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Lancaster Lancashire

Approximate Population: 45,952

Lancaster is a city in North West England and the county town of Lancashire. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952.   Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including neighbouring Morecambe.

Long existing as a commercial, cultural and educational centre, Lancaster is the settlement that gives Lancashire its name. Lancaster has several unique ties to the British monarchy; the House of Lancaster was a branch of the English royal family, whilst the Duchy of Lancaster holds large estates on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, who herself is also the Duke of Lancaster. Lancaster was granted city status in 1937 for its “long association with the crown” and because it was “the county town of the King’s Duchy of Lancaster”.

With its history based on its port and canal, Lancaster is an ancient settlement, dominated by Lancaster Castle.

Rent Houses Lancaster Lancashire

Rent Houses Nottingham Nottinghamshire

Approximate Population: 288,700

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England and is one of only eight members of the English Core Cities Group.

In the 15th century, Nottingham had established itself as the centre of a thriving export trade in religious sculpture made from alabaster.   The town became a county corporate in 1449, giving it effective self-government, in the words of the charter, “for eternity”.   The Castle and Shire Hall were expressly excluded and technically remained as detached Parishes of Nottinghamshire.

During the Industrial Revolution, much of Nottingham’s prosperity was founded on the textile industry; in particular, Nottingham was an internationally important centre of lace manufacture.   However, the rapid and poorly planned growth left Nottingham with the reputation of having the worst slums in the British Empire outside India.   Residents of these slums rioted in 1831, in protest against the Duke of Newcastle’s opposition to the Reform Act 1832, setting fire his residence, Nottingham Castle.

In common with the UK textile industry as a whole, Nottingham’s textile sector fell into headlong decline in the decades following World War II, as British manufacturers proved unable to compete on price or volume with the output of factories in the Far East and South Asia.   Very little textile manufacture now takes place in Nottingham, but the City’s heyday in this sector endowed it with some fine industrial buildings in the Lace Market district. Many of these have been restored and put to new uses.

Rent Houses Nottingham Nottinghamshire

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Lincoln Lincolnshire

Approximate Population: 101,000

After the first destructive Viking raids Lincoln once again rose to some importance. In Viking times Lincoln was a trading centre important enough to issue coins from its own mint.   After the establishment of Dane Law in 886, Lincoln became one of The Five Boroughs in the East Midlands.   Over the next few centuries, Lincoln once again rose to prominence.   In 1068, two years after the Norman Conquest, William I ordered Lincoln Castle to be built on the site of the former Roman settlement, for the same strategic reasons and using the same road.

Construction of the first Lincoln Cathedral, within its close or walled precinct facing the castle, began when the see was removed from Dorchester and completed in 1092; it was rebuilt after a fire but was destroyed by an unusual earthquake in 1185.

The rebuilt Lincoln Minster, enlarged to the east at each rebuilding, was on a magnificent scale, its crossing tower crowned by a spire reputed to have been 160 m (525 ft) high, the highest in Europe.   When completed the central of the three spires is widely accepted to have succeeded the Great Pyramids of Egypt as the tallest man-made structure in the world.

Rent Houses Lincoln Lincolnshire

Rent Houses Wakefield West Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 79,885

Wakefield is the main settlement of the City of Wakefield metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder, it had a population of 76,886 in 2001. Wakefield was a centre for cloth dealing and had its own Piece Hall.   For much of the 18th and 19th century, Wakefield had an unusually diverse economy for Yorkshire, but it was a much smaller town during that period. Textile mills grouped around the River Calder, and a large glass works in the east of the city was a large employer.

There were several collieries around the outskirts of the town, and engineering works in the centre that had strong links to mining.   The Eastmoor area was once home to large brickyards. Its position as the seat of local government for the West Riding also provided many local jobs in the councils, courts and prison.

