Some of us are treating our new freedoms more responsibly than others.
This was the scene at Grays beach yesterday,
while on MumsNet I read of a bloke driving his pregnant “partner” to Skegness to defecate on their beach. Why not ? It’s a free country.
My approach is to go to the less heralded gems, which even the locals have left to the wildlife to reclaim.
The main things deterring me from longer trips are the lack of loos and the torture of walking past closed pubs.
I’d love to be exploring Burnley and the Forest of Rossendale this week.
I was reminded of its many treasures stumbling on this programme from the magical year of “Stand By Me” and the Marcels version of “Blue Moon“.
Speaking of Blue Moon, good to see that City were lording it over their Trafford neighbours back in ’61.
What’s noticeable looking back is how many clubs have seen fortunes yo-yo in those 60 years.
Ipswich would go on to to win the league that season, only 5 years after scrapping it out in the lowest tier.
They edged out a Burnley side by virtue of a 6-2 hammering at Portman Road that Harry Potts no doubt put down to travel travails.
You may be interested to know the journey from Ipswich to Burnley can be done in 4:30 hours RIGHT NOW.
A colourful little programme, short of pub adverts but celebrating brewing heritage.
Wikipedia gives a sense of the change in Burnley in the Swinging Sixties;
“There were widespread celebrations in the town in the summer of 1960, when Burnley FC won the old first division to become Football League champions.
The rest of the decade saw large-scale redevelopment in the town. Many buildings were demolished including the market hall, the cattle market, the Odeon cinema and thousands of mainly terraced houses.
New construction projects included the Charter Walk shopping centre, Centenary way and its flyover, the Keirby Hotel, a new central bus station, Trafalgar flats, and a number of office blocks. “
The civic buildings are decent,
but I can confirm the ’60s modernisation would enrage Mudgie.
The Beer Guide shows the reality; Burnley is becoming the Middlesbrough of the North-West, packed with micropubs, quirky bars and music venues. I like that.
Bridge Bier Huis, Real Ale Factory, New Brew-m, KSC100 Club and Shifters Disco, serving some very cheap (and often good) beer,
If you price it at £2.25, they will come. The Stockport Centaurus was selling like hotcakes, as they often say without justification, so I had the Reedley Hallows Pendleside.
Having been lukewarm about the Reedley beers before, I can only apologise now. This was a beautifully presented and superbly conditioned easy drinking pint (NBSS 4), proving again quality is all about the pub.
There’s Proper Pubs to the west of town, and Bass at the Rifle Volunteer, but it’ll be the football pubs you’re drawn to if the Clarets survive the Lockdown.
Sadly I cannot offer a Chinese takeaway recommendation, but please feel free if you can.
retiredmartin 
Do most of these clubs have personalities that people associate with them? I’d be curious on that if they do. For example the Yankees in New York have a history of winning, money and a pugnacious attitude. Cubs in Chicago lovable losers. That type of thing. Obviously this is for the foreign readers.
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Good question. Will consider.
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Another example would be what are teams known for? Birmingham’s great history of defenders for example.
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Skillful, cultured defenders who pop up with crucial goals, you mean?
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Exactly, illustrious writers in their mature years.
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So what personality do the Blue Jay’s have? (Careful, my wife is Canadian)
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Well done John, tricky question.
Are they a cricket team? If so, I expect they’re colourful, exuberant but prone to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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Boisterous bombers with a long history of interesting players. A bit more so based on the big sluggers with big personality these last ten years. Overly polite and deferential fans other than when they are procreating within view of the stadium seats. All in all a solid and respected organization. Like all things Canadian.
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I think you may have just saved the US/Canadian peace treaty, Dave.
“procreating within view of the stadium seats” – is that Springsteen ?
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The outfield is bordered by a hotel. A famous event occurred with the blinds open during a game.
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We have friends who hail from Burnley -football and Northern Soul fans & they don’t half talk funny -live mainly on pies & fish & chips with gravy .They hotfooted it out in the early 80’s never to return.The lack of loos is also a slight issue for me too,although we found an open one in our local country park today (not that I would dare to enter -would probably find someone importuning or something )
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I suspect they WERE friends before you just said they talk funny and just ate chips 😉
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“Not THAT different to the League 60 years later”
Swap Bolton Wanderers for Liverpool ; the latter were Division Two in these pre-Shankley days.
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And the Reds had been beaten by Worcester City in the FA Cup two years previously, a somewhat overlooked Cup shock.
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“What’s noticeable looking back is how many clubs have seen fortunes yo-yo in those 60 years.”
1961 was of course the year that the maximum wage was abolished in football, thanks to a campaign by PFA chairman and future TV pundit Jimmy Hill, which saw the earnings of the top players multiply four or five times overnight (it was £20 a week when it was scrapped, with Fulham’s Johnny Haynes becoming the first to be paid £100 a week) and the gap between small town Lancashire clubs like Burnley, Blackpool and Blackburn and their big city rivals like City and United really began to open up as their bigger crowds meant they were able to pay higher wages and attract talented youngsters who might otherwise have joined and spent their careers with their hometown team.
I love how the lineups in the programme are printed in “W-M” formation when they must surely have been playing with a back four by then.
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Excellent point, Matthew. As our American readers will know, Man United and Liverpool bought their success in the 60s onwards.
I do love the idea of formation but I can’t say in 44 years of attending matches I’ve ever noticed one in practice.
In the 1980s most goals seemed to be achieved by a goalies hoof down the middle of the pitch and a defenders cockup rather than tactics 😉
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Are you including City and the trophies they won under Mercer and Allison from the mid sixties to early seventies amongst the clubs who bought their success? 🙂
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I think you’ll find that was due to the City board changing pie suppliers in 1965, Matthew.
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