Property News · March 22, 2013

Let's move to Bacup, Lancashire


It’s the most Easter-y place in Britain, where evil winter sprites are beaten off by The CoconuttersWhat’s going for it? Where’s the most Easter-y place in Britain? Somewhere all cute and sylvan, I bet, eh? Perhaps involving chocolate, chicks, egg-rolling or fluffy lickle flop-eared rabbits. The little hamlet of Bunny, Notts, maybe. No, no, no. My pitch is a damp old economically challenged former mill town, deep in the Pennine valleys. Bacup is picturesque if you’ve a penchant for Victorian stone terraces and great hulking moors, which I do. Most of the centre is a conservation area. Film crews turn up regularly, after that perfectly preserved old-cotton-town-gone-a-bit-to-seed look. But its Easter-y-ness lies mostly in the peculiar existence of the Coconutters. Dressing up in frilly turbans and blackened faces might be considered a tricky activity in former Pennine mill towns, but here it’s a centuries-old tradition: something to do with mining, paganism, Moorish pirates, Cornwall, beating off evil winter sprites… The Coconutters gather at 9am at the Travellers Rest with the Stacksteads Silver Band and dance those evil winter sprites away through town till the early evening, fortifying themselves with liquid. Men will do anything for a beer. Still, beats simnel cake.The case against Waiting for the next big thing. Local fortunes of former mill towns can turn on a sixpence. Bacup needs a leg up. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Let’s move to Bacup, Lancashire

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