The East Lancashire Railway is just the ticket
THE train’s destination said Rawtenstall, but the real destination seemed to be somewhere in the mid-Fifties.
The East Lancashire Railway is a heritage line that runs past pretty villages and valleys before arriving in Ramsbottom, a market town in the Irwell Valley, 14 miles from Manchester, but several decades away in terms of atmosphere.
The worn wooden seats in the waiting room, the vintage suitcases, the red and cream-coloured signal box.
All that was missing was the malevolent figure of Dr Beeching and perhaps a transistor radio broadcasting the Light Programme.
But this corner of Lancashire has moved with the times on the culinary and creative fronts.
I was there for the food and spent the day grazing on everything from shrimp fritters and pigs’ cheeks tapas at Levanter Fine Foods to home-made hot chocolate fondue at the Chocolate Cafe and a pint of ‘Breadcrumbs’ pale ale in the Irwell Works Brewery, which is in a Victorian former steam works.
That set me up nicely for a walk along part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail; a 30- mile track with 70 works by local and international artists, including a giant tilted vase and, my favourite, a 290 ft stainless steel path inscribed with poems, which winds through a picnic site and ends at a platform made from old railway sleepers, where you can watch the steam trains rumble past.
I stayed at the Eagle + Child, one of the most highly rated gastropubs with rooms in the North West.
With meat from the nearby Bowland Fells and fish from the coastal town of Fleetwood (less than 50 miles away) the menu was fresh and delicious.
Upstairs, my ‘Barn Owl’ suite was homely, and the view over Ramsbottom to Holcombe Moor grand enough to convert even a Cotswold devotee.
TRAVEL FACTS
TRAMS from Manchester go to Heywood and Bury. The East Lancashire Railway runs from Heywood to Rawtenstall ( eastlancsrailway.org.uk). Doubles at the Eagle + Child ( eagle-and-child.com, 01706 557181) from £90 B&B. For more information: visitlancashire.com.