the Rossendale valley - all of it
you might recall that a couple of years ago (Aug '07), in a shithole called Bacup, a couple of local teenagers kicked a goth girl to death for a laugh (she was protecting her goth boyfriend who they'd attacked because "he looked different") ... i stayed around here for the best part of a year back in '88/'89 and it wasn't any better then ... one of the delightful cultural celebrations involves the Britannia Coconut Dancers (a bit like Morris Men) blacking up and dancing round town clacking coconuts together ... Haslingden, Rawtenstall, Bacup - all shit ... (Britannia is a village at the arse end of Bacup - it is neither happy nor glorious)
the countryside around? how can moorland and sheep look *unwashed*? but they do ... a trip over the great divide to Hebden Bridge felt like a day out at the British Museum; a shopping expedition to Blackburn, Bury, Burnley or even (god help me) Rochdale was an occasional treat ... witches live up Pendle Hill above Burnley because the town is *too dangerous* ... Burnley was also the place where i saw my first ever full-on English football violence (locals, Walsall supporters and police with drawn batons all beating the shit out of each other - not kids either, but middle aged men with truly awful lives) ...
It takes a lot to make West Yorkshire look good but East Lancs manages it easily ...
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Thu 29 Oct 2009, 21:19, Reply)