Talking to someone yesterday who told me the reason the town gets a bad image is because a lot of people associate the performance of their team with the town, unless your that well known, like say Oxford,( where your claim to fame is being Oxford), you’re generally judged by your football team….our image must be shite then.
He could have a point though, because he moved up here from East London and was more than pleasantly surprised by the town.

The other standpoint is that Hartlepool would be as obscure outside its own patch as Telford or Nuneaton if it hadn't had a football league club for many decades.

do not think the world revolves around football as much as we think. there are people in the town who know where the vic is and thats about it. many will have no interest or even know where pools are in the league or which one they are in. how do people expect others from miles away feel about the town when they know even less or care about the club. when we went down last time i know one fan of bradford city who never knew we were relegated never mind how a premier league fan sees us or the town itself. really parts of london and burnley aint paved with gold or very inviting at all.

I know Liverpool FC is one of the top sides in the whole of Europe but I also know Liverpool is a siht hole.

I can produce loads of people who think it’s a lovely place……been there several times…… but because I had to and not out of choice or desire either.

I arrived in Har5lepool 1976 to work on the Seal Sands, my first night out was in Church Street, The Devon,now that was an experience,Alma and The Vic. I thought what a s*******. I then ventured further into the town and found all the other pubs, Stranton, Blackies, Park, Clansmen and Coble Bar, the Grange was closed as it had been on fire. In those days I found Hartlepool people one of the most friendly welcoming people I have ever come across, not sure if it has changed as I don’t spend so much time there now.
Not through choice I worked in Scunthorpe and Corby and they were s********, nowhere I ever worked even in the London area was there such depressing places, I will Bangor in North Wales it was like going back to the 60s.

If I could live anywhere in the UK, I'd be stuck between choosing Pickering and Berwick. A nice little bungalow on the outskirts (sea view in Berwick!)

Both have terrible teams! Rangers are stuck in lowland league oblivion and Pickering seem very lost in the Northern League.

You're very right about Corby been depressing, it's England's suicide capital. Other than that it's well known for having a large amount of Scottish diaspora.

Telford mentioned above is considered Britain's grooming capital if I remember rightly.

Nuneaton I've honestly got nothing. Heard its a shithole. Their club Nuneaton Borough never been that big a force even in non league.

Never been Telford, been to RAF Cosford that’s just down the road but never went to Telford…it’s the Peterlee of Shropshire I’ve heard.

There’s nothing there except a selection of industrial parks.

Terry Bell came from Nuneaton Borough, so that's one positive although it was a few years ago now.

Ah….Terry Bell…..how did the song go…..

He’s here, he’s there.
He’s every fucking where
Terry bell, Terry Bell.
……our loss, Readings gain…… for a £10K fee that kept the club alive.

actually it depends on what you class as a shithole. lived in rugby for 20 years and like a lot in warwickshire its totally bland. nuneaton where i worked for 6 months is ok and you get far more for your pound there in housing as you do in some poncy places like statford or leamington where the latter has more saturday night fights than nearby coventry gets. do think many people have some bad thoughts about places before they ever get there and find things to make these thoughts true. you can do a hatchet job on anywhere if you want to do.

It's an absolute hole. My son has lived near there for a couple of years. The town centre is dead as a doornail and thrill seekers have to go out to the local equivalent of Teesside Park in search of atmosphere.

there is some bad places in this country - and some that make Pools look like Kensington.

alot of people know Hartlepool from working here when the oil and gas / iron and steel games where strong. Some have very bad views and some have good - know alot of guys who found a women/and some here and stayed.

alot of guys even from the west side of the country are shocked at our house pricing and seem to think its a nice part of the world. which lets be honest it is.

there is landlocked shiteholes in the country slowly becoming religious ran small states - luckily for hartlepool we avoid all that.

ive found myself when working away always being in the presence of either a teessider or Geordie, we really do get everywhere, however i am also finding myself lately not having to explain to people that we are a small coastal town 45 mins south of the Toon ! Pools is on the map alot more and dare i say it is partially down to Mr Stelling as i wish i had a pound for every time some clueless southern west ham supporter has stated " aww thats Jeffs team, with the monkey" .

still though the amount of mackems i work with who didnt realise we had gotten out of the NL is beyond baffling

[quote="Eiphos_3"]

there is landlocked shiteholes in the country slowly becoming religious ran small states - luckily for hartlepool we avoid all that.

you mean like batley and dewsbury where crime is rarely mentioned even on the local news and everything is swept under the carpet for the name of diversity and tolerance.

