Northampton

There's Moondaisy - just beyond the bridge. I was wondering who had picked the rather strident colours when I noticed a plaque amongst the weed and litter-strewn promenade. Turns out that they painted it in the colours of the rugby club. Now that's what I call townscape...

I went into the magnificent All Saints Church for a cup of tea. The interior is pretty splendid, too. I was sitting under the huge portico when I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of Spanish students asking to have their photos taken with me. Now, I was not feeling any more ridiculous than usual, so I wondered why. I followed the old theatrical advice -"unexpected" laugh? - check your flies" , then it was explained to me: as part of their English course, they had a game / quiz. item 4 "surround a man with a beard in front of All Saints".

All Saints interior

The Town Hall

I found one interesting thin about Northampton.......you can see it for miles around - the Express Lift Tower. Grade II listed.

10 TOWERING facts

1 The lift testing tower was built by the Express Lift company in 1980.

2 It was opened by The Queen in 1982
3 It's built of 4,000 tons of reinforced concrete.

4 The tower was designed by architects Stimpson and Walton

5 Broadcaster Terry Wogan dubbed it 'The Northampton Lighthouse'. The name stuck.

6 The circular tower is 127.45 metres high (taller than Salisbury Cathedral). The diameter is 14.6 metres at the base, tapering to 8.5 metres at the top.

7 The lift shafts were designed to test lifts travelling at up to 7 metres per second.

8 The upper part of tower has a distinctive pierced jagged shape aimed at reducing the vortex effect.

9 The Express Lift company closed after being sold to another lift manufacturer, Otis, and the last 500 workers clocked out on Thursday 30th January 1997.

10 The tower became a Grade II listed building in October 1997.