For some, a stately home does it. For others, a converted barn. For me, anything rail-related hits the spot.
It’s partly respect for transport and proper jobs. It’s also because I was born and raised 1.2 miles (or a mile and 16 chains in the parlance) south of the world’s first inter-city railway line – the Liverpool and Manchester, which opened on 15 September 1830.
Though never a full-blown spotter, I got the transport bug watching 47s and Deltics rumbling along the tracks between St Helens Junction and Newton-le-Willows. Despite the delays and dysfunction that make rail travel so irksome today, I still love trains. It is then a childish buzz as well as a grown-up, heritage-inspired delight to be spending a couple of nights in the Station Agent’s House the Landmark Trust’s new property in Castlefield, Manchester.
The area, at the southern end of main drag Deansgate, is one of the city’s oldest, though its iron bridges and merchants’ warehouses are now overshadowed by high-rise apartment blocks. The conservation charity’s first venture in Manchester is a handsome three-storey Georgian house with a showpiece first-floor living and dining area, two double and two twin bedrooms, with gorgeous mid-century fixtures and fittings throughout – ideal for big families and gatherings of up to eight people. Vintage posters in the hallways, model trains in the study and a library packed with local history books (and Bradshaw’s guides) drive home the railway connecti.
