Anders Hanson

I admit it doesn’t happen often, but I have at last found something on which I agree with Rhodri Morgan.

In a recent interview on BBC Radio Wales he declared his favourite place in Wales to be the beach at Mwnt. He clearly has very good taste.

Mwnt is at the end of a very long country lane near Cardigan. It basically consists of a headland, a church, a wonderful beach, and some great views over the sea (with less great views inland towards a distant caravan park).

When I took friends of mine to Ceredigion last year to show them where I used to live, one of the places I took them too was Mwnt. The beach is in the middle of nowhere and is beautiful. My friends also appeared to fall in love with it too, despite nearly being blown off the top of the headland.  As Rhodri Morgan points out it is also the home of dolphins as well as seals, as is much of the West Wales coast.

If you are in the area then it is definitely worth visiting.

One of the many advantages of living in the city centre is that I now have new places on my doorstep that before would take a bit more planning and a longer journey.

Two of those places I went to on Monday, when I went for a walk from my flat up through Norfolk Park and across to the Cholera Monument Gardens. Norfolk Park is one of Sheffield’s bigger parks and is also one of the oldest in the country. It is just minutes from the edge of the city centre but as soon as you start walking through it, it could be in the middle of the countryside. But the best bit is what you meet at the top of the hill - the view across the city. I’ve written before on this website about how the hills are one of the best things about the city. That is certainly true in the case of Norfolk Park, which has amazing views across the city centre, across the city as a whole and then out in to the countryside.

I then walked through the neighbouring residential streets past the impressive Shrewsbury Hospital Estate, and then to the Cholera Monument Grounds. I felt as though I knew this park as you can see the Cholera Monument from some distance across the valley, but I realised that I didn’t. It is a beautiful park that is made up of carefully trimmed lawns and a tree-lined avenue leading from the road. It is quiet and secluded and yet right at the heart of the city. By the monument itself you then have yet another dramatic view across the city. It is great that the high-rises of Claywood Flats also no longer block out part of the view as they once did.

Sheffield may not be known as a beautiful city, but if an outsider came to both of these places they would rapidly change their mind.

SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL: Norfolk Park

SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL: Cholera Monument Grounds

FLIKR: Anders Hanson’s Sheffield Collection

When I moved to Aberystwyth I was told by Mark Williams, now the Lib Dem MP for Ceredigion, that although I might not realise it yet, I would fall in love with Aberystwyth. He was right, I did.

I only spent nine months living in Aberystwyth, but I loved being there, and despite having lived in other places before and since, I can never quite leave the town alone. An article in The Independent on Sunday yesterday managed to sum up quite a few of the reasons why this is the case.

Aberystwyth is completely unique in the UK. It manages to be both big town Britain and small-time rural Britain all in one place. It has a thriving university, whilst also being the centre for local farmers. It is in a majority Welsh speaking area, whilst also having a large English community. It is miles from the nearest major city, and yet includes some of the most important national institutions both in Wales and the UK. It is both beautiful and ugly. Cosmopolitan and parochial. It is quite simply a huge jumble of different things and that is why I love it.

The article in The Independent picked out some places in the town that I also love. But I would also like to give a bit of a push to some others:

• Parc Natur Penglais. The most popular place to get a grand view of the town is the top of Constitution Hill. But further along just above where I lived in North Road is a park that stretches up Penglais Hill. It includes winding paths, heathland and woodland. It also includes seats and rocks to sit on and is wonderful on hot days as it faces south across the town.
• The end of the promenade under the war memorial. This is the point where the prom turns from running roughly southwest to running south, and at it there is what feels like a little promontory of paving that sticks out in to the sea . On a stormy day it is remote, bleak and invigorating. On a calm day it is warm, sunny and relaxing.
  
