Go Skipton!
The French don’t seem to be as avid as the British when it comes to reading newspapers (in my, albeit, limited experience). One of the things I genuinely miss about the UK is receiving the Sunday newspaper; the thud as it drops onto the carpet and reading it over a Sunday breakfast cup of tea. To fill this gap, I have the Guardian Weekly delivered every Saturday. It’s a mish-mash of articles from the Guardian, The Washington Post, Le Monde and the Observer and it generally keeps me happy for a few hours. When I say “happy”, it’s rarely in a smile-as-you-read happiness. In fact, reading it is often quite a depressing experience, as it condenses a week of human suffering, war, current and pending ecological disasters and general doom and gloom into 40 pages.
So imagine my pleasure when this week I actually did have a smile-as-you-read moment. It happened as I was reading the “This week in Britain” section, which generally celebrates the dottiness of its subjects.
 Posh People at Harrods |
The article in question was about a pointless, only-in-the-UK competition, “Britain’s Best High Street”. It is not entirely clear what are the criteria for winning the competition, but it seems that this year’s finalists are Kensington High Street (home to Harrods etc), Portobello Road (wacky, hippy-type market if I remember well) and, err, Skipton High Street.
You need to know that we lived in Skipton for 3 years before leaving to come to France so I can say with confidence that I’m not sure what it is that qualifies Skipton for this prize. Could it be the wall-to-wall charity shops (I remember local uproar a few years ago when a bus company advertised day trips to Skipton from Liverpool, describing it as “the charity shop capital of the UK”)? All the usual national branches of Next, Boots etc. - maybe it’s because they are housed in relatively old buildings?
|
Hippies at Portobello Road Market |
In fact, it seems that the street market and a pie shop are the clinching factors. The market does seem to have some attraction - even now, my parents will drive 70 miles for a day out just to walk down the high street, invariably returning with a roll of kitchen foil while they are there (”everything £1″).
|
Skipton Market |
However, being objective, Skipton High Street is rather impressive, with its pristine castle and church at the top end, and the bottom bending round towards the canal. I wish them luck and hope that the Guardian Weekly sees fit to deliver the result to my door in France.
Go Skipton!
And here i am in Britain and i hadnt read about it!
Pol x
Often it’s just the silliest stories that are exported. You don’t know what you are missing out on!
I actually heard the guy who nominated Skipton high street on the radio the other week. He used to own the Skipton pie shop you mention but retired citing eating too many pies and wanting a healthier lifestyle! Absolutely true!
I wonder if Skipton got into the final 3 because there were only the pie-shop man, Mohammed Al-Fayed and a hippy who bothered to nominate their street?
If that’s the case then Silsden High Street will be right up there next year!
skipton won hands down and so it should