NorthWest (NW) England is such a region with so many different bits within it. As one of the interviewees told me, he has great difficulty with the concept of NorthWest England. In my research, I excluded the Cumbria(the north part of NW), which has well-known attraction worldwide, the Lake District. Generally, the most representative characteristic and the biggest bits of North West (Manchester, Liverpool, and Lancashire) are deeply associated with Industrial Revolution: the legacy and the problems now this region has. But actually after the visit to Chester, I think the diversity of British economy is encapsulated in North West, about which I just take a hint from a superficial observation this afternoon. Clearly Chester is not a typical north-west post-industrial town. Although the administration boundary changes from time to time, Chester has a quite demonstrable administrative function as a centre of Cheshire, just as Preston as the county centre of Lancashire. Basically, the heavy industrial revolution passes Cheshire by, not brings much similar trouble to Cheshire as Lancashire. Now Chester is famous for its rich history back to Roman period, tourism and shopping. Chester is also the original base for a well-known Grosvenor family, which surname directly reminded me of Grosvenor international property investor, which financed "Liverpool one" large retail development in Liverpool city centre. After "Google-ing", indeed the history of Grosvenor is associated with Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3th Baronet (equivalent to modern Duke of Westminster) (http://www.grosvenor.com/About+Grosvenor/History.htm).This Grosvenor estates also involves in several large British city centre retail developments. The recent one is Liverpool One and Bullring in Birmingham. As for Cheshire northern areas adjacent to Greater Manchester south, is actually the main cluster for these bourgeoise of Manchester. The whole NW is generally uneven, a big gap between the Greater Manchester North (Plus the surrounding part of Southern Lancashire) and Greater Manchester South (plus the northern part of Cheshire). There is a clear economic geography emerged for North West, which is still very much the origin of problem for the current process of economic restructuring. Manchester located between the industrialised Lancashire and the affluent Cheshire as a commercial hub in industrial revolution period has different economic function from the northern supporting towns like Burnley, Blackburn and southern agricultural rich land owners in Cheshire. This is of course coarse classification, but it reveals certain fact of the situation. There are two interesting observations here. 1.The definition of skill changes regarding the different types of economic activities in different times. Nowadays, when people come to the low skilled worker in the Lancashire, that means the lack of knowledge economy in these heavy industry. The similar sense of cause also avoids the industrialisation process in Cheshire because these agricultural people could not satisfy the labour force needed as in the Lancashire. However, the machinery revolution and intangible knowledge intensive economy seem to have very little need of this type of skill, which creates huge problems for them. 2. The shopping experiences in the historical prestigious town centre like Chester is very different from modern British city centre retail-led regeneration, enjoyable, and unique. But there is an association which seems that the Grosvenor originally from historically successful and well-known retail town still heavily determined and influenced the fate of British cities in developing their retail attraction. Plus, worth mentioning, every 5-minute free bus services between train station and town centre is very popular and pleasant. I will definitely buy a ticket to go here again. These observations in part help me to see the underlying structure in the modern city development and their economic fate from the historical point of view! Overall, it is worth visiting a place with oneself's verdict !