You will find that most of s******* places were very industrialised but the industry has disappeared , Steelworks, Coal Mines, Shipyards etc.
Corby was one place, Steelworks which closed, lots of Scots ‘emigrated’ there, it was quite a unique place, the storeman on the job I was on had a Scottish accent, he had never been to Scotland in his life, his family were all from north of the border and he picked their accent up growing up as a kid.

There are many places that have both crap areas as well as very smart areas. I worked for a Birmingham Company for many years and was field based (Salesman etc) but there came a time when I needed to be more office based and the pressure to move to Birmingham. Now the Company was based in Digbeth, a spit from the Bull Ring. I took my wife up there and Digbeth was very adjacent to Sparkbrook, now that was a shithole. Wife says I'm not moving up here!. But I showed her Solihull and we actually put a bid that was accepted on a newish house. I had a bridging loan so I was ready to move straight away but the other party kept stalling even though I had signed a contract. I had enough and went on holiday telling my Solicitor that we must exchange contracts by the time I come back. The outcome was negative and as I had been living in a Company house nearby I had received a local freebie paper and noticed 2 show homes for sale - 1 in Atherstone (North Warwickshire) and 1 in Tamworth (Staffordshire) Both were in reach of the office and both close by the M42. Went to the Atherstone house and didnt really like it but then went on to the Tamworth house and liked it so much I bought it there and then without the wife seeing it.

PS My big sister has lived in Corby for about 30 years and yes it has plenty of rough areas and it helps if you speak with a Scottish accent (and occasionally wear a Kilt)

Atherstone is strange place. It’s essentially a pretty little village but completely ruined and overshadowed by the A5 and Magna Park. I think it was probably a lovely place to live at one point.

Tamworth is full of people who like to pretend they live in Lichfield

When working away in sometimes these remote places or unheard of locations i always used to go on the hunt for a propa good country pub - would always find one and always find the nicest of places tended to be rural or off the beaten track - one thing i still love about the UK is there is so many little untouched villages and small towns teeming with history and good pubs !

never been round Tamworth tbh - im guessing the Lichfield is their yarm to stockton type of scenario

I went to Birmingham on a course in the 70’s for a month at Northrop’s and there was five of us and our intrepid leader, a lovely bloke in his early fifties, we stopped at Shirley at a very nice hotel…..he took the whole crew out one night into Brum and said we’d have a meal followed by a film he fancied……he took us into a neat bar on the canal side which was a gay bar, which gave him the vapours….we were scattered then the musical he thought he was watching pushed him over the edge…….Last Tango in Paris… ….when we came down for breakfast next morning someone asked him why he had no butter on his toast… he took off vertically.
Only place I disliked on another course was…LUTON….glad to get out of it.

I think you will find it is more Sutton Coldfield (really part of Brum) which is slightly nearer than the 3 spires of Lichfield Cathedral.

Tamworth has different areas, Wilnecote, Stoneydelph. Belgrave, Amington, Bolehall and Mile Oak which actually comes under Lichfield District Council for paying rates etc.

Shirley, next to posh Solihull, is the home of Solihull Moors. I'm amazed you didn't get taken to the Balti Triangle, 3 roads, Stratford Road, Ladypool Road & Stoney Lane where there are several good Balti "restaurants" The first time I went in one in the 80's with several work colleagues the size of the naan bread was the size of a bed pillow and almost as thick. I think we only paid about £2 each as well!

Nobody has mentioned Darlington?

It's not exactly off the beaten track for anyone up here is it? The town has got the best shopping centre between Newcastle and York - miles better than Durham these days, which has gone 90% bars and restaurants to cater for its ever-growing student population.

Darlington is like Hartlepool, just with more money and no seafront.

Like to live in the fast lane do you ? ...I'll go for the penthouse in York City centre with panoramic views of Brighton seafront combo..

Brighton sea front…..overlooking the quarry they dare to call a beach. Surely not.

McMullen road quarry in Darlo was an area of fascination when i was a kid ,snowy..i can't believe your snobbery?

