Idle Banter For non SV and non bike related chat (and the odd bit of humour - but if any post isn't suitable it'll get deleted real quick).![]() |
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#1 |
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.....considering to relocate there from Manchester
Any areas to look into for a 3/4 bedroom semi or fully detached? Cheers |
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#2 |
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Dunno about living there, but there are a couple of good biker pubs.
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#3 |
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that's a plus then
![]() does that mean they have nice bike roads as well? |
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#4 |
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I lived in Long Buckby for a while. If you like scenery & have a transport, it's a decent place.
Lots of flat roads with open views, but I wasn't riding back then, so didn't take that much notice. Can't say I spent much time in Northampton itself, back & forth to work by train was about as much as there was to it. Although there were a few decent nightclubs in Northampton. |
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#5 |
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i lived near northampton for the first 18 years of my life, and go back regularly-ish...what do you mean there's decent nightclubs?!
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#6 | |
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#7 |
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muffles can you suggest any areas I could look for property?
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#8 |
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Ahhh, what can I say...
There is tradition it seems with many of my friends who live here to seem to develop some wierd food allergy soon after arriving in the town. Trust me, I've never known so many Gluten/Lactose/egg/nut/wheat allergic people. Not to mention the two with ulcers, one with Gall Stones and the best of the bunch - Sue, who really upped the stakes by developing Chrones (SP) and having 6" of her intestine removed! Then there's the local 'colour' with Fire Tramp (who we're sure is actually dead now!), White Lightening Man and 50p Lil (who has a mention on IMDb - in the forum about the film Sexy Boots!). There are quite a number of green spaces and parks across the town. The largest of which - The Racecourse - is host to the Hot Air Balloon Festival every August, and my housemate location of choice when it comes to sleeping in a bush when on his drunken meandering home after a Saturday night spent on the town! So crime wise it's either fairly safe (for a very large pitch black hole in the centre of town!) or he just looks so much like a bumbling tramp that noone thinks he's worth mugging. One day he may even get left some money by passers by. The county itself is the capital of speed cameras - making the town camera central. Though this used to be not too bad for bikes as they favour Truvelo camera that are only forward facing - they have started realising their 'error' and have begun to make the buggers rear facing too. That said they are fairly good on positioning them with shedloads of signs and plenty of warning - which is nice of them as there are some lovely roads round here. A summer night with a full moon, so you can see any approaching headlights for miles around can make to the best of silver-tinted playgrounds. ![]() Oh yeah - following on from that it their strange obsession for speedbumps. They're every where. I don't think they are actually planned - but more a case of a large lorry of tarmac is endlessly wandering, lost and alone, round town with it's tailgate loose. Every time it hits a pothole, a load falls off the back and lo, we have another speedbump. In some cases it must have really been a big drop as we also have that wonderfully insane phenomenon - the raised junction. It's just a big speedbump really - only it covers a junction - invariable with a mini roundabout on it too. Great fun in the wet, down a leafey avenue, in Autumn - NOT. ![]() Avoid living - hmmm - well unless you want other 'services' than Tescos to be down your street - don't move to Semilong. Lings - ahhh - Lings. A few years (3 or 4) ago the Government set up an education initiative called the City Academys. They were/are new all singing, all dancing secondary schools back by private/business funding - great equipment, specialist and focussed teaching etc. they were to be set up in some of the worst innercity areas, in the likes of Manchester, London etc. So it came as no surprise to many that the Lings area of Northampton got one! It also contains the wonderfully named Weston Favell Shopping Centre, with it's huge Tescos. Weston Favell is a nice area, espescially the 'absorbed village' that is Weston Favell itself. Things is, it is actually down the road from the centre - which is in... you guessed it... Lings. All in all - just like any other town that once had a relatively thriving specialist industry (the shoe/leather trade), There're boom bits and busted bits and bits that are inbetween. Some nice architecture and eyesore estates. Just an average large town. ![]() |
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#9 |
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K - what can I say mate
![]() Read through the whole post laughing in the office with people staring at me but I'm left with a big questionmark.....are you suggesting I don't move to Northampton? ![]() |
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#10 |
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Well, I would suggest you run screaming into the hills...
... but it's kinda flat round here so you'd have a ways to go! ![]() The reality is that it's just another large town (some say small city, bit that's just an illusion of grandeur really) with it's quirks, failings and upsides. Historically it was a manufacturing town, so there's plenty of beautiful old brick warehousing that is systematically being turned in to trendy apartments. But what the hey - it keeps some good architecture and revitalises areas. There are Theatres - so culture doesn't completely pass us by - hey, we even had Brian Blessed in Panto here last year! Now that's gotta count for something. The town itself has grown to absorb a few little villages, Like Weston Favell, Kingsthorpe Hollow and one that is on the left somewhere from my usual route from home to the cinema. I found it once by accident when a road was closed and the traffic was diverted. Gorgeous little rough stone houses, picture perfect little hamlet in a hollow... ... totally surrounded by modern houses that if you drove by on the main road (which I had been doing for years) you'd never know it existed. There is even a river - the Nene. though if you are a local seems to have mysteriously dropped the second 'e' and is pronounced 'nen' (like 'men') rather than 'neen'. It forever plagues me and marks me as an outsider (from 40 miles away in Bedford). But what can I do - my Dad was an English Teacher and loved the Nene Valley Railway (yup, a steam train geek) so I'm kinda cursed and speak differently. ![]() That said calling it a river is a bit of an overstatement, but often done I think as a mark of cautious respect. To look at parts of it you be more inclined to call it a reed filled dribble that occupies a meandering ditch across the town... ... which also goes some way to explaining why the posh river-front flats look somewhat out of place. OK, so they're across the road from B&Q which doesn't help either. ![]() However, respect is due as it has been known to take offence to the human population and occasionally try to drown half of the town! So yeah - buy a house on a hill (see opening comment!). Outside of the town there are some really nice villages and small towns. Though in some be careful, instead of strange digestive disorders you may grow a few extra fingers and develop a natural affinity with banjos and porches. |
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