Many Wakefield families were and indeed still are prominent in the Wakefield area. The Parkinson’s of Wakefield held a well respected position due to their wealth and fairness.   Many of the family now live in Normanton on the outskirts of Wakefield, however Andrew Parkinson, does still live within the centre of Wakefield and many hold the same respect for him as those held for his ancestors of old.

The indie-punk band The Cribs are from Wakefield as were the heavy metal band Vardis. Prior to their emergence, Jane McDonald was the most celebrated Wakefield-born contributor to the music industry. Jane regularly mentions Wakefield when acting as a panellist on ITV1’s Loose Women, for various reasons, usually when talking about her childhood. The Wakefield area also has a variety of local pubs and clubs which serve a wide selection of different rock-style groups. The Strafford Arms and Escobar clubs being noted among these.

Rent Houses Wakefield West Yorkshire

Rent Houses Salford Greater Manchester

Approximate Population: 72,750

With increased competition from the towns of Bolton and Oldham, Salford’s cotton spinning industries faltered, and so its economy turned increasingly to other textiles and to the finishing trades, including rexine and silk dyeing, and fulling and bleaching, at a string of works in Salford.  For centuries in Salford, textiles and related trades were the main source of employment.

Both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels spent time in Salford, studying the plight of the British working class.   In The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Engels described Salford as “really one large working-class quarter …[a] very unhealthy, dirty and dilapidated district which, while other industries were almost always textile related is situated opposite the ‘Old Church’ of Manchester”.

Salford developed several civic institutions; in 1806, Chapel Street became the first street in the world to be lit by gas (supplied by Phillips and Lee’s cotton mill).  In 1850, under the terms of the Museums Act 1845, the municipal borough council established the The Royal Museum & Public Library, said to have been the first unconditional free public library in England, preceding the Public Libraries Act 1850.

The effect on Salford of the Industrial Revolution has been described as “phenomenal”.  The area expanded from a small market town into a major industrial metropolis; factories replaced cottage industries, and the population of rose from 12,000 in 1812 to 70,244 within 30 years.   By the end of the 19th century it had increased to 220,000.  Large-scale building of low quality Victorian terraced housing did not stop overcrowding, which itself lead to chronic social deprivation.  The density of housing was as high as 80 homes per acre.

Rent Houses Salford Greater Manchester

Rent Houses Lowestoft Suffolk

Approximate Population: 57,746

Lowestoft is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England, lying between the eastern edge of The Broads National Park at Oulton Broad and the North Sea within the parliamentary constituency of Waveney. It is home to Lowestoft Ness, the most easterly point of the United Kingdom.

Lowestoft is Suffolk’s second largest town and is divided in two by Lake Lothing, home of its port, divided into an inner- and outer- harbour by a bascule bridge carrying the A12 through the town. Both north and south sides of the town contain a variety of business and residential areas, with the main shopping centre lying just to the north and the award-winning Blue Flag beaches to the south.

The town has two piers, situated on the south beach. The southerly pier, called the Claremont Pier, originally served as a port of call for steamers travelling to and from London. The pier structure itself has been closed for many years, now in a state of disrepair and not open to the public, though the building at the land end still hosts an arcade, bar, club and fish restaurant. Just over half a mile (1 km) to the north of that is the South Pier (so called because it is placed on the south side of the outer harbour).

Lowestoft railway station is centrally placed within the town, as well as also being within walking distance of the beach, providing services to Norwich along the Wherry Line and Ipswich on the East Suffolk Line. Some services also continue on through to London Liverpool Street along the main line from Ipswich. All services are operated by National Express East Anglia.

Rent Houses Lowestoft Suffolk

Rent Houses Macclesfield Cheshire

Approximate Population: 50,688

Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, with a population of about 50,688. A person from Macclesfield is sometimes referred to as a “Maxonian”.

Situated in the ancient Domesday Hundred of Hamestan, the Domesday Book lists Macclesfield as “Maclesfeld”, whilst in 1183 it was referred to as “Makeslesfeld”. It is thought that Macclesfield got its name from “Michael’s field” – referring to St. Michael, as in St. Michael’s church.

