A GLIMPSE OF MIDDLE ENGLAND...

In my late teen years, I would spend many weekends in Newark-on-Trent in Middle England.

- BY PAUL TOPPING

For the one to five months of good weather each year, there is nothing better than being in these middle England towns. Old canals with locks, rolling rivers, old churches and cemeteries full of history. Industrial towns and villages with their pubs, market squares, cobbled streets and properties spanning centuries. These towns are numerous across Middle England. All have some history, but Newark has a lot. Like so many towns scattered across the country, it has a central square, a spired church and an array of historic buildings. Newark as a dwelling goes back to 4000 BC and was later expanded by the Romans, as the town was on the strategic Fosse Way, a route linking key Roman towns. Later it became a Saxon stronghold.