Last weekend I took advantage of a few final rays of late summer sunshine and joined the happy hordes gathering in Bury town centre to do what they have been doing here for more than seven hundred years - going to market.
The agreeable pandemonium is an assault on the senses, with stalls indoors and out, facing this way and that, selling everything under the sun and drawing 250,000 people every week.
It's possible I forgot what I came for, but in the end I bypassed the Oriental Lillies and the Merguez, forewent the Pelmets and the White Puddings, and instead opted for a spoonful of Pesto and a slice of Carraway Belly.
In the face of this dazzling display, the supermarkets struggle to compete - even the mammoth Mill Gate Shopping Centre next door seems to live in the shadow of the human termite mound that is Bury Market.
And long may it continue. The market is important to Bury - the place was granted a Market Charter way back in 1251 and the locals are justly proud of its enduring appeal. It's won numerous awards and is the beating heart of the town centre.
Industrial Past
These industries, all greedy for the water supplies from the Rivers Irwell and Roch, forged an industrial powerhouse and the burgeoning town expanded rapidly and absorbed the surrounding towns and villages. But unlike Bolton, the evidence of an industrial past seems far more muted, the town's streets aren't ramrod straight, and the centre has a lighter and (market aside) more laid-back feel. |
Laid Back Vibe
The vibe is far more relaxed here in the shadow of the square they call Market Place, with its domineering parish church and the impressive facade of the Lancashire Fusiliers' Castle Armoury and Drill Hall. The closeness of the Pennine foothills also lends a picturesque backdrop to Bury and provides some spectacular scenery - country parks, ancient woodlands and wild moorland - which means it's easy to escape the madding crowds and commune with the natural world. With Manchester within easy reach via the tram link, a well-established arts scene, a still strong industrial base, and good schools and educational institutions, it's easy to see why Bury is popular. It has, of course, more traditional attractions too - black pudding throwing, anyone? - not to mention a large and diverse stock of properties ancient and modern that appeal to house-hunters on every rung on the housing ladder. Here's a run through what's on offer and where you can find it: |
PROPERTY IN BURY
Bury is a very roomy town. Trees seem to be everywhere you turn, the horizon never seems far away, and grass verges are a common sight.
The open spaces are not usually down to industrial dereliction; the piecemeal nature of development left areas with distinct identities, and the River Irwell cuts a huge swathe north to south through the centre of town.
This provides a natural boundary and splits Bury into east and west.
1. Bury East
• Fishpool: If you head south of Bury town centre you come to Fishpool. An initial collection of terraced housing gives way to a prosperous area of Victorian and inter-war semi-detached property, with generous gardens and garages the order of the day.
Rather sweetly, Fishpool used to be known as 'Piano Town', a name generated by the prevalence of the ivories in the middle-class parlours hereabouts.
• Redvales: The southernmost portion of Bury is Redvales. This is the place to come if you need to park a lot of cars.
Its vast semis on its arterial roads shield their smaller brethren, but grass verges, drives and garages are a given in this part of town. Its satellite of Warth Fold is a postwar replica of itself.
• Gigg and Pimhole: Moving east, and to the natural border of the River Roch, we come to Gigg and Pimhole.
The tiny cottage terraces of Gigg are having to get used to some impressive and varied townhouse and apartment developments on old mill land.
Pimhole has symmetrical grids of terraced working-class housing, and is now generally recognised as the Asian part of town. It has long had the worst reputation in Bury, based on the vast scrapyards that made up much of the local economy.
But times have changed, and the Pimhole Renewal Area, declared in 2003, has rung the changes. Properties have been facelifted, traffic calming has entered town and the dirt track that fed the yards is being transformed into a spruced-up estate road.
• Free Town: Crossing north over Rochdale Road, we come to Free Town. This is a jumble of buildings, with old mills, new industrial units, tiny pubs, Victorian terraces and some new housing developments rubbing shoulders with each other.
• Seedfield: Things are more unified and prosperous to the west in next-door Seedfield.
The bay window is king here, and there seems to be every variety of the semi-detached under the sun. These are offset by some large redbrick terraces.
• Limefield: Moving north over Clarence Park, the classy air is sustained by Limefield. The first impression of more and more bay windows is gradually replaced by a titanic new apartment development on the site of the old General Hospital.
With the houses the first signs of rough stone facades show that you are heading to villages deep in the Pennines.
• Walmersley: Bury peters out to the north in Walmersley. This wealthy district is a highly sought-after place to be, and the old stone cottages of this one-time village are now completely dominated by semi-detached and detached property of all sizes, most of them with a spacious garden and garage.
2. Bury West
• Brandlesholme: Crossing the River Irwell through the enchanting Burrs Country Park, we come to Brandlesholme, the north-western settlement of town.
This is definitely an area of two halves, mirroring Redvales to the south by having huge semis on its main roads, but here being fleshed out in more recent times with some very high-class Seventies houses and apartment blocks. There's also a sizeable council estate here.
• Higher Woodhill: Moving south, heading toward town, is Higher Woodhill. This is a blend of redbrick and stone terraces, though they are generally smaller than their more affluent northern neighbour. A few isolated modern developments have put roots down in the few spaces they could find.
• Elton: Heading south-west over the mini-valley created by the Kirklees Brook, we find Elton. This is a large area, possessing tight grids of streets, a mix of stone-clad, large pre-war terraces and Nineties semis. All this is offset by a very generous amount of parkland and playing fields.
• Daisyfield: South of Elton, taking Bury as close to the River Irwell as the old mills hereabout will let it, is Daisyfield.
This offshoot of the Bury and Bolton Road is characterised by large Victorian terraces, many now split into multi-occupancy, and with some newer apartment developments hidden from the main road.
