Where tourists rarely pass, part 16: a trio of small historic cities | United Kingdom holidays

WHenever this series focused on the city includes a city, a proud screaming follows. The English distinction – not linked to a cathedral, a certain form of local government, nor the size of the population – is extravagant, even if signed by Royalty. This selection of destinations does not concern Alfa cities. The smallest is ancient; The other two just coined. Nobody deserves bypass.

Carlisle

I arrived in Carlisle through the Costa Costa line And later he would go on the slight railway to settle. Getting to this ancient city halfway through it is all too common. If Carlisle was not among so many places of beauty – Laghi and Dales, Scotland and Northumbria, Wall of Adriano and North Pennini – would be a tourist hotspot.

Its origins are found in the Roman Lugavalium settlement, a key military base of the third century and the administrative center to keep the natives down Carvetii. A castle appeared for the first time in 1093; his successor Greet you out of the station. A priory and a city and a bishop decreed in the twelfth century were founded. The walls were built quickly; The western sticks remain. The Anglo-Norman historian Jordan Fantosme (who died around 1185) describes the “equitable city and well defense of Carlisle … shining in its beauty while the sun illuminates its walls and turrets”. The myth turned around them. The French arto poet Chrétien de Troyes identified the court of Arthur with Carlisle.

The wool was woven and tinged; The skin was tanned. Both raw materials were exported to Ireland. From the 13th century, the gaze moved to Scotland, with Carlisle as a base for the invasion. Among other things, it became bloody. The so -called Questionable landsPreviously too poor to be important, it became a bed of anarchy. Border Reivers From both nations they broke into the farm and settlements. This was the last part of Great Britain to be brought under the control of a state, starting from 1530.

Subsequently, Carlisle was an important commercial place, for corn, cattle, horses, with three fairs and eight flourishing corporations (merchants, tanners, skinners and gloves, butchers, smiths, weavers, tailors and socks). THE Guildhall It is a beauty with listed wooden frame capable. However, the commercial activity has decreased. Daniel Defoe, visiting in 1724, reported that “the city is strong, but small, the old buildings, but the street fair … there is not much exchange here neither on land nor at sea, being a simple frontier”.

The industry has restarted again, through the channel, the roads and, in particular the railways. It has become a substantial north-western city. Dickens and Wilkie Collins remained at County hotel on their tours. The latter used his northern experiences while writing the woman in white. I guess a beer sip and scribble the Victorian John Watt & Son Teaarss In his last year.

Things to see and do: Larircost Priory (bus Ad122 and 685), Adriano’s wall (Birdoswald) to Brampeton; Carlisle Cathedral

Doncaster

A definition of the North is “point of no return”. In 1603, Sir Robert Carey, deciding to provide the news that Queen Elizabeth who had died in James VI in Holyrood, traveled on horseback from London to Doncaster in one day. Henry Bolingbroke was proclaimed Henry IV in Doncaster. The powers of the North met their enemies to negotiate near Doncaster during the Pilgrimage of graceA revolt against Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell.

The envoys of England were following their Roman ancestors. Doncaster was a natural base forward for leaders and skirmish. Great North Road offers both entry point and focus for a day trip to Donny. The starting gate is the Hippodrome, here since 1776, also the first year of St Leger.

Great North Road (A638) is an elegant boulevard. On South Parade there are intelligent terraces of the early 19th century. Extended parks extend on both sides of the road. In Regent Square, the leaf comes to the city. In the area they are The countA hotel from the 1930s with its art deco restored shimmering; Pointa flourishing gallery, coffee and cultural space; AND GreetingAn adorable boozer who held his arch for the coaches towed by horses.

Doncaster collects the pace while walking. Soon the old main drag bristles with pubs and bars. Hall Gate becomes High Street. On the sidewalk there are two wavy timing: one for Doncaster (the Romans invade the 55 BC, Foundation of Danecastre 1152, floods 1750); the other for world events (Braille 1837, Cubism 1907, etc.). Which stands above is the MANSION HouseOne of the two buildings listed in I in the city center and the official base of the Civic Mayor. The free tours of the opulent scale, the meeting rooms and the ballroom are offered monthly.

