Wednesday 17th October – on the edge of Preston

I have been staying at the Premier Inn on the south side of Preston. Last night it was dark when I started to look for somewhere to stay. Darkness changes everything. What you do, how you feel, what happens. As is often the case on my travels I wasn’t sure where I was going. I’d travelled north but I now know that off the tourist track and it can be difficult to find a room for the night. Traditional hotels lost the survival battle years ago, not enough trade to keep them going through the year. They survive in smaller towns and cities and are kept alive by a mix of local events (weddings, christenings and ‘0’ parties) and tourists. But in the old industrial cities they can be hard to find. There’s not enough business (and so business travellers) to keep them going. Lots of cities lost most of their old hotels but now the chains are moving in. Premier Inn, Travelodge are present across the country. Holiday Inn Express and Hilton Express concentrated in the cities. Premier Inn are fast becoming the coaching inns of the 21st century. They are present in the cities, but also close to the motorway intersections (the modern day staging posts for travellers) and tourist attractions. And they offer a consistency and certainty which is very attractive when darkness falls. When it’s still light it seems easy to look for somewhere to stay and easy to move on if the local hostelry doesn’t appeal. But after dark it’s more difficult. After dark everywhere seems slightly scary (or at least less certain) and after dark it’s harder to find places. I can’t remember the number of times I’ve done multiple circuits of complex ring roads desperately trying to find the access road for the hotel. Last night I’d found a bed in a Premier Inn at Preston South. Surprisingly I found my way there easily and saw the comforting sign. But I made the wrong choice when it came to finding the way in to the car park and found myself in danger of travelling down the M6 South. I managed to get myself onto the M65 and a junction appeared a mile or so later and so I could retrace my steps. I found the car park and realised I was in the wrong Premier Inn. At Preston South there are two – on opposite sides of the road and I was at the wrong one. As I walked into reception I realised that the earlier call to book a room – when the nice lady on reception said ‘we’re close, I can see their sign’ – was literally true. The whole area seemed liked being in America. There were signs for B&Q, Sainsbury’s and Aldi as well as two for the Premier Inns. Once safely in my room I looked at my road atlas and realised that the M6, M61 and M65 all meet here. So it seems that lots of people stay here. There were lots of vans in the car park and I realise that there is a modern version of the mediaeval journeyman and they stay in Premier Inns. They are the people who service the boilers, the washing machines and other equipment. They have a van and during the week they travel the country sorting out problems. There is also the sales and promotion version; the people, also in vans, whose job is to promote the knives, the gadgets and/or the experience that drive our modern economy. They are expected to be in perpetual motion and travel to wherever they are needed. In the darkness it’s hard to work out where I am but when morning dawns I go for a wander. There are buildings that look quite like houses, but have too much glass for a home. Around the corner I see the sign for Preston Business Village. Ah the words that get chosen. If we want to promote or support something it’s a village or a park or a farm. But if we don’t like it, then it’s a factory. Supporters talk of ‘wind farms’, detractors of ‘wind factories’. It’s easy to see why this was called a village – it’s not very village like (too efficient) but it would make life easy. Access from all points of the compass, plenty of parking, nice, clean, new buildings – efficient work, efficient life. There is plenty of space here in the liminal spaces of the motorway. This is not prime living or farming land, although it is desirable land for businesses. There is a strange combination of businesses here – the business village, Premier Inn, Aldi, the South Ribble Tennis club (which is where all the 4x4s are going), the waste transfer station and a builder’s merchants. There is a twin on the other side of the road but getting there feels like a difficult journey and I don’t bother to venture that far. I’m off to the M65 and Blackburn.