just as most of us think the London Ritz is a waste of money if you just want a clean bedroom in central London, people prepared to pay through the nose for a bit of grovelling from a few dozen flunkeys aren't necessarily wrong.
Nov 3rd, 2009, 10:12 AM
#39
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I saved so much money by buying my tickets to midland England from London in advance. So if you are considering a railpass, also consider the savings from buying tickets in advance. It was quite common to see a ticket purchased in advance for 10 pounds, and the same journey for 38 pounds bought on-site.
Nov 3rd, 2009, 10:49 AM
#40
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Regarding the rail pass. With the winter discount I can purchase an 8 day pass for $35 per day or around 20/23 pounds per day. I am not looking to save as the option to catch any train at any train is important to me. Sometimes I like to just take off on the whim.
