Chatteris?
Car crime's low, gun crime's lower.......
At least someone wrote a song about it.
My grandparents lived in Chatteris for maybe 80% of their lives.
I guess the best way to describe it is a a bland sandford. Less greater good and more beige
never been more disappointed by anywhere.
Well, maybe Chester.
I thought Chester was quite nice.... Having said that, I grew up in Thurrock and thenlived in Blandford, sorry, Chelmsford, for a few years.
I even thought Ipswich was attractive in parts.
Lived in Cambridge for 4 years
It's lovely in places, but yeah claustrophobic, despite all that sky, head fenwards for real weirdness
As much as anything its not well connected, making it a pita the arse to get anywhere else
Chester is like a chavvy York.
And the walk round the walls is ruined by the stench of piss.
Unexpectedly nice places?
Glasgow, Liverpool annnnnnnd Norwich, funnily enough.
And when younger found Birmingham to be amazing fun when down there for work. Great nightlife.
I grew up in Mereside, and even I find Chatteris a bit concerning...
Having said that I do genuinely love the emptiness and skies of The Fens, especially in winter.
Plus I have a distinct advantage when it comes to using my fingers to count on...
you should head into the fens
As averred above, you really shouldn't. @alpin ssh about Ipswich otherwise there'll be more incomers.
Having said that I do genuinely love the emptiness and skies of The Fens, especially in winter.
To be serious for a mo, yes, I genuinely get that.
The skies were awesome.
I used to live in a valley and hated it. Which is why I now live on top of a hill.
For ultimate shite, try Dartford or Hull or...
Trouble is, a lot of places are now post industrial wastelands and have no reason to exist beyond the population that's failed to escape.
Bit sad really.
@colournoise
A mate of mine at college was from whittlesey, so i made the obvious comment about webbed feet. Turns out i got it right, I knew that out there they were adapted for the damp.
There is a really good book called 'The Fens' which gives a great flavour of why the fens are actually pretty amazing and have been for millenia
We joke we're the only people ever to move INTO Burnley.
But, it's surrounded by really interesting countryside, the people are very friendly and the economy is on the up, lots of tech firms moving in etc.
Mind you, we both come from the Moston*/Harpurhey/Blackley badlands, so anywhere is an improvement. 😀
* Now massively improved thanks to African immigration. Schools full of well dressed kids eager to learn, Moston Lane now full of thriving new shops etc.....
Heard “Ipswich”, was drawn to the thread…
Cambridgeshire is a strange county, it’s like they slammed two very different parts of the country together and joined them where the A14 is. North of that it is flat, very fertile and just odd and seems to be mostly farming. South of it has a bit of geography, some farming, but has more money and the university. I lived on the border of the two for a long time, travelled to the fens a lot and worked in Cambridge. I accept that it’s a good university, but I don’t like the culture of the place.
Ipswich though, damn. Post-industrial and post-fishing wasteland, similar to a lot of coastal Suffolk. Home to what used to be the largest housing estate in Europe and a half-finished harbour regeneration project that needs more regeneration. I guess it has some nice buildings and Christchurch Park is ok, but not really feeling much other than that.
I grew up in Mereside
Do Mersiders disassociate themselves with Ramsey? And is there competition between the different Ramseys?
the wedding was at Sheene Mill,
ah! Used to stay there when visiting Melbourn & Cambridge for work. It is nice. Though the geese and other birds at the back can be noisy early on a morning.
Very welcoming and a nice place to relax.
Cambridge? Nice enough. More town-sized than city-sized. Had fun visiting friends who studied there back in the day. And some nice visits for work. Not easy to get to though. Even with all the new roads.
Cambridgeshire - not much to add to what’s been said. Big, flat, rural.
Way back in the day, in another career, I used to go out as far as Wisbech. Different again.
I worked in the area for about 6 months, around Huntingdon, St Neots and up towards Swaffam. Came very close to buying a house in a village near Ely - the job then went to rats, so a bit of a lucky escape. Some of the fenland towns like March and Chatteris just plain weird - anywhere you see a hairdressers called Curl Up and Dye - just keep going! Driving was truly scary, particularly late summer autumn where there are slow moving tractors on the roads - you’d be minding your own business with a tractor coming towards you and then someone would pull out to overtake the tractor and you’d have to stand on the brakes to avoid a collision. Used to loath the A14 - too much traffic and bad driving with 2 trucks side-by-side attempting to pass each other at 50mph for mile after mile. Global warming a good outcome when it all gets flooded 😉
Real fascination with The Fens - in small doses. Recall Winter rail journeys from Norwich to Leicester and wondering whether that was what the Trans Siberian railway might be like. In certain lights the land and sky seem inseparable. Couldn’t conceive of living there though. Graham Swift’s Waterland is a good read. Used to be far more prosperous. Wisbech has its issues, but there is some great Georgian architecture.
