Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Wentworth Woodhouse

 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - The Rockingham Arms Pub Lunch

 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Elsecar

Finally reaching Chapeltown, the first place our friends took us to was to a park! Elsecar Park to be exact. We were going to have a morning tea there. But first, a walk around the park. I love the photos in this cover, of blue skies and trees and chairs at the park. Just imaging sitting there looking down! Lovely.

We managed to get some snacks and tea at the only shop at the park. It was pretty crowded inside, and it's dog friendly. Except for a short period where one dog couldn't stop barking inside the shop, the rest of the dogs inside were pretty well behave. We got some brownies, and I learned that a blondie was just a brownie without chocolates! Ha! We got tea too, but I think they ran out of ceramic cups, so we ended up with paper cups which wasn't ideal for my first tea in the British countryside! I think my friend was kinda disappointed with it, but it was alright, I was just happy to be there. It was only my 2nd day here, I'm sure I'll get a chance of some decent English Tea somewhere else along my trip.

We managed to see a lot of ducks during our walk at the park too. It was more of an empty ground area than a park. It looked pretty wild or 'natural' for me who comes from Singapore where every park is almost man-handle to some point. 

Just a short walk away near the park, was another open air industrial themed park which was free to enter. One of our friend was a History teacher, so I guess we're bond to learn some history along our trip!

Here is a map of Elsecar. I find it interesting when my plans for the day says 'visit friend' and I have no idea what my day would turn out to be. So being here in Elsecar was new to me! For a start, I don't even know anything about the town or it's iron and steel industry.

The park area was free to enter, mainly hosting old buildings that used to process iron and steel. But the minerals have all been mined, so now it's just a shell of it's glory days. 

Here's a photo of our friend Tom telling us a little bit of the history of this place. I quickly went to walk next to his wife Trish after that cause I didn't want to be quiz about the history at the end of the day!

Saw a red telephone booth there and had to take a photo cause it's so British!

There are shops and seats where you could have something to eat too.  It was such a sunny day!

Love chimneys, something I also don't see often. Scenes like these reminds me of Oliver Twist and the boys who cleans chimneys from my childhood books!

Noted also the lovely emerald-gold looking clock hanging at the old building. Love the colours!

We walked past some shops at one section, and it looked kinda like a thrift shop. 

I saw some lovely ceramic wares outside, selling by the boxes! And they were pretty cheap too! Like one pound, or two pound. Oh if only I could carry them back! I would love having these and using them for my tea ritual! I wanted to go into the shops to take a look, but I wasn't sure if we had time. I have no idea what our friends have planned for us. But luckily, Trish might have felt what I hoping for. She took me inside the shop. I guess she loves walking thru thrift shops too.

Inside the shop was an amazing arrays of cabinets filled with treasures! Everything was probably 2nd hand, but it was so fascinating looking at everything. And unlike a second hand shop in Singapore where it's cramped and dusty, the shop here was spacious and pretty airy. 

I thought the sign above was hilarious. Haha. And it looked like they do have everything!

Every corner, a treasure. Reminds me of 2nd hand markets in Paris, where everything there was filled with art and beauty for me that I wander why people threw these things out. I guess a westerner would feel the same when they come to the East and see chopsticks and rice bowls.....

It was a lovely morning, but soon it was time for lunch, and our friend drove us to a nearby pub for some local English food :P I saw some nice churches on our drive there. The roads were pretty unique too, with small houses and cottages and small alleys. But we didn't stop by any, only drove pass until we reached our next destination. 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Train to Sheffield and Chapeltown

Early the next morning, we made our way to Oxford Road train station. We were going to visit our friends Trish and Tom in Sheffield. This was the only reason we were stopping in Manchester first before heading to Scotland. When trying to figure out how to get to Sheffield, I realised that Oxford Road is such a common name that I was scared of booking the wrong ticket! The only Oxford Road I knew then was the one in London. 

We got to the station early and managed to explore around the area. It was probably around later 7-ish in the morning, so there weren't many people around. It was nice and cold, and we manage to take some photos of old pubs at the small alley near the train station.

I wasn't planning on exploring Manchester much on this trip, so I can't stay I've done much researched on it. So it was nice to see whatever interesting sights that came my way. So seeing street arts or decorations on the wall like these were a plus for me. 

I also love wordings that looked like it came from old English books, as well as pictures. It's strange, I find there are a lot of art and beauty in advertisement and don't really mind wondering around looking at it. Some people find it boring. I don't really go to cities to shop, but more to look at the buildings and decorations there. And shop displays and shop fronts are pretty fun to look at for me.

I've also learned that there is such a thing call Cask Marque, a kind of a seal of approval for a pint in UK? I guess this is similar to a Michelin sign, or a Good Restaurant sign in Korea? Strange how 5mins walk in the alley and you can learn some new things :)

Since my husband was into cycling, I also took note of cycling related facilities at the station. They have a cycling hub where cyclist could stop by. Bicycles are allowed on the train, which I think it's nice. It does save on public transport if you could ride your bicycles anywhere. I would love to be able to, if only the streets in Singapore was safer for cycling on. I personally don't. I think I can only cycle on country roads, provided it's not a narrow one next to a ditch!

Finally we went into the station. It was easy enough using our QR code from our tickets. We bought all our train tickets via Trainpal app and find it reliable enough that I am doing the same thing on my trip in 2026! 

While waiting for the train, my next favourite activity was looking at trains! When booking, I have no ideas the type of trains that I would end up on. All I knew were the names of the train, which doesn't really tell me much. 

 

We boarded our EMR train, and we had to transfer at Sheffield's as we needed to go to Chapteltown, south of Yorkshine. Yes, there are more than one Chapeltown in UK too! So it's really confusing for me. And whenever there is a train transfer, there is always the risk of getting on the wrong train, or missing the train, or not getting off in time etc. The anxiety of it all! So as much as possible, I try to book a direct train, or one that has at least 30mins of transit time.

Inside the first leg of our train trip. The train was pretty modern. I mean, I wasn't expecting much from the exterior look for the train. But I was glad the inside looked like a modern train with seats and even tables. We didn't bring food on our short trip to Sheffield, but we sure gonna do so in longer trips! 

The view of the country side was really relaxing. It was probably common to the locals, but I love looking out the windows whenever I'm on train and just watching the world go by. It's such a different world than mine!

Looking at sheep or goats grazing on the field, it looked like something out of a story book for me. We were also fortunate to see such lovely blue skies on that day. I was prepared for gloomy weather and rain, but it was just lovely.

Seeing chalk dividers like these also reminded me of Discworld where Tiffany Aching lives. It's just  magical for me to visit places like these were it seems I can relive the stories I once read about. It's the same in almost every country that I visit. We always have some perception of a place, and when we are actually there, it's nice to see how our perception held up. 

Finally, about an hour in, we reached Sheffield and waited for our connecting train to Chapeltown where our friends would pick us up from. I wasn't really sure what to expect!