Can You Recommend Ten Places I Should See in the North West?

[Dave2002]

Liverpool - mentioned already - Walker Art gallery, Tate Gallery, the ferries, there's a ferry trip which goes along the Manchester Ship Canal - I've yet to do that, concerts in the Philharmonic Hall. Speke Hall.

Port Sunlight - very good

Also Rufford Old Hall not far from Ormskirk and Southport.

Blackpool and Southport - if you like that sort of thing!

[LMcD]

This one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajC4Az4wscc

If memory serves, Victoria Wood did a Great Railway Journey for BBC 1 which included Carnforth and took her to Wick and back. I believe the cafeteria has now been refurbished and is a more cheerful place than it was when she was there.

[jayne lee wilson]

One of the areas I miss most is north and west of Carnforth - Eaves Wood, close by RSPB Leighton Moss. I used to walk for hours there in winter seeing no-one except Redwings, Fieldfares, and those precious Hawfinches at the Woodwell. I hope it hasn't been spoiled, but it is NT, so it may be more restricted access now...
Leighton Moss is wonderful itself of course, with its ducks, Coots, Moorhens. If it freezes in winter, the Bitterns walk out of the reed beds onto the ice....you needed wellies in the 70s, in case the causeway to the hides was flooded!

[MrGongGong]

Or the phonebox?

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Red_Frame/White_Light

[Beresford]

One of the areas I miss most is north and west of Carnforth - Eaves Wood, close by RSPB Leighton Moss. I used to walk for hours there in winter seeing no-one except Redwings, Fieldfares, and those precious Hawfinches at the Woodwell. I hope it hasn't been spoiled, but it is NT, so it may be more restricted access now...
Leighton Moss is wonderful itself of course, with its ducks, Coots, Moorhens. If it freezes in winter, the Bitterns walk out of the reed beds onto the ice....you needed wellies in the 70s, in case the causeway to the hides was flooded!

I'm glad you liked it. For the last 3 years we have been fortunate to live in Yealand, close enough to walk from the house, to Eaves Wood (via Hawes Water), through the Beech Circle, and on to the sea near Silverdale, and back by bus (not Sundays). And Arnside is still very genteel, with views of Morecambe Bay and the Lake District, with the Posh Sardine cafe, which is ... slightly posh (for Cumbria), and very small.

[Serial_Apologist]

As much of the Lake District as possible in the time at your disposal - especially Wastwater, one of the most dramatic landscapes in the UK. Best not to try Hard Knott/Wrynose passes - the first time we had a puncture after being forced to hit a kerbside rock by a selfish motorist coming the other way; the second the car boiled on one of the 1 in 3's, and we all (except Dad) had to get out of the car and walk the rest of the distance to the top.

[Lat-Literal]

I am very grateful indeed for these excellent contributions and will follow up with plenty of internet investigation.

And hopefully that follow-up will turn into action, ie travel.

Please keep them coming - and thank you very much again.

Even better, that in the relating you enjoyed the memories.

(Catergorize under flawed but incorrigible)

[LMcD]

The first time I crossed the Ribblehead Viaduct was on a special trip (organized, I'm afraid, by Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group) - which started from Manchester and took us to Carlisle, hauled by the Flying Scotsman. It was a gloriously sunny August day.
I believe Dent is the highest mainline station in England. Michael Portillo claims to have saved the Settle (actually it's Leeds) to Carlisle line, which I guess proves that there's good in everybody.

[HighlandDougie]

The first time I crossed the Ribblehead Viaduct was on a special trip (organized, I'm afraid, by Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group) - which started from Manchester and took us to Carlisle, hauled by the Flying Scotsman. It was a gloriously sunny August day.
I believe Dent is the highest mainline station in England. Michael Portillo claims to have saved the Settle (actually it's Leeds) to Carlisle line, which I guess proves that there's good in everybody.

Donning my grubby anorak and picking up my dog-eared spotter's notebook (for the cops), it is actually the Settle to Carlisle line as the original line - from Leeds to Low Gill/Morecambe, then Carnforth - pre-dated the Settle to Carlisle line by at least 20 years. When the line was mooted for closure (and "saved" by St Michael), it was the Settle Junction to Carlisle line, rather than the line to Morecambe/Carnforth. But to have traversed it hauled by 4472 would have been a delight - I hope that there wasn't a picture of RM gracing the front of the locomotive!

[LMcD]

Donning my grubby anorak and picking up my dog-eared spotter's notebook (for the cops), it is actually the Settle to Carlisle line as the original line - from Leeds to Low Gill/Morecambe, then Carnforth - pre-dated the Settle to Carlisle line by at least 20 years. When the line was mooted for closure (and "saved" by St Michael), it was the Settle Junction to Carlisle line, rather than the line to Morecambe/Carnforth. But to have traversed it hauled by 4472 would have been a delight - I hope that there wasn't a picture of RM gracing the front of the locomotive!

Thankfully not! Because the viaduct wasn't in good nick at the time, we crossed it delightfully slowly, all sticking our heads out of the windows like the recycled schoolchildren we were, enjoying the smell of the smoke as the particles bejewelled our hair...We took on water - at Garsdale, I think.

[LMcD]

The BBC 4 Archive collection, accessed via iPlayer, includes a 1988 documentary on the proposed closure of the Settle to Carlisle line (and many more programmes for railway buffs). The overall heading for these programmes is 'The Train Now Departing', and the episode in question is No. 1 'The Long Drag'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Michael Portillo claims to have saved the Settle (actually it's Leeds) to Carlisle line, which I guess proves that there's good in everybody.

After final closure consultation report, Michael Portillo said he was "minded to close it". It was only the public reaction to this that changed his mind.

[LMcD]

According to a BBC news report broadcast in 2013, the closure notices posted at the stations contained a legal error and had to be withdrawn and reprinted. The resultant delay enabled the line's defenders to gather their resources and get their campaign under way. By 2013 the number of journeys per year had increased to 1.2 million, compared with about 80,000 in the early 1980s.

[Anastasius]

Point of information...Liverpool and Manchester are NOT in the North. They are in the Midlands. True North is Cumbria and Northumberland. Most points have been covered, Lat, but pop across into Scotland...it's only just up the road.

And most importantly bring a mac and an umbrella.

If you can go further East on the old military road between Greenhead and Chollerton...the views are spectacular. I much prefer Northumberland to Cumbria TBH. And if you're passing down the A69 you're very welcome to stop off for a cuppa.

[Bryn]

Point of information...Liverpool and Manchester are NOT in the North.

Nonsense, anything north of Watford Gap . . .