• Starling and Mile Lane: The western extremity of Bury has shifted considerably since the Seventies. The massive estates of Starling and Mile Lane are respectable and much sought-after.
Eastern Mile Lane and Starling are particularly wealthy affairs, large townhouse and semi-detached developments, many as cul-de-sacs and surrounded by gardens, garages, drives and grass verges.
LIVING HERE
TRANSPORT
• Trains: In 1970 and 1972 Bury felt a double body-blow by losing its two railways, but it now has something that other areas of Greater Manchester would sell their art collections for: a tram stop.
Bury has the northern terminus of one of the three branches of Metrolink, the system that brought light railways back into Britain after a thirty-year absence. The exit from the tram stop takes you straight into the bus station.
• Road: Bury scores highly for motorways. The M60 and M61 are a few miles to the south, while the M66 runs right across the eastern edge of town - junction 2 is less than a mile from the town centre.
• Air: Take the tram. This will spirit you to Manchester Piccadilly, where trains run to the Airport in a matter of minutes.
SHOPPING
Bury Market: Bury market is split into the Open Market, the Flea Market, the Fish & Meat Market and Bury Market Hall, but they all run into one another and the divisions are not so clear when you're stuck in one of the happiest scrums you'll ever come across. The market has won a slew of awards down the years given for its "370 stalls and 50,000 product lines" - and in 2006 the National Association of British Market Authorities named it the best in Britain.
Although different parts of the market open every day, it's Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays that are the times to come along and experience the lot.
Just east of the market, over Angouleme Way, you can find your Matalans and your Homebases.
• Mill Gate Shopping Centre provides a mall experience boasting an impressive 130 stores and six restaurants based around five arcade streets.
• The Rock is evidently the old high street and plays host to a wide array of local traders. Few chain shops can be found here and thus tend to be local affairs.
EATING & DRINKING
• Pubs & Bars: There seems a happy truce between the pub and the wine bar in the centre of town.
This is a great place to hang out when the British climate will allow such a Mediterranean pastime, with many of the bars acting as bistros and with many flung open to the leafy streets in this western half of the town centre. With all this on offer your choice of drink is happily very wide indeed.
• Restaurants: The Mediterranean air is added to by the prominence of Italian eateries around town, with other choices coming from China, India and Thailand. There is also a wide amount of pub grub and bistro selections to go for.
Bury also plays a full role in the Manchester Food & Drink Festival each year, with the events of 2006 taking place in twenty-five different venues around town.
LEISURE & ENTERTAINMENT
• The Met: A very busy live venue slap bang in the centre of town and capable of pulling a great selection of different forms of music and theatre. Its expansive foyer doubles as the town's Tourist Information Bureau
• Museums & Galleries: Among the bars and pubs of the western town centre are Bury's civic worthies. The Bury Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, including a sizeable repository of British art down the centuries, is set in an impressive Edwardian edifice.
Opposite the main station for the East Lancs is the Transport Museum, a collection of road and rail vehicles used over the past century. Further west out of town on the Bolton Road is the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum, the regiment famous for the "Six V.Cs Before Breakfast" won at Gallipoli in 1915.
• East Lancashire Railway: Opened in 1846, closed in 1972 and brought back to life in 1991, this has become a phenomenon, running a full steam and diesel timetable throughout the year along its twelve mile length north to Rawtenstall (where you can visit Britain's last Temperance Bar).
Its themed weekends have become a roaring success, with the Second World War and Thomas the Tank extravaganzas drawing hundreds of thousands from around the world.
• Arts & Crafts Centre: For local education make your way to the Arts & Crafts Centre on Broad Street in town, and these will be able to furnish you with information to the seven community education centres spread around the borough.
SPORTS
The local authority, Bury Metro, runs seven leisure and sports centres, three within the town itself and another four further out in the borough (Radcliffe, Whitefield amd Ramsbottom).
On sites elsewhere the council manages, or helps to manage, sixty full-size football piches, fifteen fishing waters, twenty-four tennis courts, twenty-one bowling greens and other locations for basketball, speedway, archery and model aircraft flying.
The town has its own bona fide football club in Bury FC, "the Shakers", still playing at their historic home of Gigg Lane since its construction in 1885. The ground also plays host to the Swinton Lions, one of the most successful clubs in the history of rugby league.
Three cricket clubs can also be found in Bury: Elton All Saints, Greenmount and Radcliffe.
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
• Parks: Five in the town. Whitehead in Elton and Clarence in Limefield are particularly pretty - but if your lungs and legs can take it then head for Peel Tower on Holcombe Hill. A few miles north of the town, this is a perpetual presence on the horizon, closed for forty years after the war but now open for free to all.
Burrs Country Park: Bury's top draw is Burrs Country Park, happily placed close to the town centre, a huge affair that manages to be both peaceful in certain places and vibrant elsewhere.
With both natural and man-made watercourses it's a great draw for slalom, raft building, canoe and kayak enthusaists.
Other active types here are climbers and abseilers. The steam trains of the East Lancs Railway chug through here as well, all adding to the picturesque scene.
Other Country Parks: Other parks in the borough are Redisher Wood (north to Ramsbottom) and Prestwich Forest Park (south to Prestwich).
There is also Two Brooks Valley, a delightful self-contained paradise set neatly within its own natural borders in the west of the borough.
• The disused Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal can lead you on a rambling stroll from Bury to Radcliffe and Bolton.
Steve Roberts
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Leave the tumult of the market for the western half of the town centre and you'll find an attractive network of winding streets with a lovely blend of wine bars and old-style pubs, inviting you to finally put down those seven heavy bags of shopping and neck a jar of your favourite poison.