places in th UK you would love to visit and why

[George 1978]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

You went at a time when it was safe to do so! - I suppose that 50 years ago it wasn't too bad (even though it was before my time).

I have always hated the Robin Hood stereotype that Nottingham people get - for example, local snooker player Anthony Hamilton was given the nickname "The Robin Hood of Snooker" which I have always found rather annoying.

And people who think that we all say "hey up me duck" all the time - that annoys me even more.

[zabadak]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

I wish I could visit Leeds someday as my Mum's family all came from there; there are streets with the family names in the west, and I think still a farm in the southern part

My surname is Walker and, according to a book I read about Walkers 20 or so years ago, the largest concentration of them is in Leeds! The name comes from the cloth industry, someone would "walk" around, checking on the quality of the work!

I believe Graham Norton's real name is Walker and, IIRC, he managed to trace his lineage back to Cork, for one of those Who The Hell Are You (or something) shows. It seems the building holding birth records for the area burnt down so that was a dead-end.

Weirdly, my step-brother tried to trace our family ancestry and found exactly the same and hit the same brick wall! Maybe Graham and I are related...

[George 1978]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

My surname is Walker and, according to a book I read about Walkers 20 or so years ago, the largest concentration of them is in Leeds! The name comes from the cloth industry, someone would "walk" around, checking on the quality of the work!

Ooh, I love your crisps (sorry, wrong part of this forum...)

Where I used to live growing up, I did some research into the history of my old home, and there was a family of Walkers lived at my old address around the time of the Second World War - I tried to research the local electoral registers for the early 1940s, but lo and behold, they didn't exist at the Central Library because of the war. I did search (in a David Olusoga "A House Through Time" sort of way) in the British Newspaper archive, typing in my former house number and street in the search engine for the two prominent local newspapers that they had the archive to for those years.

Three articles were retrieved - one of them came up with a family announcement, mentioning the death of a former occupant (published the day after it happened - amazing for back then) - the second one was on the same date was on page 4 (the back page) in the other newspaper which mentioned more prominently that he had died at the age of 70 - I found out from my research that two men of the same name had died in the same quarter of 1942, and only their years of birth determined which person it was.

There was mention of an acknowledgement from his widow in the family announcements part. The interesting thing about it that it mentioned the phrase "since the war" which I assume that as the Second World War was still going on that it was referring to the first one in 1914-1918.

[beccabear67]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

My surname is Walker and, according to a book I read about Walkers 20 or so years ago, the largest concentration of them is in Leeds!

I'd think Salford for Walker based on the fictional Jack and Annie Walker in Coronation Street.

There's a modern program series airing here on Northumberland, the last one showed salmon fishing by net on the Tweed river and wild goats. The channel that shows it seems to get a fair number of Channel 4 shows. Usually people who come to this part of Canada want smoked salmon and to see whales and totem poles, I'm not sure what Canadian tourists might want from Northern England. I was just reading though about the television puppets that were on display in a museum in Wolverhampton! I'd love to see them, even without Sooty (didn't see him mentioned, but Basil Brush is there, boom boom), and maybe there'd be something for a Slade fan too? But I expect the exhibit has moved on or dispersed. :cry:

https://www.transdiffusion.org/2018/...ts-and-muppets

[80sChav]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

Is there anyone on here who has actually visited that titan of British cities (and my hometown) Nottingham, and have lived to tell the tale, or would like to visit Nottingham in the future?

Perhaps get a selfie next to the Robin Hood and Brian Clough statues? Or go shopping in the Victoria Centre? (I sound as if I work for Tourist Information in the city, don't I?)

And don't forget, Nottingham Castle is a lot closer to Nottingham than Leeds Castle is to Leeds!

(One cannot blame you if you haven't or don't want to...)

I have been a good few times George mate and I don't dislike Nottingham it's fair to honestly say

Out of the Big 3 East Mids City's though hands on heart I do prefer Leicester and Derby as City Centres and probably in that order too .... Leicester 1st, Derby 2, Nottingham 3rd - but I must admitt Nottingham is "the London of the East Mids for shopping", and I prefer Leicester through being more a fan of it having (or had - last time I went about 8 years back) cos it had cheaper shop's than Nottingham's High End ones!

80sChav

[Richard1978]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

My surname is Walker and, according to a book I read about Walkers 20 or so years ago, the largest concentration of them is in Leeds! The name comes from the cloth industry, someone would "walk" around, checking on the quality of the work!

I believe Graham Norton's real name is Walker and, IIRC, he managed to trace his lineage back to Cork, for one of those Who The Hell Are You (or something) shows. It seems the building holding birth records for the area burnt down so that was a dead-end.

Weirdly, my step-brother tried to trace our family ancestry and found exactly the same and hit the same brick wall! Maybe Graham and I are related...

I remember Graham Norton's Who Do You Think You Are? I think they did trace the Walkers back to Yorkshire, didn't find an exact connection. When a lot of Irish land was owned by English landlords they often brought over English farm workers when the locals couldn't afford to rent the land.

[George 1978]

Re: places in th UK you would love to visit and why

I have been a good few times George mate and I don't dislike Nottingham it's fair to honestly say

Out of the Big 3 East Mids City's though hands on heart I do prefer Leicester and Derby as City Centres and probably in that order too .... Leicester 1st, Derby 2, Nottingham 3rd - but I must admitt Nottingham is "the London of the East Mids for shopping", and I prefer Leicester through being more a fan of it having (or had - last time I went about 8 years back) cos it had cheaper shop's than Nottingham's High End ones!

80sChav

Try living here for six months and you will soon change your own opinion!

Seriously, as I have said before, if you are on the outside looking in, it's not too bad. The Victoria Centre is superb for shopping - if you want WHSmith, Boots or John Lewis, they have got it.

The Broadmarsh Centre is a bit behind the times however - the shopping centre has always stayed in the 1970s it if you know what I mean - the fact that the bus station has been demolished and the back of it is a building site doesn't do much favours at the moment.

If you want a McDonald's, I can tell you that the Clumber Street restaurant (refurbished a year or so ago) was Nottingham's first McDonald's to open (and it was also the 79th McDonald's UK restaurant to open) when it opened in 1982.

In 1991 one of the Leicester bus companies put on special Saturday bus services until to Christmas for Nottingham people to travel to Leicester to do their Christmas shopping - it was when I visited Leicester for the first time when I went to The Shires shopping centre.