Author Description

Walk around Bradford in Avon and everything about the town has seems to give off an air of comfortable pleasurable success. People look well dressed and healthy and the shops seem full of nice things to buy. A gentle river rolls through the outskirts of the town past well-kept parks and houses built out of a beautiful golden stone can be seen climbing the steep slopes of the hillside above it. Do the same thing in Bradford Yorkshire and, by comparison, everything seems to reek of neglect and decline. Yet look a little closer under the surface and these two places have much more in common than it might at first appear. This book sets out to explore those similarities and differences and then takes the reader to other places in Britain that share a name but at first sight appear to share little else. The book explores:*Bradford Yorkshire and Bradford on Avon - wool towns that have prospered at different stages in their history*Clapham in London and the small village of Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales - a very busy and a very quiet location to get off a train*Richmond in North Yorkshire and Richmond on Thames - two towns that rise high above a fine river but with dramatically different views*The Newtown in Wales where Robert Owen was born and the New Town in Lanark that he created*Newcastle Under Lyme and Newcastle Upon Tyne - urban centres that have reacted very differently to industrial decline*Stamford Bridge near York, the place where the battle was fought, and the area around Stamford Bridge Chelsea *Bolton Lancashire and Bolton Abbey Yorkshire - to explore the history of working people enjoying themselves *The river Dee in Wales and England from its estuary to its source and the river Dee in Scotland from the Highlands to the sea.*The Downham Estate, a small village in Yorkshire preserved from modernisation by the long ownership of a single family and the Downham Estate in London, a giant council estate designed by a team of well-meaning planners.Travel with the a