I set off ready to hit the next batch of Aylesburys on the way and on the way back from my friends wedding reception. Basically a wonderful social event celebrating their marriage with lots of booze and a good time was had by all. Aiming to get to Sheffield before rush hour kicked in, I aimed for Doncaster for around 2ish and although hindered by the M1 widening road works, the journey was mostly clear. I benefited from a device which allows me to play my iPod through the car stereo so the music for the day was splendid.
Doncaster, place of the famous dome is a nice town and Aylesbury Road in Doncaster has clearly seen better days, looking as if it is made of 1930’s prefabs and refurbished housing, not looking particularly warm on the day I visited. Why is this Aylesbury here? Well I can’t really work it out. My 1st thoughts were that the nearby roads are names of famous Lords, however that would not explain the nearby Crecy drive. My best guess has to be famous castles, of which Aylesbury at one point may have had a castle, or a wooden defence line. It certainly doesn’t have one any more and the only linguistic remains of one currently known is the ubiquitously named Castle Street in Aylesbury, which for all we know could be a corruption of the name Cattle Street, an equally likely name for it given that Aylesbury is a market town.
After visiting I turned back down the M1 and returned to Sheffield, a place I have not been to in 2 years. It has changed a lot, some of it unrecognisable. On the way I passed this excellently named off licence which sold records, two great lines of business.
The nightclub Kingdom has been renamed Empire possibly after going though a relaunch. Be warned when that happens, look what happened to Julius Caesar. Arriving in Sheffield was fun and having avoided most of the rush hour traffic I made it up one of the large hills to where my old university friend was staying in an apartment on Daniel Hill.
The wedding reception was a nice one especially as it gave me the chance to catch up with old friends and see how everyone was doing and wish the bride and groom well.
The after party carried on till very early and so a lot of the next day was spent feeling extremely tired.
I did manage to catch up with another few old friends including a friend from Aylesbury, Will, who seemed impressed with the photos, no-one else ever does. I also saw a friend Jacqueline and we went to a restaurant called Bungalows and Bears which seemed bizarre at the least with kitsch tat everywhere but in a supposed cool style. Very strange, but nice in a chilled out way.
On the way home I heard a band playing in the West Street Live bar and went in to have a look. The bar was empty and as I walked in, the band stopped. I went to the bar, expecting to hear a bit more of the band, and if any good, would buy a drink. However they remained stopped, so I left. Not a great business model.
The next day I made my way across the peak district though Hope and the Devils Arse, still covered in snow to Macclesfield where another Aylesbury Road awaited. A really nice drive in the morning sunshine with great open spaces and no one else around. Macclesfield is a smallish town wish Aylesbury Close on the outskirts. One slightly interesting part are the stacked garages at the far end which are terraced down a slope, so that access to one is the roof of another in three layers. However, the vital flaw in these garages is that the roofs of these garages can’t support a weight of a car, leaving them as unstable buildings, risky to get in or out of. This development has clearly taken its name from the towns of Buckinghamshire with the next door road being Amersham Close, no controversy there.
Driving to Stoke on Trent next I was listening to the radio to hear that the Jamaicans had sent a relief boat to the earthquake hit island of Haiti. I can imagine the Jamaicans arrived at the Haitan relief effort bringing large home made pots of goat curry and crates of Red Stripe beer. There will be a more relaxed attitude to the rescue effort now and the Jamaican aid secretary has stated, “Don’t worry, about a thing, cause every little thing, it’s gonna be alright”
Stoke on Trent’s Aylesbury Road is a nice road where people have made the best out of a bad set of housing and have done up some of their houses to look quite nice. It is a skinny road and parking anywhere except straddling the pavement would make it difficult for others to pass by. I assume that this Aylesbury is just named after towns in the south of England, that’s the only link I can see from the names so far.
After all that and 3 days of fun I went home back to the normality of life.
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