Ever been to Glossop?
No, I didn’t think so – and I hadn’t been there for half a century until this week.
Glossop is a lovely market own in Derbyshire which bills itself as the gateway to the Peak District. I was brought up in the nearby city of Manchester and a boy at my school actually lived in Glossop. We became friends and I visited him in the town. I remember very few of my friends from school days, but I have always remembered his name and even his address: Nigel Chamberlain of 13 Hope Street. I was impressed that, at the end of his road, was the countryside.
So it was strange to revisit the town after so long and for a totally different reason: I was having discussions with an organisation called Digital Outreach. The local train from Manchester Piccadilly to Glossop offers some splendid views of the countryside and stops at a succession of quaintly named stations: Ashburys, Guide Bridge, Flowery Field, Newton For Hyde, Godley, Hattersley, Broadbottom. Dinting. Another world compared to Manchester or London.
August 27th, 2013 at 11:27 pm
What a lovely juxtaposition of the new – Digital Outreach – and the old – your boyhood memories, and the little towns and countryside.