Happy New Year

Old kilns next to Gladstone pottery museum

dilapidated buildings in central Longton

Old factory in central Longton

We decided we had to at last leave our comfortable nest and have a good walk over Longton. 

I have stayed here with my friend for over 20 years and this beautiful area, with it's hills and chimneys  chapels and pie shops is very dear to me.
We crossed the road and then over the A50 by the walkway.  It is a depressing walk. I hate to see Longton so run down and shabby. I took  these photos today in what is meant to be the industrial quarter. We met nobody in a 3 hour walk except a group of eastern Europeans who may have been squatting in one of the near derelict buildings or possibly working on a small enterprise.  It looks indeed like an area of how I imagine parts of Bulgaria or Rumania . I would not have dared going round here alone- for fear of loose guard dogs.  But we did not even hear any of them, nothing much to guard.

Not a bus running today and no place to even get a coffee.  Smashed shops, a broken down pub and the precinct. The MP for the area is Tristram Hunt- I wonder where he lives in his constituency- nowhere near we were walking I am sure- not many 'Tristrams' in Longton