Not sure quite what you’re looking for, but here are some ideas for some off-the-beaten-track stuff. If this is your thing I’ll think of a few more.
Bristol is a real cool city, young and vibrant. The docks extend right into the heart of the city; it’s not an industrial area now, but repurposed for leisure. The sheds (warehouses, identified by the letters of the alphabet) have been largely converted to restaurants and bars, and even on a mild Saturday in February (!!) the waterside was jumping, packed with people eating and drinking – Lord knows what it’s like on a summer Friday night (@SanVito might know as well).
I wrote some stuff about the city’s complex relationship with its past elsewhere, starting with why we chose to visit:
First, I’ve never been. Second, it has a reputation for being a cool place. Thirdly, there was that Edward Colston thing, and I really don’t know how well that is known outside the UK, so I’ll recap. Back in the day, the city elders erected a statue of Edward Colston, noted philanthropist and - uh - slave trader. Yeah, for a while Bristol was a real big player in the slave trade. However, as you might have imagined, in more recent times there has been a degree of hostility towards the statue. Bristol has an extremely diverse population, which was annoyed (read: furious) that the city council was basically sitting on their hands over the matter. So that when Black Lives Matter erupted, a crowd neatly resolved the situation by tearing the statue down and throwing [it] in the harbor.
Four people were identified and prosecuted (“The Colston Four”). And here’s the thing: despite the fact that they very obviously did it (something they didn’t even deny - though they did seek to justify it) the jury refused to find them guilty.
There’s a (free) museum in M-Shed, which is where Colston’s statue ended up (on its side). The exhibit tells the story, and features, almost as an afterthought, a framed super-cool t-shirt which I yearn for: a picture of the empty plinth, and above it in huge letters “BRISTOL” (We took a selfie in front of the plinth, of course).
There’s a lot more to see in Bristol - the market hall, Queen Square, Clifton Suspension Bridge, Banksy artwork and other fine street art etc etc,. Slave trader philanthropy funded many things in Bristol – hospitals, works on the Cathedral – and it’s interesting to see how the city is dealing with its past.
Now, from Bristol it’s a short train ride to Devizes, a handsome West-of-England market town. There’s a lovely view from the Market Place down Northgate Street to Wadworth’s Brewery, a beautiful old building. A mile beyond (and we didn’t know this when we stopped off there, dammit) is one of the engineering wonders of the UK canal system, Caen Hill Locks
Now, from Devizes (and I’ve never done this so I don’t know the details) you can catch a bus to Avebury – I’ve been there and can attest to its weirdness. There’s a stone circle/henge which absolutely dwarfs Stonehenge, and the village is, well, built inside it. Some of the village anyway. I’m not saying Don’t go to Stonehenge. But Avebury is better.
(Bristol is also a short train ride from Bath as well.)
j
