Well, I’ve finally on the verge of doing it. Leaving Leigh.
Leigh is an ex mill, ex mining town industrial town in Lancashire (not another man!). I’ve lived there for the last 38 years (all my life) and now I’m uprooting to Crosthwaite, near Kendal. Just why its’ taken me this long to get to live in Cumbria will become apparent as my blogs unravel in the ensuing weeks. I am, 38 male, Caucasian – (what ever that means – Caucasian - it sounds like two star signs have merged to make a weird sci fi creature). I am self employed Stand Up Comedian, ex Primary Teacher, ex electronics engineer and ex milkman! Over the past few years’ comedy has taken me all over the country, abroad to Dubai, Oman and even the Coronation Hall, Ulverston.

I first used to visit the South Lakes when I was a child. I used to long for the weekends when we could pack up and go to visit Uncle Francis, Aunty Annie and cousin Andrew in Ulverston for the weekend. Uncle Francis and Aunty Annie left Leigh in the 1960’s. Uncle Francis got a job teaching at St Mary’s primary school in the town and remained there all his working life. He was much loved and respected by all who knew him.
Sometimes we wouldn’t go quite that far and visit another Aunty, Aunty Dorothy in Morecambe. Morecambe was okay BUT it wasn’t the Lakes. Aunty Dorothy and Uncle John left Leigh for Morecambe in the 1950’s. In those days I imagine, going to live 100 miles away would be like saying you were going to live on the moon! A funny story Aunty Dorothy told about first moving to Morecambe was an experience in a fish and chip shop. In Leigh a common saying, in the chippy, was ‘chips and fishbits’. Fishbits being the batter which had come off the fish as they were fried. When she asked for fishbits in a Morecambe Bay chippy, the startled assistant shuffled off into the back and came out with a bag of fish heads, scales tails and innards! The cultural diversity of Lancashire!

As a child I used to love waking on those Sunday mornings in Ulverston and looking up on the hill behind the house to see the gloriously phallic Hoad Monument looking down on the town. A lighthouse on a hill a few miles from the sea! I remember talking to an old man with the name of ‘Christian’ up Hoad one sunny afternoon. We were watching the boats bringing the riders back from the TT. He pointed up at Hoad and in that lovely Lakeland accent saying, ‘they lit a fire next to it when the war was over. The silly buggers made the fire too close to the monument. Cracked bloody thing!’ After going to church at what seemed like 4 am we would call at Greatreax’s for our chocolate reward. I used to, and still do, love the higgledy piggledy lay out of Ulverston’s buildings. The cobbled main street and the sound of the crows. On Sunday afternoons we drove through the wilderness of Woodlands to the Greyhound pub at Grizebeck.

Over the past 21 years I must have spent a small fortune in petrol and diesel on travelling up and down the M6. I would stay till early Monday morning and drive back to work. The journey down always seemed quite quick and before I knew it I was back at my first job. An electronics engineer in Salford. Ulverston to Salford, quite a contrast. My first job on leaving school was for an electronics company called Amek. Amek produced the large mixing consoles used in recording studios. I used to build these mixers and in my time met a variety of famous producers, engineers and the odd pop star. Odd being the appropriate word for many of them. Next time I will elaborate a little more on how the move from Leigh to Crosthwaite is going and the general life of being a Stand Up comedian.
Keep Well!
MW x