It's all about your altitudeIf you want somewhere different to go on a date or an alternative dining experience, read on...
Just off junction 22 of the M62 in the direction of Oldham is a bright blue shipping container. Sitting in the middle of nowhere it is actually on the major route of the Pennine Way National Trail as well as next to the highest section of motorway in the country. Thousands of souls pass this way but there is virtually nowhere to stop. Except there is a place, a bright blue place.
Walking from Marsden to Hebden Bridge with my friend the musician Johnny Campbell last week we called in to Nicky’s Foodbar for bacon buttys.
Johnny digging in.
Dogs welcome inside. Perfect for cold weather walking.
The location is amazing up here on the aptly named Bleakedgate Moor next to a mast that used to be part of the nuclear early warning system. The security of this network also meant it was a safe channel where the “nuclear bombing retaliatory effort” could be discussed. A bit of chilling history that not many people know about.
Also of nuclear proportions is the breakfast challenge offered here. Have a read of what you get. Are you wolf enough to make an attempt?
The menu stretches down the length of the cabin!
Service is friendly and the food is great. There are also snacks to buy and you can top up your water bottles for free with good Yorkshire water. You can take away or dine inside the cabin or on the lovely tables with slate place mats outside in good weather.
The blue cabin. You can't miss it really.
The footbridge over the M62 is a great destination in itself and well worth bothering with. The traffic blasts underneath going busily to Manchester or maybe Leeds in complete contrast to you as you wander between isolated expanses of Pennine moorland. It’s an intersection of the worlds of work and play and one that I love every time I visit. Just below you on either side of the motorway are the stone roses. Not the Mancunian band from the 90s but the boundary markers of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
View of the M62 from Pennine Way Bridge
So much joy in an unexpected spot. It’s all around us if we bother to look.
Words and Photos by Ed Oxley