I didn't say that though, did I?

DunR
Last time I was there, Leek still had a shop selling home made oat-cakes!
And a butcher who made his own faggots and pies.

Definitely a very strong plus. I think I would move there just for them.

I have walked through Lichfield, but do not remember any similar culinary delight. But will be delighted to be corrected.

If it is any assistance, I used to live near Leek, don't drive, and got around perfectly well by public transport. I was transport campaign organiser for an environmental charity, and had to get about the whole county on a regular basis, as well as meetings in Birmingham, Manchester and London.

Leek doesn't have a train station, but it has good bus services to Stoke on Trent which does. The main bus station for Stoke on Trent is in Hanley, so you have to get another bus to the rail station in Stoke, but since there is a bus every couple of minutes that isn't really a problem, though I usually walked between the two, since it is only twenty minutes and a pleasant stroll through the park.

Leek does have good bus services to other places as well, including Derby and various towns in the Peak District. If you want to walk in the Peaks, Leek is a much better bet than Lichfield.

From Stoke the train will take you to Manchester, Birmingham and London. There are local train services too, though always under threat.

Lastly a word for the Moorland and City Railway project, in which I have a continuing interest as a shareholder in The Churnet Valley Railway. The plan is to re-open the railway from Cauldon Low to Stoke, going through Leek. So in a few years there may be a station at Leek you can use.

After extolling the virtues of Leek to Dunrovin, I'm wondering if we've made the right choice in moving to Devon.

Oh well....

We used to spend a lot of time in Shenstone near Lichfield and really liked it up there, a bit busy for us but a really nice area.

Stone is a nice little town too.

Just by the circuitous route!

Come on Roary, it's plainly obvious the thread has moved on, stop sweating the petty things!

Do you have a favourite place in the UK? I like Cumbria for its undulation and scads of rain. I only saw a few places as late as last week, and I loved Ambleside!
I do appreciate that it's expensive and not everyone could afford to live there.

I do understand that, honest I do...

I'm not familiar with Stone, near Shenstone?

I am not "sweating" anything. If you believe the thread had moved on, then why post what you did? I was simply responding to your post.

I would also suggest that if the thread has moved on from "what makes Britain completely crap" to little places people like, then all posts such as those are off-topic. Perhaps if you and others want to talk about such a thing, then a new thread should be started and all these off-topic posts moved over to it.

Considering the original post was intended to be ironic, based on the premise that Britain is not completely crap, then pretty much all 300+ posts on this thread have been off-topic.

I refer you to Post 336.

The best thing to do when someone is deliberately trying to stir up the sh*t between people (as in the original purpose of this thread) or wind up a specific individual is to ignore it.

Difficult at times but why give them what they want?

Shenstone is south of Lichfield. Nice place but a bit too close to the M6 for my tastes, and proximity to the motorway puts up property prices.

Stone is south of Stoke and north of Stafford, has a railway station and is on the canal system too (two of my nineteenth century ancestors who were bargees got married there). A lot of new building on the flood plain which is to be avoided, but pleasant Victorian properties in the old town. Admiral John Jervis is buried in the churchyard. Nice church. Good transport links, partly thanks to yours truly who was part of campaign objecting to closure of train station.

You're another person now who has openly said that this is a troll thread - that's bandrui, Harvester523, (to some extent) old.sparkles, and now you dunroving.

What you say seems to directly match the definition of trolling in the site rules To simply ignore a troll thread as you suggest dunrovin, is to ignore the site rules.

You got it, spot on.