Leek Library has recently been refurbished and is now excellent. The layout has been vastly…read moreimproved and the range of books is much better than it used to be. There is a section with computers for those who need access to the internet, and a good selection of books, including sections for children and teenagers. There is also a good range of audio books and you can rent from a wide selection of DVDs for a small charge.The staff are uniformly helpful and friendly and books can be reserved from other local libraries for a very reasonable fee. Altogether, it is not worth buying your paperbacks when you can get them here for nothing - give it a try!

I guess when you visit Buxton, you need to sample the water that put it on the map !…read more We discovered this font quite by accident purely from the large queue of people wating to fill their bottles.... And not just one bottle either; locals were pulling up in cars and filling several large containers at a time. I can only guess that nobody in Buxton buys bottled water, due to this freely available supply.

Ashby post office is in the mercury newshop in market street…read more its at the back of the shop on the right hand side. there is no post box outside but if you want to post a letter then you can cross the road and post one at the sorting office. there us hardly any queues and if you have a parcel delivered by parcelforce and live in Ashby and your not in then it will be left here for you to collect. i did this on Thursday when i got my steam iron. u can do your car tax here this was on a poster on the wall there. friendly service with a smile i like to add .

What an amazing and historic landmark! I would recommend anyone tour through the Library. The…read morearchitecture is beautiful and the rare manuscripts and artifacts they house are incredible. They are having a special display of one of Shakespeare's plays, one of the oldest New Testaments, even artifacts from King Nebuchadnezzar's palace. They will all be on display which will be quite amazing to see. This is a must see in Manchester! Truly amazing how it has stood the test of time.

Love spending time in libraries while on holiday (vacation) Stunning late-Victorian neo-Gothic…read morelibrary , John Rylands Library opened at the turn of the 20th century and is a gorgeous remnant of Manchester. Potter-heads would appreciate the look and feel inside the library is inspired the design for Hogwarts. I'm not sure if the Factory Records exhibit is still on display, but I'm a huge fan of Factory Records bands (ie. New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays etc.) and bands that came out of Manchester, the Smiths, James, Buzzcocks, The Fall to name few. It was an experience seeing original handwritten lyrics, instruments played, old punk zines, photos and badges on display.

SHEFFIELD CANAL BASIN has had a great face lift within the last ten years. It now consists of…read moremodern lock-up shops selling mostly small gifts that promote Sheffield, highrise office blocks, the Sheffield Hilton Hotel, a few bars and lots of eating establishments - or if you prefer the older term; Cafes. The canal itself has had a clean out. Prior to this it was a dumping ground for anything you wanted to burry under water, the water itself used to be covered in a thick layer of oil, but luckily those days are now gone. The canal is clean, so clean in fact that if you go and stand under the shade of the few nearby bridges that cross over the canal you can actually see the large fish that swim in the canal. I'm sorry, I don't know much about fish so I cannot tell you what breed of fish they are. For anyone who is interested in boats or canal barges there is lots of these moored at the canal basin. Some of the barges are actually lived on throughout the year, so please when visitting respect the barge owners' privacy. The Sheffield Canal was originally created to carry barges filled with Steel Goods from Sheffield to the docks in Hull by joining up with the South Yorkshire Navigational Canal, which joined up to the River Trent and via the Trent into the River Humber. Sheffield Canal Basin is well worth a day trip.

The layout of this library is pretty similar to that of Chorlton Library and Didsbury Library - the…read moreonly thing that struck me about this library were the signs warning customers that thieves are in operation in the library. They were especially abundant in the wonderful little area where children can read and play. This upset me, as it was not something I had to worry about on my weekly trips to the library as a kid. So be careful. As it is a Manchester library, you can use the same library card as the Central Library and the other aforementioned libraries and expect the same facilities, eg one hour's free Internet use per day (although there are not as many PCs as in Chorlton Library so be prepared to wait). The library is generally quiet, but not silent, so it's a good place to work if you can no longer stand your housemates' music or you find yourself getting distracted by the Jeremy Kyle show, and you can't be bothered to trek to the University library or into town. In the entrance there is also a useful selection of leaflets about events and goings on at local theatres and museums, and a board which is generally used to advertise English/Spanish/guitar lessons.

I love the architecture of Withington Library alone never mind the mind altering contents…read more In fact this building was designed by Manchester's first city architect (Henry Price) who also designed Manchester's famous Victoria baths as well as Didsbury library a few miles down the road. I couldn't begin to describe it's true style, but it's frontage at least harks back to the classic Roman/Greek style (of course not on the scale of Manchester's main library). It has recently reopened after a 3 month refurbishment although, and perhaps rightly so, they haven't really done a great deal to it bar restore it's natural charm. If you look up as you enter the building you'll be treated to a wonderful glass dome above your head: in fact I've only just discovered this so whether it was 'reanimated' during it's recent clean up I'm not entirely sure. Inside they have an extensive section of computing; a large children's area; books available in many, many languages e.g. Arabic, Bengali, French, Gujarati, Persian, Polish, Chineseand others, easily creating for the area's large cross section of society. There is also a good computer suite (always busy!) for accessing the net and studying should you need to. I tend to hire my Murakami books here and if they don't stock the title you're after they'll take your details and order it in for you. As it happens a guy who works there is fellow Murakami fan so he's gotten most of his back catalogue for me. Alongside the books they have a fairly extensive music collection (mainly CD) and DVD & Video's again they'll order in anything you require (within reason : ) ). I found a bit of Philip Glass and Brain Dance electronica, next to the likes of Bach, Hip Hop and Sade (she always finds her way into libraries doesn't she?). I might even take up the offer of ordering in Lost which I gave up on Sky last yearif there's a cultural drought on I may just pop into the library and hire for a few weeks. Open till 8 most nights of the week but closes early afternoon on Thursday. There is a book reading group, a MP's surgery and various coffee mornings held there too.

Good bloke, forget politics!! Do we really want Bill Cash???read more