mirolex

We'll be travelling from US in Sept/Oct, wondering about lesser known interests betw Cambridge & Manchester/Liverpool. (Cadbury's is a must-stop; yes, I know, it's not 'lesser known', but it has chocolate!! lol ) Any ideas?

jean253

Cambridge is mainly a college town,Instead of Manchester, visit Liverpool , there are a lot of interesting places that have been refurbished, Cadbury's is at Bourneville on the outskirts of Birmingham, .(where I was born.) if you let me know your interests I could help you more.

ron

Can't imagine ever wanting to do such a drive, but if I did, I'd likely loop back to visit St Edmundsbury Cathedral and then proceed to Southwell cathedral. But, I like old cathedrals and I have yet to visit those two. Your interests may be different.

mirolex

We may have to make a side trip to Highclere since it's more/less in the general area. = ) We're heading to St Helens, Merseyside, to visit family and maybe on to Scotland. Generally we meander wherever - we'll probably pick up a Heritage Pass & check out what's on the way. We've been around Man/L'pool but only briefly and it was a while back.

mirolex

Ron, we like old cathedrals and ruins of all sorts. Driving gives us flexibilty not found otherwise; we can even get lost if we want! = D Where are these cathedrals? I'm guessing the first is not the same as Edmunds St Bury?

mirolex

oops, make that "Bury St Edmunds"! Knew it didn't sound/look right! lol

flanneruk

"We may have to make a side trip to Highclere since it's more/less in the general area"

The detour involved (never mind the time involved in seeing this pointless film location) will add at the very least six hours to the journey - which is substantially longer than the entire Cambridge-St Helens journey. The deviation is possible only by a grisly journey on some of Europe's most overcrowded and congested roads. The ONLY thing to see most the way is other people twiddling their thumbs in the same frustration you're suffering from, though if you take the really horrid cross-country journey to Oxford first, it's quite pretty once you're south of Oxford. There's absolutely no point going into Oxford after time in Cambridge.

There is no such thing as a Heritage Pass. You may buy English Heritage or National Trust membership, but they allow free entry only to sites under their control, and some Scottish sites (neither include Highclere or Cadbury World), and it's unlikely to be worthwhile for a couple of days' travelling. Neither have many really interesting properties along the Cambridge-St Helens route

The silly Cadbury World chocolate theme park (£15 a head entry) is an absurd waste of time and money if your only interest is chocolate: Cadbury's entire range is available at every single newsagent and convenience store the length and breadth of the country. The nearby Bournville model village is an interesting example of Victorian paternalism applied to workers' housing: there are a number of similar experiments elsewhere in Britain, though the only other one close to your journey is Port Sunlight: much the same as Bournville, but with a terrific art gallery.

If you want to go to Birmingham, there's a surprising amount worth seeing in the city - all built since 1800. The more conventional meander, though, would look at Ely, Stamford, and Peterborough cathedrals, then take a deep breath and go straight either to the Industrial Revolution complex round Telford/Ironbridge then on via Chester, or to the Peak District (possibly taking in, at some cost, Chatsworth House).

By defintion, nowhere in England's off the beaten track. For that, you have to get out of the car and walk along our - well 100,000 miles of beaten, but surprisingly empty, footpath.

ron

Mirolex, you've probably already done your Internet search and know the answer to your questions, but in case you haven't, St Edmunsbury cathedral is indeed in Bury St Edmunds and Southwell, the cathedral for the diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, is located between Newark-on-Trent and Nottingham.

bilboburgler

If you have to go to Cadbury (not worth a moment in my mind but hey) then also look at the Balti Triangle
http://www.baltitriangle.com/

mirolex

Jean253 -- There's really not a lot we wouldn't consider, reasonably speaking, = ) historic or even 'just interesting' places mostly known to locals.

Ron -- I did google St Edmundsbury as I had recollections of wandering through ruins of an abbey or cathedral somewhere in that area. That was the place. It's definitely an option, as is Southwell.

Flanneruk -- By "off the beaten path", I was thinking of lesser known locations. This route is a starting & ending for one part of our trip, not necessarily 'as the crow flies'. If it takes a week, so be it. Highclere is the other side of London, not a drive we'd make just for the one stop. No doubt there are other places we could visit, but as Highclere is not open in late Sept, it doesn't matter. It's a beautiful place whether a film site or not.

I knew 'Heritage Pass' was wrong, but it was all I could think of at near-midnight. We had Eng Her last trip & made good use of them (certainly not for Cadbury World where we stopped just to pick up an asst. of small choc bars for the kids). We do enjoy historic sites so we'll have to research whether Eng Her or Natl Trust may be the better option.

We've been to Chester 2-3 times, never the Peak District but it's on the short list, as is the Lake District for later. Ironbridge does sound quite interesting, another for the short list.

flanneruk

I forgot in the Greater Ironbridge area:
- Boscobel House in Shropshire (where Charles II hid in the oak, though God's obviously a Roundhead since the oak's in a terrible mess, apparently because of recent weather). English Heritage.
Shropshire as a whole is arguably close to being off most people's beaten track (as well as having praxctically the lowest levels of nocturnal light pollution in Britain). Whiteladies Priory is part of the Boscobel visit. Look at Shrewsbury and The Wrekin, while reading AE Housman's poems
- Shugborough and Moseley Old Hall (another Charles II refuge after the battle of Worcester) in Staffordshire. National Trust.

And of course, Merseyside itself. The St Christopher statue at Norton Priory near Runcorn is the finest medieval sculpture (admittedly, thanks to Cromwell's chums, close to being the ONLY medieval sculpture) in Britain. Catch up on new museums in Britain's museum capital (Liverpool, of course), Another Place at Crosby (Britain's most popular installation art) and just get gobsmacked at Liverpool 1 shopping mall: the most distinguished piece (OK: the ONLY distinguished piece) of post war townscaping in Britain. As always, just walking round central Liverpool astonishes you at the miracle of how much stellar architecture's on display in such a maligned city centre.

indy_dad

Our day trip to Ironbridge (just scraping the surface obviously):

http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/ironbridge.html

Have fun.