I was astonished to see that WGC still has a department store, though it is called John Lewis now. I thought all such shops outside central London were long gone. John Lewis seems to be a very up market sort of a shop despite advertising throughout the building that it is cheap, cheap, cheap. Never knowingly undersold!
Well maybe! I found an iron casserole dish on sale for £300. I have an identical one I got in Millom for under a fiver; but it was from a charity shop. Do they count?
Strange alien trees, pollarded to within an inch of their life, dominate the green leading to the station. Incidentally the railway still works very well. The trains are not new but the one I was on was packed, on a Saturday.
Alongside the trees there’s a statue of Ebenezer Howard, pioneer of garden cities and the concept of conurbation. I doubt if he would think the town a success but it sure looked like it to me.
There are few charity shops and most of the retail space is full. There are plenty of cafes, good ones too, but also key up market stores: Sainsbury’s etc.
The town centre still has places you might call a pub; more than there were when I lived here in the sixties. The Cherry Tree has gone but the Fountain seems to survive, now called Misya!
Jonathan Brind