Wow, what a busy day! We started off with Allan and Dot at a car boot market in Chelford, Cheshire. You’ve never seen so many ‘car boots’ in your life! We didn’t buy much as we have to consider our weight restrictions travelling back to Australia. Sandra bought a piece of carnival glass and Allan bought her a Doulton figureine “Simone” and an Aylsford dish. Al bought heaps for his market stall. After the market we drove to the “Cat and Fiddle” pub, up on the Pennines on the way to Buxton. There must have been some sort of motorcycle club outing on as there were literally hundreds of bikes in the car par – there was also a charity walk taking place, with the pub being used as a check point. We enjoyed a nice carvery meal and then drove back to Allan and Dots where we met a couple more of their family, Jackie and her ‘boyfriend’ Malcolm. Later, in the evening we drove to Huyton village which has changed completely since we were last here, more than 40 years ago. Then a visit to our old houses in Gentwood Road and Gladstone Avenue, complete with compulsory photographs. We were both amazed at how little things had changed here compared to the village. The roads were not as narrow and the streets were not a grey as we had been led to believe, in fact we commented on how green everything was. The only real difference, besides it being greener than we remembered, were the porches on the houses. We will definitely revisit the area before we move on! We then drove to have a look at our old house in Whalley Grove, Widnes and gave the current owner a bit of a shock when he saw Ron taking a photo of the house. He came out to check what we were doing and Ron explained that we were the original owners of the house when it was first built . He was quite happy, although somewhat bemused by the incident! Then on to the “Fiddlers Ferry” which used to be our ‘local’. Once again this was much prettier than we remembered , the pub being on a strip of land between a picturesque canal and the upper reaches of the River Mersey. There was a trivia competition taking place but we were too late to enter, but we enjoyed answering the questions anyway!