• Tanybwlch. Visitors to Aberystwyth know the main beaches along the promenade. Tanybwlch is the beach to the south of the town on the other side of the harbour. It is reached by following a small residential street off the main road at Trefechan and it comes to an abrupt end by the bridge over the River Ystwyth. This beach is pebbly but great to walk along as it is empty but beautiful.
• South jetty of the harbour. This is reached from Tanybwlch beach and is used mainly by people fishing. It is a great spot to see the comings and goings of the harbour, with the sea lapping against the jetty.
• Mecca Coffee Houseon Chalybeate Street. Possibly one of the best coffee shops in the country and a town institution. I loved drinking their mochas.
• Rummers on Bridge Street. My favourite bar. It is in an old boathouse by the River Rheidol, and has a lovely outdoor terrace. The bar itself is down some steps, with a low ceiling and with sawdust on the floor. Its customers are a complete cross-section of the town - young and old, Welsh and English, locals and students, and many more things too. It often hosts live bands on a Friday night, but beware as it is often packed and on warm days it gets absolutely roasting.
• Cae Melyn. It seems odd to name a residential street, but I got to know this road by delivering leaflets there during the Welsh Assembly elections. It is a complete mix of houses, but quite a few are unusually designed 60s and 70s modern homes that are in complete contrast to the rest of the town. My mistake was to deliver the road in the dark the first time. It is a switchback road that runs up a steep hill, and the gardens are so long that by the time you get to the letterbox you’ve fallen down a hole that you didn’t see in the dark.
• The alleyways and yards of old Aberystwyth. Behind the main roads are all sorts of hidden alleyways and streets, where there are houses, businesses or even historic buildings. The best one is the one that goes from the promenade, up some steps and then comes out near the back of the library. Most people don’t know it is there, but on the short walk you end up stumbling on parts of the old town walls.

On another day I will also list the must-see places elsewhere in Ceredigion. But suffice to say, I have fallen in love with Aberystwyth and the surrounding area. Unfortunately I had to move away after only a short period of time for job reasons. But since then I have stayed in touch, and have plenty of friends in the area.

THE INDEPENDENT: Aberystwyth: little city on the coast

Yesterday I walked the Five Weirs Walk from Sheffield city centre along the River Don to Meadowhall. I then returned along the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal back to the city centre.

The Five Weirs Walk was planned many years ago and has gradually been created over the last fifteen years. The aim was to allow people to walk the full length of the Lower Don Valley where the River Don passes through the old industrial East End of Sheffield. Although there are still a couple of stretches where access is still blocked by riverside factories it is now largely complete. Not only does it give you some sense of how industrial Sheffield still is, but it also gives you an idea of how derelict some areas still are and how much nature has now grown up along the river bank.

I came back along Sheffield Canal, which is now very green and feels far less industrial than the river. The canal passes many of the sports facilities that were built for the World Student Games in 1991.

I have uploaded some of my photos to my Sheffield album on Flikr to give a sense of what the area is now like.

Anders Hanson’s Sheffield album on Flikr

As today was a day off and with nothing planned, I did what all normal people do, and went off to Lincolnshire to look at an oil refinery.

I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with industrial architecture. The more obvious examples are some of the great mill buildings that you get across the north of England that these days seem to be used more for posh apartments than for making anything. But I also find some of the less attractive and still active industrial architecture fascinating.

I’ve posted before about how much I like the coast of Lincolnshire, and so with a whole day free I decided that it would be a good trip out. But for some unexplained reason I decided to drive around the Killingholme and Immingham area to look at some of the oil refineries and power stations that are there. I’ve uploaded one photo that I took, but I will upload the rest to Flikr when they’ve resolved the technical problems that they’ve got today. (12th Sept update - all photos now uploaded)

After driving around that area I decided to visit Cleethorpes as it is somewhere I haven’t been before and it gave me the opportunity to walk along the sea. It was low tide when I arrived and so I saw very little sea, but it is still quite dramatic to see the ships in the Humber Estuary from a distance and nice just to get a change of scenery and some sea air. Although I don’t really do the traditional British seaside holiday, there is something about seaside towns that I really like.

Anders Hanson on Flikr