Alfred Wainwright, born into poverty on this day in Blackburn in 1907. He left school aged 13 and became an office boy in Blackburn Borough Engineer’s Department. At age 23 he took a holiday away from home, to the Lake District. It was love at first sight. A #Lancashire story:

Up the Rainbow Stairs. The Sacred Memory Bank. Kirkby Gallery. Works by Mike Badger and Jeff Young. Monday 19th January - Friday 27th March. Come and see us!

LANCASHIRE: EXPLORING THE HISTORIC COUNTY THAT MADE THE MODERN WORLD will be published Feb 17 by @oldstpublishing.bsky.social Three years in the making. History meets memoir meets travel. Food, sports, TV; Engels, The Fall, Bet Lynch… and all the other great "manufactures" that have come from here.

It was 30 years ago today that BBC Two transmitted the opening episode of Our Friends in the North - one of the greatest television dramas the BBC has ever made. For the anniversary, I've been down to Caversham to take a look through the show's files and explore some of the tales they tell...

@liverpoolecho.co.uk @anythinglfc.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social @manchestermill.bsky.social @mcrhistories.bsky.social @blackpoolsentinel.bsky.social @lancstelegraph.bsky.social @unilancashire.bsky.social @centralwigan.bsky.social @sthelenscouncil.bsky.social @sthelensstar.bsky.social

My review of Joanna Pocock's wondrous book Greyhound, published by @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social - for Tribune tribunemag.co.uk/2026/01/ride...

I missed the recent death of Gerry Gable, founder of Searchlight and legendary London anti-fascist. Here's an excellent obituary. leadenskies.substack.com/p/gerry-gabl...

El plan de Río Tinto para extraer litio en Chile podría amenazar las fuentes de agua, dicen las comunidades indígenas del pueblo Colla - mi artículo www.theguardian.com/global-devel... @criordor.bsky.social @latinamericabureau.bsky.social @gcabana.bsky.social @theguardian.com

“No footpath would be created as part of the “new” river walk”. Er… www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The north-south deride: Arsenal fans still doing “Feed the Scousers” after 40 years; Everton responds with foodbank support. dhttps://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6908128/2025/12/22/everton-feed-the-scousers-song/?source=twitteruk

The passing of this bill is incredible news for all fans of Raising Hare, and the result of a huge amount of sustained campaigning. Congratulations to all involved - but particularly the brilliant and tireless @chloedalton.bsky.social! #RaisingHare

It's an honour to have written a foreword for a new edition of perhaps my favourite novel (or is it a novella?), A Month In The Country by JL Carr. It's published by Quince Tree Press, now run by the Carr family. Do investigate their other wonderful wares. www.quincetreepress.co.uk

Got home to find this beautifully generous review of GREYHOUND in the current @thetls.bsky.social Thank you to Tom Lathan for engaging so deeply with the book: Tthe author deftly weaves together swathes of American history to lay bare the unsustainable nature — and stupidity — of modern life…. (1)

My travel books of the year, including work from @monisharajesh.bsky.social, Lyse Doucet, Norman Lewis, @joannapocock.bsky.social, @adamweymouth.bsky.social & @peteralanross.bsky.social: deskboundtraveller.com/my-books-of-....

Lancashire - England's most underrated county, argues Chris Moss in the @telegraph.co.uk @traveloguer.bsky.social Chris's LANCASHIRE: Exploring the Historic County that made the Modern World is out in February. www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti...

Lovely write-up of This Slavery for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social - written with affection and admiration for Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and the Lancashire that made her possible Thank you @traveloguer.bsky.social @selfmadehero.bsky.social www.tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/reco...

New exhibition ‘Cottonopolis: The origins of global Manchester’ is now open. Explore how 18th century Manchester was transformed into a manufacturing powerhouse and the centre of Britain’s booming cotton industry. 📅Visit Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm. Free entry.

My review of the gorgeously gritty graphic novel This Slavery by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and the Rickard Sisters - in Tribune magazine tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/reco...