I like that there’s a place there called EYE. Seems to sum up the weirdness.
Wisbech: is it pronounced Wizbeach or Wizbeck? Always thought the former but heard the latter used on telly recently.
Wizzbeach. No idea where the other one came from.
It’s Wizbeach not Wizbeck, the latter is a slur on the large immigrant community who live there, often also called Wisbekistan.
I’ve lived in the area most of my life, like anywhere there are good and bad bits. Walking along the Ouse can be nice as are some of the villages. Cambridge itself is now over developed and just always heaving with tourists.
Wisbeach.. I did my A levels there. Chatteris is very odd, not friendly, and hot for petty crime and now growing weed I'm reliably informed.
There are great skies but living there is hard work. My grandparents lived out on Prickwillow which is really out there
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plains?
Highlight of my Christmas was getting that question right when the teams didn't on the Only Connect special. 🙂
As this is (supposedly) a mountain biking forum, I'm sure we'd all like to live with hills and mountains on our doorsteps. Unfortunately, that's not always possible, work and family get in the way. Having said that, I like the bleakness of the Fens, I like the huge skies, and when it says sun rise is it 7:30 that's when you see the sun, it's not hidden behind some inconveniently placed hill (which also means we get a full days worth of daylight).
Yes, there are some dodgy towns, and some people do drugs, but is that any worse than anywhere else? Plus it's one of the driest places in the UK, so less wet rides.
As has been said above, Ely cathedral is a staggeringly beautiful building (said as an atheist) which I can see from the village I live in, and Cambridge has an almost infinite supply of the high tech jobs I need (for a few mores years anyway).
And I've yet to meet anyone with more than the correct number of fingers.
Unexpectedly nice places?
Glasgow, Liverpool annnnnnnd Norwich, funnily enough.
The first time I went to Liverpool, I was scouting out universities. After all the stereotypes, I was astonished how nice it was.
Glasgow is decent enough, but there's too many neds whose idea of a good night out is eight pints and a glassing.
We joke we’re the only people ever to move INTO Burnley.
But,
I suspect this is true of many places but, there's nice bits (honest!) and not-so-nice bits of Burnley. Moving into Burnley makes total sense when you consider where I moved here from.
Didn't realise wisbek was short for that
The fens would be dead if there were no immigrants
It’s Wizbeach not Wizbeck, the latter is a slur on the large immigrant community who live there, often also called Wisbekistan.
I've never heard of the place until just now, but purely based on the spelling I'd have pronounced it Wizbeck.
But these fair isles have always had a fractious relationship with town pronunciations. I live between Oswaldtwistle and Barnoldswick, spoken as Ozzletwizzle and Barlick.
Unexpectedly nice places?
Glasgow, Liverpool annnnnnnd Norwich, funnily enough.
Probably my top three unexpectedly nice places as well.
Absolute belter of a cathedral in Ely.
Agreed. We saw the bogwood table last time we were down. Some nice pubs in Cambridge too. Cambridge Brewhouse is our regular whwn we are down.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-61407297
https://www.thecambridgebrewhouse.com/
Though I admit the first time I visited Cambridge I was surprised how the city centre was a mixture of stunning university architecture beside pound shops.
And I like seeing cycling as a major slice of local transport.
Wisbekistan
Shoot me but 🤣
I always thought the wisbekistan was more a comment on the state of the town rather than the inhabitants. As it doesn't really work, most are Eastern european rather than from any of the stans. However the town wouldn't look out of place in one of the poorer stans it just hasn't got any obvious shell holes
Tbh, I always knew it as Wizbeach, I'd never heard of the Wizbechistan thing, the Wizbeck I heard on the telly was just probably the result of some inept TV researcher who'd never been north of Islington getting it wrong.