Er….I don’t think I want to go into your activities in a quarry……….. :shock……..have to go…. Er, I’m sharpening Ratboy’s teeth on the lathe….

What particularly attracts you to Brighton Mr S? Is it the Divine lookalikes?

Whitehaven and Workington appeared deprived areas when I worked at Sellafield, no idea why as there wasn’t much unemployment.

Mainly because the locals play politics and are floating voters…hence all party’s fawn over them, been doing it for years, check out the benefits over the years.
One year Labour, next time Tory, next time Labour…clever buggers.

you can shove both places as they are tourist areas so residents have to pay inflated prices for parking food out and everything you can think of. there are good parts in the worst town you can think of without paying the tourist surcharge. possibly at the moment places like oxford can be described as the worst places to live looking at their new greeny traffic plans. there it would be like living in owton manor and going back yo the A19 to get to the other side of town once your 100 direct journeys are up.

You haven’t been able to drive through the centre of Oxford for decades. It’s not a massive change. There are massive disparities in the city though - Blackbird Leys is still a very low income and high crime area.

Used to drive past Oxford regularly on the way to Portsmouth down the A34…… the first time we were going past she saw a road sign for Blackbird Leys and said”Ooo that sounds lovely” I knew better……
On the same journey she always saw a sign near Brackley for ‘Hinton in the Hedges’ after driving past it many times I flipped and actually drove down to it…very tidy, very chocolate box very nice…..but no people just twitching curtains…the village of the damned…. job done, she never mentioned it again.

Wouldn’t mind Seaview on the Isle of Wight…..Houses back onto the beach with a path behind…the wife was behind me chatting to a woman in one of the houses doing a barbecue….I hung about and eventually she caught up and casually asked if she knew her as they were laughing together……she casually replied ?..”Zoe Ball…her dads there too”.
I sauntered back casually and she was dead right…mind you the twats never spoke to me

Maybe your sauntering looked a tad furtive.

It's never easy to make conscious sauntering look casual. Policemen are trained to spot the difference. They call it loitering with intent

Loitering within tent, that's what I call camping.

The magistrate was very understanding

I have a friend who lives in a leafy, chocolate box village, in Surrey. He comes up here for a week every year & loves the place. He had the usual southern opinion of the town, until he came for the first time. Now he can't get enough of the town, it's the first holiday he books every year. Although he usually comes during the summer, so he hasn't had the pleasure (if that's the right word) of seeing a Pools game as yet.

Off the beaten track..Midnight Approaches..they're all topics running on here Mri..

I like large busy promenades and seafronts and i ain't going to live anywhere else other than close to the sea .Blackpool was alright in my teens..Bournemouth and Torquay are overrated,Dartmouth's nice..nothing at Paighton..Scarborough,Whitby no thanks..A nice property in Saltdean or Rottingdean pointing towards the channel would be perfect..maybe lunch in Alfriston.

The wife had friends in York whose kids were bowled over by the beaches…I bet Brighton would take any of them.

he is not the only one as her in the kitchens two brothers visited us a few years back. one luves near the ciast in norfolk the other a few miles outside poole. both were impressed with the town and the prices of stuff and even changed their minds on the bradford area. both took holidays up here and bradford also after their first visits. think we all do our own towns down somewhat and concentrate on negatives which abound everywhere.

Really? the nudist beach takes some beating.

Correction, the nudist boulders at Brighton, there is no beach, beaches have ‘sand’.
They should be fined for calling it a beach.

its a joke especially with all the free publicity the place always seems to get. how many who go there for the first time are totally dissapointed by the place. Possibly helps iteing on a fast railway line from bloody london, the centre of the universe.

The annual Brighton World naked bike ride is in July if anyone's interested.

Have to agree there, couldn’t stand living inland, have be on the coast.
Dartmouth is very nice apart from that dodgy ‘car ferry’ down nearest the harbour entrance…the ferry at the top had four of us in this black 4x4 with me driving stuck behind this goosed Fiat Panda driven by a lady who looked so frail she shouldn’t be driving….as the ferry went to pull in one of us pointed out the sticker on the back of her car saying ’Vera, Queen of Speed’…I thought as soon as we’re off the ferry I’m getting past her with my 2.2 litres…..she left me for dead ….bastid

A snip at 500K ? What a place to let ratboy loose,snowy.Are you handy with a sword?

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