Let’s hear it for a Pennine jewel of a town

Dec 12 2007 by Andrew Flynn, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A PIECE in a national newspaper caught my eye this week: “Britain’s mini-cities grow in popularity”.

Apparently smaller cities are attracting more people, as they are big enough to offer good job prospects but small enough to still have a sense of community spirit.

Like the baby bear’s porridge in Goldilocks, they’re just right.

It sounded like the perfect description of Huddersfield – aside from the city label of course.

But on reading the article I was surprised to see that the Jewel of the Pennines was not mentioned as an example of a mini-city.

So which places do fit this description? Well apparently York, Reading and Oxford are all good examples. Fair enough.

Oh, and Telford.

Telford? Yes, Telford.

I find this a little surprising. I have a friend who used to live in Telford.

His description of the place did not include the words “good community spirit”.

In fact, like many new towns Telford apparently lacks any real centre or soul.

My friend concluded by describing the town in two words – neither of which are appropriate for a family newspaper.