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Within the northwest of England lie some of the ugliest and some of the most beautiful parts of the country. The least attractive zones of this region are to be found in the sprawl connecting the country's third and sixth largest conurbations, Manchester and Liverpool, but even here the picture isn't unrelievedly bleak, as the cities themselves have an ingratiating appeal. Manchester , in particular, surprises many who don't expect to see beyond its dour, industrial heritage. Where once only a handful of Victorian Gothic buildings lent any grace to the cityscape, Manchester today has been completely transformed by a rebuilding programme that puts it in the vanguard of modern British urban design. Liverpool , set on the Mersey estuary, is perhaps less appealing at first glance, though Georgian town houses, grand civic buildings, its twin cathedrals and a burgeoning cafe scene soon change perceptions. To the south, Cheshire boasts the county town, Chester , with its complete circuit of town walls and partly Tudor centre. This is as alluring as any of the country's northern towns, capturing the essence of what has always been one of England's wealthiest rural counties. Lancashire , which historically lay directly to the north of Cheshire, reached industrial prominence in the last century primarily due to the cotton-mill towns around Manchester and to the thriving port of Liverpool. Today, neither of those cities is part of the county, having been excised when England's first substantial county boundary changes since the Domesday Book were enacted in 1974. The urban counties of Merseyside and Greater Manchester chopped off the southern section of Lancashire while Cumbria grabbed a substantial northern chunk leaving Lancashire little more than half its former size. Its oldest town, and major commercial and administrative centre, is Preston - home of the national museum of England's national game, football - though tourists are perhaps more inclined to linger in the charming towns and villages of the nearby Ribble Valley . Meanwhile, along the coast to the west and north of the major cities stretches a line of resorts - from Southport to Morecambe - which once formed the mainstay of the northern British holiday trade before their client base disappeared on cheaper, sunnier holidays to Florida and the Mediterranean. Only Blackpool is really worth visiting for its own sake, a rip-roaring resort which has stayed at the top of its game by supplying undemanding entertainment with more panache than its neighbours. For anything more culturally invigorating you'll have to continue north to the historically important city of Lancaster , with its Tudor castle. Finally, the semi-autonomous Isle of Man , only twenty-five miles off the coast and served by ferries from Liverpool and Heysham (or short flights from Liverpool), provides a terrain almost as rewarding as that of the Lake District but without the seasonal overcrowding.
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