Category: Hit the North

How to explore the newest part of the King Charles III England Coast Path near Liverpool

While the focus was on Eurovision this week, a little bit of history was made on another part of Merseyside.

The opening of the Merseyside section of the King Charles III England Coast Path follows the recent renaming of the path for the Coronation.

It leads from Southport [Southport prom pictured above via i Newspaper] via Crosby and Formby to the Liverpool waterfront.

It also adds to plans throughout the year to celebrate the Year of the Coast as designated by the National Coastal Tourism Academy.

The highlight of the new section follows the lesser-known coast to the north of Liverpool, an undiscovered landscape of beaches, dunes and heathland supporting many wildlife habitats.

Several sections are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest with rare examples of flora and fauna.

John Corbett, a Liverpool Blue Badge Tourist Guide, based in Crosby, said:

“This is an area of big sky and statement sunsets.”

“I regularly walk this section of coast and love the long-distance views, looking as far as the Lake District and back towards Snowdonia on clear days, plus watching the ships coming in.”

Read the full story via the i Newspaper: Merseyside’s new King Charles III England Coast Path opens up.

How to spend a weekend in football-loving Wrexham like a true A-list Hollywood star

Image: Telegraph Travel

Amazing scenes in Wrexham this week.

They inspired this feature about the Hollywood glamour of the formerly workaday town in Northeast Wales for Telegraph Travel.

Here’s a taster of the article.

The streets of the former industrial town in Northeast Wales were packed last night with fans from across the world cheering on the open-top bus parade from the Racecourse ground, home of Wrexham AFC.

It marked the Wrexham team securing promotion back to the English Football League after 15 years and consisted of three buses, featuring the men’s side and women’s side, which also clinched promotion.

The club’s Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney [pictured above] completed the line-up, having bought the club in 2020 and transformed its fortunes.

It’s a story worthy of a Hollywood epic for the third oldest professional football club in the world, dating from 1864, and compensates for Wrexham narrowly losing out to Bradford to host the UK City of Culture 2025 last year.

Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism, says:

“You can’t put a value on the recent exposure. Wrexham is the gateway to North Wales and the whole world now wants to know the story of Wrexham and the region.”

Read the full feature via Telegraph Travel  The A-lister guide to Wrexham

Why Shropshire is the place to be this spring for foodies and poetry lovers

A recent trip to Shropshire for Telegraph Travel reminded me how this lesser-visited region is a little gem for country walks and fine food.

Read my guide to the region taking in Ludlow [pictured above, right] for its slow-food producers and Bishop Castle for a consultation at the Poetry Pharmacy [pictured above, left].

Here’s a taster of my feature:

Pub snacks are not the typical culinary delight in Ludlow.

This is, after all, the Michelin-starred Mecca that once boasted the most stars per capita, including one for Shaun Hill, now of Abergavenny’s Walnut Tree.

But while the Shropshire market town remains known for its food and drink, it’s the artisan independents who now grab the spotlight at the annual autumn food festival and a new spring festival from May 12-14 this year.

Tish Dockerty, co-chair of the Ludlow Marches Slow Food group, says:

“Ludlow was the original food festival — even before Abergavenny. The Michelin chefs have gone but the new focus has shifted towards local provenance and slow-food events.”

Read the feature via Telegraph Travel  Is Shropshire the proudest county in England?

Jodrell Bank: travel content for the Boundless magazine centenary issue

Boundless is the magazine for nearly a quarter of a million members of Boundless, the travel, motoring and leisure club for the public sector.

The latest issue celebrated the centenary of the organisation and I contributed some travel features, exploring sites of major events over the decades — now turned tourist attractions.

One of them was Jodrell Bank [pictured above]. Read more …

When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik One satellite in 1957, it lit the blue touchpaper for the international space race.

This paved the way for America’s Apollo space programme and fuelled cold-war tensions between Russia and the West.

But the new world order also made an unlikely hero of a science-loving boffin at a rural Cheshire outpost.

Sir Bernard Lovell founded Jodrell Bank after WWII to pioneer work on radar.

By 1950, his team had detected the nebula in Andromeda and, as the space race intensified, Jodrell’s landmark Lovell Telescope was charged with tracking Russian cosmonauts.

Today that Grade I-listed telescope sits at the heart of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, the observatory and science park set amid Cheshire farmland.

Jodrell Bank has come a long way since its post-war origins, earning a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list and hosting the annual Bluedot music festival, but it remains true to Sir Bernard’s space-race vision.

Read more at Boundless, March/April 2023.