Later, Macclesfield was granted a borough charter by the Lord Edward, the future King Edward I, in 1261. There is evidence that the borough had originally been founded by Ranulf III, Earl of Chester, early in the thirteenth century. The parish church of St Michael was built in 1278, an extension of a chapel built in approximately 1220.

Macclesfield is served by four state high schools; Macclesfield High School (formerly Henbury High School), Fallibroome High School, Tytherington High School and All Hallows Catholic College.

There are also two independent schools, The King’s School and Beech Hall School.

Macclesfield High School is made up of students from the former school Henbury High School, and also took in the students left over when the secondary school Ryles Park closed 2004. It is on the site as Macclesfield College and Park Lane Special School as part of the Macclesfield ‘Learning Zone’, which was opened in 2007.

Rent Houses Macclesfield Cheshire

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Ealing Greater London

Approximate Population:  300,948

Archaeological evidence shows that parts of Ealing have been occupied for at least 7,000 years.   Iron Age pots have been discovered in the vicinity on Horsenden Hill. A settlement is recorded here in the 12th century amid a great forest that carpeted the area to the west of London.

The earliest surviving English census is that for Ealing in 1599. This list was a tally of all 85 households in Ealing village giving the names of the inhabitants, together with their ages, relationships and occupations.   It survives in manuscript form in the Public Record Office (PRO E 163/24/35), and has been transcribed and printed by K J Allison.

Settlements were scattered throughout the parish. Many of them were along what is now called St. Mary’s Road, near to the church in the centre of the parish. There were also houses at Little Ealing, Ealing Dean, Haven Green, Drayton Green and Castlebar Hill.

Rent Houses Ealing Greater London

Rent Houses Grays Essex

Approximate Population: 36,601

Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock’s traditional (Church of England) parishes. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32km) to the east of London on the north bank of the River Thames.

The Grays and Chafford Hundred areas are set within three Victorian chalk pits; the largest two being the Lion Gorge, and the Warren Gorge. The area of the Chafford Hundred residential development is built on a Victorian landfill site.

Local sites of interest include the Thameside Theatre, the Thurrock History Museum, Grays Beach and the now-disused State Cinema (which was used as a location in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and for sections of Jamiroquai’s video of “Deeper Underground” for the film Godzilla). The ancient local manor of Grays Thurrock was granted by Richard I in 1195 to Henry de Gray, a descendant of the Norman knight Anchetil de Greye.

Schools in Grays include; Chafford Hundred Campus, Gateway Academy, Grays Convent High School, William Edwards School & Sports College, Grays School Media Arts College, Deneholm Primary, Little Thurrock Primary, Quarry Hill Infant and Junior, St Thomas Of Canterbury Catholic Primary, Stifford Clays Infant and Junior, Stifford Primary, Thameside Infant and Junior School, Warren Primary School, Chafford Hundred Primary School and Treetops School.

The local sixth form college is Palmer’s College, whilst other colleges in Grays include Thurrock & Basildon College (Woodview Campus) and Thurrock Adult Community College.

Rent Houses Grays Essex

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Felixstowe Suffolk

Approximate Population: 29,349

A village has stood on the site since long before the Norman conquest.   The early history of Felixstowe, including its Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Medieval defences, is told under the name of Walton, because the name Felixstowe was given retrospectively, during the 13th century, to a place which had already been important for well over a thousand years.

It continued as a linchpin in England’s defence, as proved when in 1667 Dutch soldiers landed and failed to capture Landguard Ford.   The town only became a major port in 1886.   In addition to shipping, tourism increased, and a pier was constructed in 1905 but is soon to be demolished.

Indeed, during the late Victorian period (after circa 1880) it became a fashionable resort, a trend initiated by the opening of Felixstowe railway station, the pier, (see above) and a visit by the then German imperial family.   It remained so until the late 1930s.   In 1953, 38 died in the town in the North Sea flood.

Rent Houses Felixstowe Suffolk