I'd heard of Bradistan of course as my ****stani mate proudly delights in calling it at every opportunity, but as the previous poster pointed out, I wasn't aware of a large ****stani community in Wisbech, so the Eastern European 'stan' thing makes sense due to all the farm workers. Haven't they all buggered off now due to Brexit? I have an old school friend who moved out that way who was always very angry and red-faced on the matter whenever he posted online. He's been quiet for years...
There's generally too many tourists in Cambridge but if you know the right places to go then there are some lovely quieter places. It definitely helps if you know someone who can get you into the colleges.
Cambridge born and raised. Used to be a much nicer place before it became a tech hub. All the Colleges were just open to walk into and take shortcuts through. No guided punts or touts, just self propelled ones hired from outside the Anchor or opposite the grad centre. Some of the best pubs I've ever been to - Freepress, King Street Run, Flying Pig, Live and Let Live, Boat House. I guess most of these have gone now or are just tourist traps like the Anchor and the Eagle which used to be awesome but is just a shadow of itself. Used to be weird interesting shops in little corners everywhere. Always bumping in to cool people from the world of science and the arts
My wife and I left in 1999 but went back for a weekend break a couple of years ago and it was horrendously busy and they had ripped out loads of the old buildings to replace them with awful shopping centres and office blocks. Cars, tourists and touts everywhere. Stupid massive triple punts blocking the whole river and all the colleges closed off unless you paid for a tour - no thanks!
...and the countryside around Cambridge is soooooo dull. My memory of cycling as a teenager and young adult is one long ride into a headwind with a never changing view of a single massive ploughed field....
The first time I went to Liverpool, I was scouting out universities. After all the stereotypes, I was astonished how nice it was
Try going to a match at Anfield and take your life in your hands with a stroll through the surrounding streets, for the true third world experience. There’s a good reason away fans serenade the Kop with a rousing chorus of ‘in your Liverpool slums’
Towns and cities much of a muchness. Its the surrounding countryside that sell a place to me.
Briefly I staffed stalls at university careers fairs
Liverpool stands out in my memory
Firstly some one had fire bombed a cubicle in the toilets. Secondly watching people wandering up to the stalls of top city firms to enquire about careers, pint in one hand role up in the other
I live in Cambridgeshire, just north of Cambridge. It's fine. There are much worse places.
Sure, it's not the Lake District, or the Highlands, but what were you expecting?
If you come by car, and expect to drive everywhere, you will discover a motorway, a couple of dual carriageways, a John Lewis in the city centre that will take you three hours of queuing to reach, and another three hours of queuing to leave, and a giant Tesco's at Bar Hill.
But if you get on a bike, there is loads to discover, and some really glorious bike rides. I went out today towards Gamlingay - mile after mile of quiet, empty roads, with just a few sensible car drivers, and a slightly muddy bridle way.
Of course, there are plenty of things to dislike, but even the Fens can be amazing - cycling to Denver Sluice and eating lemon drizzle cake in the cafe there is well worth it, then keep going to Sunny Hunny.
Just to add, the route from Littleport to the Denver Sluice System via Black Horse Drove alongside the river on Ten Mile Bank is a most wonderful ride early on a sunny spring/summer morning.
the treachery of the roads, can anyone local elucidate?
As a couple of people have pointed out, due to the way the underlying peat dries and settles, when there’s side-roads joining, the road has a decidedly unsettling manner of rolling up and down, and that was particularly noticeable when I was driving my Ford Puma towards Benwick, to stay with friends many years ago. It was easiest to straddle the centre white line, because you could see anyone coming at least half a mile away. And keep the speed down, the stiff-ish suspension made things… <i>interesting </i>at anything over 40! My friends who live in Benwick have a narrowboat they keep in a marina a little distance away, they can bring her around on a spur to the end of the road, moor up and walk backwards and forwards to load up before going for a cruise, which is dead handy. They spent a month or so earlier this year cruising around the local network, and had a great time. I was hoping to get up there again last year, but it wasn’t to be, so hopefully sometime this year. It’s a 150 mile drive for me, and not the best roads across country from North Wiltshire.
My formative driving years were spent on those roads and looking back I was probably quite lucky in never ending up in a field or dyke - used to blat everywhere pretty rapidly, and the undulations were grin inducing in a 'proper' mini close to its limits!
And keep the speed down, the stiff-ish suspension made things… <i>interesting </i>at anything over 40!
In the dark it's very easy to drive into an over-filled drain. The local young drivers sometimes end up rather dead by drowning as a result of pressing on in the wrong place.
