retiredmartin

August 2024. Chorley.

Matt was in recovery when we arrived back at Buckshaw’s shiny hospital, an advert for health care under a US Libertarian model if ever I saw one*.

The receptionist phoned the surgical team for a release time, which we judged it too tight to visit Blackpool but more than sufficient for an hour in Chorley’s Elizabethan gem.

Mrs RM calculated the Instagram traffic she’d get from American tourists,

I was just ashamed I’d been to Chorley a dozen times and never knew what I was missing.

Gifted to the town a century ago, so you can admire the exterior and parks and lakes for free,

or pay a fiver for a guided tour of the hall and an art exhibition,

currently wood carvings.

I detest guided tours, I’d be happy to stick outside and admire the gardens,

but Mrs RM, as per, bullied me into handing over a tenner.

DO take the tour, and hope your fellow tourists are as quick going round as ours were.

Honestly, this is an astonishing house, and our young guide (escaped from Bolton) avoided “death by dates” and just explained what the rooms were all about.

This was her favourite,

though I thought the ceilings were the highlight.

And for Corby’s pub games expert, I bring you the oldest shuffleboard in the UK.

Or is it shovelboard ?

*joke