ON THE TILES !

I often think that roofs are more interesting than the houses themselves! Especially in shopping streets, where the fascias are usually just boring plate glass and uniform fronts, but the upper stories and the roofs tell a more interesting story!




This house, which is opposite our Library, was once a highly important one! I don't know who lived there, or what it was used for, but it made an imposing entrance to the town. It is now used for offices.




This imposing building faces directly onto the Market Place. When we first came here it was a big jewellers, but is now Cafe Nero.




But whoever built it was proud enough to put the date at the top!




Chestergate was once a busy shopping street, of little independent shops, and there are photographs of it with blinds down on every window and horses and carts in the street. It is now pedestrianised and although there are quite a few independent shops still there, big branches of Building Societies and Rymans the Stationers have made it look rather bland.




Church Street leads from the Parish Church in the Market Place down a very steep hill to the valley below, where the River Bollin runs, plus the railway, and where the Station is now.




Also in the Market Place is a house built with Dutch Gables. This is looking at the house and the Sunday Market from the Churchyard.




In the next County, Stafforshire, Leek is a lovely market town, with lots of old buildings still in use. This is the Butter Market, complete with clock tower. Inside there is still a market, still selling cheese, but also a lot of other things too.




This is the Market Place at Leek - the roofs are still interesting, but the frontages are now bland shops!




All these roofs at Loosely Hall in Surrey, show where bits have been added on over the years.




And lastly, in Norway, the houses in Tromso, well north of the Arctic Circle, are all different colours, and make an interesting picture. In the winter it must present a completely different scene - I would love to go there then, and maybe see the Northern Lights.

Wouldn't be much good at skiing, or sliding down the slopes!!