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The sense of “something has changed here?” is so deep in places like this. They are populated still but the architecture points clearly to a time when there wa

The sense of “something has changed here?” is so deep in places like this. They are populated still but the architecture points clearly to a time when there was so much more going on in the area. All around the UK there are spa towns and resorts that were clearly bustling with wealth (community and personal) a century ago, but have now slumped in popularity. A town like Malvern for example. It was the height of Edwardian (I think that’s the right era) sophistication. A must visit tourist destination for the middle classes. All that really remains anymore of the town’s prestige are the schools and the immovable hills. You see some spa infrastructure still but a lot of it is derelict. I was in Llanthony valley a few summers ago and took a really interesting guided tour through some local unpaved roads. Our guide, Henry was born in the village in 1930. He showed us the sites of two former pubs, now completely gone except for some York stones on the threshold. They’d drink there, or walk an hour across the valley to the pubs on the other side when they felt like it. We looked through the old school that taught 15 children of local families. It’s now just another big house with two cars parked outside. The big house up the top had a squire who rented land to Henry and his father where they grew valuable soft fruit crops for sale in the local market towns. The village had other services: a shop and a farrier. All gone. The fruit plots are now overtaken with ash and briar. People still lived in all of the houses, but they were now the country homes of people who worked in the big local towns, or London, or had just retired to the area. I don’t begrudge them for that, and it was surely a much poorer life back in the 1950s, but it was also a much more of a local one and that felt like it had a lot of value. It also felt like the people were all there but they just didn’t know each other any more. Or they did, but they didn’t work together, so it was a dormitory suburb albeit in the heart of a Welsh valley. No one worked there. It felt quite melancholic. The big towns took so much away from the second cities, villages, and countryside. When you can find British communities that still thrive away from the major cities it is magical. https://www.malvernremembers.org.uk/wp-content/gallery/great-malvern/great-malvern-7.jpg https://www.malvernremembers.org.uk/wp-content/gallery/great... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cwmyoy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cwmyoy http://thirdeyetraveller.com/st-martins-church-cwmyoy-crooked-church/ http://thirdeyetraveller.com/st-martins-church-cwmyoy-crooke... ...and here’s another great link: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-tenbury-wells-spa-1978-online https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-tenbury-wells-spa-...

feralimal 6y ago
"When you can find British communities that still thrive away from the major cities it is magical" Where's that, do you think?
- gorgoiler 6y ago
  You can probably find them anywhere if you can get access to the local old (ahem, established) people. It can be a tough crowd to break into though. Coming at it from the right angle helps. Deference and respect to the local history is just as important as a trip to any foreign place, or rather, a place where you are a foreigner. Local businesses unlock a lot of connections. Hardwood sawmills and butchers have worked well for me. A good local butcher supplies the best local pubs so getting to know one can unlock access to t’other. Pubs are extremely variable in the localness of their management. A village pub that’s owned by Greene King and no longer has a snug is a world away from a village freehouse with a family friendly public bar and a saloon bar full of sozzled young farmers. Knowledge of the countryside and Anglicanism helps too. The old guard’s interests overlap a lot with bird watching and Christ. I’m not religious but I am spiritual enough to enjoy chapel, and choral music is a free gig if you’re into that sound. People are glad to meet you in church: it’s the easiest way of signalling you take the community seriously. With all respect to the actual religious practice, in terms of the old ways far too many villages became Alpha / evangelical over the past few decades and in my limited experience it’s those communities that are letting go of the past. (This is a sweeping generalisation so I hope I’m not offending anyone.) I used to think that venerable old cultures were a mystical thing one only found in the Far East but they can also be right on your doorstep.
- zz865 6y ago
  Spain, Australia, Florida.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  Nowhere. The brightest and best leave to go to university and find decent jobs. The dregs stay behind creating a vicuous circle. In some areas retirees move in because the prices are so attractive but they bring very little economic activity with them. Often the only employer is the state which has perverse effects on local businesses (they can't compete with the higher public sector wages).

feralimal 6y ago

"When you can find British communities that still thrive away from the major cities it is magical" Where's that, do you think?

gorgoiler 6y ago
You can probably find them anywhere if you can get access to the local old (ahem, established) people. It can be a tough crowd to break into though. Coming at it from the right angle helps. Deference and respect to the local history is just as important as a trip to any foreign place, or rather, a place where you are a foreigner. Local businesses unlock a lot of connections. Hardwood sawmills and butchers have worked well for me. A good local butcher supplies the best local pubs so getting to know one can unlock access to t’other. Pubs are extremely variable in the localness of their management. A village pub that’s owned by Greene King and no longer has a snug is a world away from a village freehouse with a family friendly public bar and a saloon bar full of sozzled young farmers. Knowledge of the countryside and Anglicanism helps too. The old guard’s interests overlap a lot with bird watching and Christ. I’m not religious but I am spiritual enough to enjoy chapel, and choral music is a free gig if you’re into that sound. People are glad to meet you in church: it’s the easiest way of signalling you take the community seriously. With all respect to the actual religious practice, in terms of the old ways far too many villages became Alpha / evangelical over the past few decades and in my limited experience it’s those communities that are letting go of the past. (This is a sweeping generalisation so I hope I’m not offending anyone.) I used to think that venerable old cultures were a mystical thing one only found in the Far East but they can also be right on your doorstep.
zz865 6y ago
Spain, Australia, Florida.
tonyedgecombe 6y ago
Nowhere. The brightest and best leave to go to university and find decent jobs. The dregs stay behind creating a vicuous circle. In some areas retirees move in because the prices are so attractive but they bring very little economic activity with them. Often the only employer is the state which has perverse effects on local businesses (they can't compete with the higher public sector wages).