My 2025 resolution was to visit some of the places in The Guardian series ‘Where tourists seldom tread’. First, #Walsall. I only had 5 hours free inc travel time so the main draw was New Art Gallery followed by a wander around. There’s so much more though! #WestMidlands #Architecture

Doncaster - the point of no return; Carlisle - the midway city; Swansea: westering and wondrous - latest Where Tourists Seldom Tread www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Remembering Richard Gott After Pinochet's coup, the UK Embassy pushed a pro-junta slant One UK official hoped ‘The hours of Embassy briefings & the gin and tonics on the patio' would prevent anti-junta reporting But Gott ignored it & exposed Pinochet's abuses www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

We've just added more historic Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland to our website. You can now compare first edition one-inch to the mile maps dating from the 1860s to 1870s with second edition maps published between 1898 and 1902. maps.nls.uk/os/one-inch-...

“It was a place to while the afternoon drinking coffee and brandy” Oh the entire days we lost in the Gijón…

You have until this Saturday to guess #HowManyHorses there are in This Slavery graphic novel to WIN a signed & illustrated copy! Just follow us, share & give us a number - the closest guess wins!

Double decker trains - in a double decker England: www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/...

Good to see Nelson, Lancs getting tourism props in the Guardian. Also: Wilkinsons the best 2nd hand hifi shop in the north; Slaters ice cream parlour; Mansha sweet centre; and Music Box for records/DVDs. Plus Nelson FC once beat Real Madrid, away. www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Steel and cotton meet bootleather - the new walking trail (close to the Hope Valley railway line) linking Manchester and Sheffield: www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Where tourists seldom tread, part 19: three UK towns with industrial legacies

You know how we’ve been trying to persuade you all to go to Great Harwood? Well look at this bit in the Guardian about the joys of nearby Nelson… Thank you for the mention (and the link!) Chris 🔥✊

Latest Seldom column - Paisley, Nelson and Leicester : Romans, Victorians, Cluniacs (and punks), and Gerry Rafferty www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

29 'missing' Hen Harriers & nearly 40 birds of prey poisoned, trapped or shot in Yorkshire Dales National Park since 2015. Not so much a National Park - more of a National Disgrace. #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime #Ornithology #Yorkshire raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/10/04/2...

Where tourists seldom tread, part 18: three seaside towns that defy the tides of fashion

Port towns freighted with history: Lancaster, Ramsey, Ipswich #WhereTouristsSeldomTread www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Chanced on this novel in Ayr Waterstones - the chain’s “Scottish Book of the Month” for June, a nominee in the first Booker, back in 1969. It is a read-in-a-day blinder - at least as good as the Midlands/Yorks social realist fictions of those days, and much more brutally honest.

I wrote about this stretch of canal for the new edition of the Violette Records newsletter, Science & Magic. It's the 3rd edition of my fortnightly 'Magnetic North' contribution. Further signals from 'Ghost Town'. You can subscribe to the newsletter here: www.violetterecords.com/subscribed

Fed up of choking on smoke from nearby grouse moors, Sheffield residents have set up @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social, to push for a community buyout of the Duke of Rutland's Moscar Moor - & use new powers under forthcoming ‘Community Right to Buy’ legislation 1/ www.thestar.co.uk/news/environ...

Louvre workers strike to protest overtourism, shutting down world's most-visited museum www.france24.com/en/france/20...

BBC on #overtourism in Europe www.bbc.com/travel/artic...

Airbnb boss denies responsibility for #overtourism www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/lif...

Campaigners mount coordinated protests across Europe against ‘touristification’ www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

This is Runcorn town centre. Huge buildings absolutely empty, derelict. Half empty shopping centre. Grandmothers chatting about their wee Johnny recovering from being stabbed. This isn’t the fault of immigrants or refugees. This is 45 years of constant cuts and neglect from Westminster.

Lancashire, the Red Rose county - historic crucible of industry, seminal in the rise of the Labour movement, ILP and modern party - turned turquoise today. An electoral suicide note.

This is a great radio show - on tango’s zigzagging journey from Buenos Aires to central and eastern Europe; a welcome change from Paris, Piazzolla and the usual fallbacks

The Pennine Way celebrates its 60th birthday with a spur to Lancashire - the Two Toms Trail: www.burnleyexpress.net/arts-and-cul...

The Pennine Way celebrates its 60th birthday with a spur to Lancashire - the Two Toms Trail: www.burnleyexpress.net/arts-and-cul...

‘Meta has stolen books’: authors to protest in London against AI trained using ‘shadow library’

💪 #DoTheWriteThing #MetaThieves

Doncaster - the point of no return; Carlisle - the midway city; Swansea: westering and wondrous - latest Where Tourists Seldom Tread www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...