Taking a Leek!

So, the caravan was serviced, half term was upon us, and it was time to set off on our first jaunt of 2013.

Normally we'd head north - trolleying off to the Lake District, Scotland or the North East of England. But this year we pointed the car south towards Staffordshire. I know. We didn't know anyone went there either. It's a very under-rated place, Staffordshire. If I'm honest we weren't really going for the place, but to wish an old friend "bon voyage" as she packs up her life and moves it to the wilds of the Scottish Isles - where, ironically, we'll probably see a lot more of her than we have at any time since we parted ways at the end of University about a century ago. Thus it was that we found ourselves pitched up two miles outside the ancient borough of Leek. It's an odd little place, with much to recommend it, and even though our friend is no longer there I'll be surprised if we never go back.

It's an old place, Leek. First granted its charter in 1214 this little town has sat on the banks of the River Churnet  for some time longer than that. My first experience of the place was late on a Saturday afternoon when, having pitched up on site I discovered that I'd somehow mislaid the filler tube for the Aqua Roll*. This isn't always a problem of course, but the taps on site were about fifteen feet** above ground level and trying to fill the barrel without a tube would have involved getting more water on the ground (and me) than in the Aquaroll, and squelching my way across a campsite in sub zero February temperatures was not appealing in any way.

So, into Leek I went, in search of hosepipes.

Well, of course, I didn't want an actual hosepipe, but food grade plastic tubes compatible with campsite taps are surprisingly hard to come by. A search of the site's information room had revealed that there were no dedicated camping/caravanning supplies outlets within easy reach, and in their absence, I figured a bit of hosepipe would do the job.

So I drove in, followed the signs for short stay car parks and ended up in the staff car park of the "Staffordshire Moorlands" district council, which apparently is based in Leek. I was immediately impressed. Why don't more places do this? The council offices clearly need a car park, but given that the offices are closed on the weekend, coincidentally the same time that more people than usual want to come to the town, why on earth wouldn't you turn the council's staff car park into a pay and display on the weekend? Especially given the fact that the council's offices are about forty yards away from the town's historic market square?

Genius.

Seriously - I know it's geeky of me, but I'm always impressed by stuff like this. It shows that the people running the place have thought about stuff and are using their assets effectively. In this case, it also frees up the market square, which is normally used for parking, allowing a rather good little Saturday Market to be established without  making it impossible for people to park in order to shop there.

It was rather late in the day, and most of the stalls were packing up by the time I got there, but even then I got the impression of a pretty vibrant mercantile scene. There were stalls full of antiques, books, records (and I do mean records - proper vinyl, not just CDs) and a particularly fine collection of old Corgi and Matchbox vehicles which caught my attention rather more than it probably should.

What caught my eye the most though was the wide array of food based offerings. Stalls purveying jams and preserves, baked goods, meat - you name it, it was on sale. Or at least had been, as I say, I was there pretty late in the day. It's the kind of thing that I love to see in a market square - a lot of local produce and organic logos as far as the eye can see. Not that ogling the market was finding me a water barrel filler tube, so I set off down the high street to see what I could see.

As with so many other old towns, at street level everything looks pretty much the same as everywhere else - although there is a pleasing proliferation of independent shops here the high street chain stores with their generic shop fronts are also much in evidence.  Right at the top of the street though, a large display of gloriously muddy vegetables outside an old fashioned looking shop caught my attention. Could this be that rarest of things, a good old fashioned Green Grocer's shop? Well, yes - with the emphasis on "old fashioned", it would appear.

The Home and Colonial Stores is a remarkable place - a Leek institution it seems - and perhaps the epitome of what a good food shop should be. I walked in expecting it to be rather small and pokey, but in fact it's much, much larger than you'd guess from outside. I was going to describe it as TARDIS like, appearing larger on the inside then the outside, but actually it's more like something from the drawing board of MC Esher - it just extends on and on and every time you think you've reached a point where logic and physics dictate it must end, there's just a little bit more of it.

Seriously, I'm not even exaggerating. It must be the longest shop I've ever been in, and I'll go to my grave convinced that the interior of the place is longer than the building in which it is situated. As for what they sell, well. The short answer would appear to be "everything". Basically if you can eat it, you can get it there - unless it's out of season. None of your Asparagus air-freighted from Kenya here let me tell you.

It's more than just the merchandise though. There's something about the look of the place too. Sitting here reviewing my photos from this trip I'm appalled to discover that I didn't take a single photograph of Leek, which means I don't have a shot of this Edwardian looking shop front. Fortunately, there are plenty of pictures, and a short review/history of this remarkable little shop on the Totally, Locally, Leek website, which not only gets me off the hook, but also allows me to neatly segue into talking about this example of the sense of community that pervades the very cobblestones of the town.

The little market square is part of it, as is the way local businesses have joined together to promote each other's interests. Other places often seem to define their love of their local identity by declaring what they don't think fits in - as evidenced by the "keep Costa out of [insert town name here]" campaigns that spring up periodically***. Totally Locally Leek is more about making it easy for the general public to find and support local business, which in turn of course supports local jobs and helps prevent the high street becoming littered with the blight of empty shops. Indeed, so far as shops closing down in Leek, it seems to be the chain stores that are suffering, not the independents, which has to count as a win.

I'd walked the full length of the street, from the market square to the rather impressive war memorial - an obelisk shaped tower presented to the town in 1925 by the Nicholson family in memory of the fallen of the First World War and their son, Lieutenant Basil Lee Nicholson, who fell at Ypres - and not found a suitable camping store. There was a Millets in the throes of a closing down sale (what did I tell you about the chain stores suffering?) but nobody who could sell me a filler tube or a hosepipe.

So I turned on my heel and headed back for the market square to seek the assistance of the Tourist Information Centre which occupies one corner. The nice lady pondered my query for a second and suggested that I "try Wilco", which apparently was to be located "through the little alley next to New Look". This turned out to be good advice. The alley was indeed narrow - literally wide enough for one person to walk through, which led to a lot of  "no please, after you" politeness, but the Wilkinson store was indeed able to furnish me with a hosepipe at a ridiculously low price and I headed back to the caravan in triumph.

And what with one thing and another, I never did get back to explore the place properly. We didn't even set foot in any of the town's twenty seven or so pubs (there are five in the Market Square alone) which is seriously not like us! Still, as I said at the beginning - we'll be going back some time, so I guess you should watch this space. We never even ate lunch there - but don't worry, there will be a restaurant review, because we did eat out one evening (which again, is not really like us) so please do join me next time to find out what the Peak Weavers had to offer...

*I say I mislaid it because Mrs Snail insists that she's never touched it. I could protest that I've never taken it out of the caravan except when I was using it to fill the damn Aquaroll, and that I certainly haven't taken it out of the 'van while it's been parked up over the winter, but honestly - what would be the point?

**Clearly an exaggeration, but they were genuinely chest height. I have no idea why.

***Such as the successful campaign in Totnes I mentioned in an earlier column. Don't get me wrong, such campaigns have their place, but Totally Locally Leek is a much more positive way to go about things...