The Roman name, the water, is all: Water Hotel; hydraulic and water heating; Water coffee. THE Danum Gallery, Library and Museum It is an extraordinary contemporary building, which lived part of the old ox of Doncaster High School for Girls Building. It has a superb collection of railway cimeli, with the green arrow and the Atlantic locos built at Doncaster Plant Works as magnificent centrveie. Above these there are beautiful library areas for adults and children, an intelligent coffee and an art gallery that contrasts oils from masters of race meetings and do not move with contemporary works that reflect more Forestry attitudes towards mental health.

Church of San Giorgio It is the other building listed on I. known as Minci, it is prominent, dark and divine and visible from afar. The architecture historian Nikolaus Pevsner considered him the “most proud and more cathedral of … parish churches”. I walked under it, above the North Bridge, beyond the Danum Retail Park at the Sun Inn, there to discover the Roman ridge – a branch of the old Roman road called Ermine Street, green and full of birds. In a bench I ate a ham cake from the venerated local bakery Condiments. The Romans are said to have introduced the idea of ​​overcoming the cakes and I was having a cake of condiments on the road with which their legionaries and their recipes arrived. A Roman cake on a Roman road.

Things to see and do: Conisbrough castle, South Yorkshire Air Museum, Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Doncaster markets.

Swansea

The British and the Scots are high on the second cities. Wales is not in doubt, but this does not discourage the slopes. In a parody of “Ugly, Lovely Town” by Dylan Thomas, the corrupt policeman Terry Walsh (played by Dography Scott) in the 1997 film Twin Town describes Swansea Like a “rather shitty city”.

I disagree: the houses of the terrace varied on hills on the steep side and the sweeping Baia of Swansea offer comfort to the research eye. If all Swansea is not cute, blame the blitz, which canceled buildings, lives, means of subsistence, part of the past. The name of the city has nothing to do with the swans or the sea. Once it was called Sweins e.g. OR EyeCSwein’s Island. In Welsh, it is Abertawe, which means mouth of the Tawe River. Swein may have been a Notarsman who built a fort on the island around the1000 as a base to raid the Welsh coast.

The city was founded at the beginning of the twelfth century during the Norman conquest of Wales. A wooden castle was built on the Wocester Place website, rebuilt in the stone at the beginning of the thirteenth century – still standing at the southern end of High Street, a little moored by modern buildings. A city, with a market and a garrison, arose. Much later, Swansea grew around the action of coal and the drawing of iron mineral, in the construction of ships and in the expedition, and at the end of the eighteenth century it saw copper boom, lead and ceramics. In 1801 the population was about 6,800; At the end of the century, he had exceeded 100,000. Over the past three decades, the moles have been redeveloped – and renamed as the maritime neighborhood (or marina).

Dylan Thomas is too famous, his ownership of Swansea (e Laugharne) too established for needing to revisit. Other artists are worthy guides. The Ode of Vernon Watkins in Swansea opens with precise images of its particular luminance: “Bright city, thrown by time waves on a hill”. Alfred Janes painting Castle Street, Swansea 1941-41 Capture the urban heart blitzed and violated. Daniel Jones’s Fifth symphony It can evoke the drama of the surrounding wild landscapes, the internal turmoil, the sea, the memories of war or none of these. He confirmed it “without a serious rival as the main symphonist of the Principality”.

These three, with other friends and Thomas, were collectively known as the Kardomah band. THE Kardomah Cafe in Portland Street is not the original (which was located on Castle Street) but it is a delicious combination of fat -style fat spoon and retro chic of the 21st century. The city is full of iconic sites for the locals and literary pilgrims in the same way: the No cartel bar (the oldest wine bar in the city); THE Eclitic tower Astronomical Observatory; the gentle Morgan’s Hotel; The magnificently (Mis) called Salubrous Passage off the coast of Wind Street; the old cinema Carlton (now a bookshelf).

Trainspotters and history enthusiasts look at each other as Misty on the Swansea and Mumbles railway, open on March 25, 1807, to transport the first paying passengers to the world; A replica of the first horse -drawn carriage is on display Tramshed in the tourist port. I follow his path to Mumbles and The Gower – who gets up towards sunset.
Things to see and do: Swansea Jack Memorial; 5 CWmdonkin Drive (Dylan Thomas’s House) and Cwmdonkin Park, Dylan Thomas Center, National Museum on the Lungomare.

Chris Moss’s visits were assisted by Visit England, Visit Wales and Doncaster Council