meerkatologist: "Let's Move to Leek, Staffordshire"

In 2004, I moved with my family to the town of Leek in the county of Staffordshire. A quick geography lesson for those not familiar with the United Kingdom. Staffordshire is generally in the middle part of the UK, and Leek is at the northern end of Staffordshire. A drive to London, heading in a south easterly direction, would take (traffic pending) three to four hours. The nearest internationally known city is Manchester.....alternatively, visit maps.google.com and type in Leek, UK! (look I'm not doing it all for you OK!).

The other day, a person, who if they suffered from nominative determinism would probably have been a bowler in cricket (don't worry it'll make sense to them!) told me about an article that had appeared recently in The Guardian titled "Let's move to Leek, Staffordshire", which essentially sings the praises for Leek as a place to live, primarily because of its proximity to the Peak District National Park, and other treats such as a yearly double sunset (although in the years we have lived here, I don't think it's ever been sunny on the specific day, so the sun has always set behind closed curtains!).

A view of Leek with The Roaches behind.

Whilst it's nice to see Leek featured, I definitely think they could have chosen a better photo to show in the newspaper article. And so, with the aid of Google Streetview, I am going to do that for them, and give you a brief snapshot of the area.....So, off we go!...

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This is the where the pond-dwelling mermaid mentioned in the news article is rumoured to live.....

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Below is Rudyard Lake which has the claim to fame of being where Rudyard Kipling's parents met and decided they liked it so much, they chose to name their son after the lake.....

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Sadly, it's not possible to get a good "street view" of the lake (you need to walk around it), but here's a photo from ground level.