Worst town in the National League.

[Camborne Gills]

Only been to a handful of places in NL so:

Nottingham; Decent night out. Grounds and railway station reasonably close to each other 8/10
Torquay; Localish, plenty to do. Minus point for the trek up to Plainmoor 8/10
Chesterfield; Not a bad town centre. Queens Park is pretty good 7/10
Yeovil; Relatively local. Reasonable town centre. Absolute arseache to get from ground to Junction station though 5/10
Woking A bit meh 5/10
Barnet Would rank higher if they were still at Underhill, although i once broke my glasses celebrating a Gills goal 5/10
Ebbsfleet: Pros, superb transport links. Cons, bit of a dump, with only a couple of pubs anywhere near the ground 4.5/10
Wrexham Bit intimidating for an away fan, and awkward to get there by train 3/10

 

[Jerry]

Only been to a handful of places in NL so:

Nottingham; Decent night out. Grounds and railway station reasonably close to each other 8/10
Torquay; Localish, plenty to do. Minus point for the trek up to Plainmoor 8/10
Chesterfield; Not a bad town centre. Queens Park is pretty good 7/10
Yeovil; Relatively local. Reasonable town centre. Absolute arseache to get from ground to Junction station though 5/10
Woking A bit meh 5/10
Barnet Would rank higher if they were still at Underhill, although i once broke my glasses celebrating a Gills goal 5/10
Ebbsfleet: Pros, superb transport links. Cons, bit of a dump, with only a couple of pubs anywhere near the ground 4.5/10
Wrexham Bit intimidating for an away fan, and awkward to get there by train 3/10

I would suggest having pre-match drinks in Babbacombe if you're coming to Plainmoor. Fantastic views across Lyme Bay, plenty of pubs and places to eat and only 15 mins walk (without the hill) to Plainmoor.

 

[karlready]

As a town to visit/shop, Aldershot is truly the pits. It’s difficult to shop there, ‘cos even the pound shops have closed.
Problem is it’s surrounded by some of the countries most affluent postcodes, which makes it appear much worse. Having said that, it has a great community spirit ,and has always been a “football”oasis, in an area of indifference ,”rugger” types, and commuters.
Good rail links, great location for the ground. That’s about it.

 

[ForzaCounty]

All this talk of Essex, the only one I've been to is Braintree, and I was amazed all the housing appearing to consist of pastel-coloured cardboard boxes. Is it all like that round there?

 

[Pink Panther]

All this talk of Essex, the only one I've been to is Braintree, and I was amazed all the housing appearing to consist of pastel-coloured cardboard boxes. Is it all like that round there?

Braintree is a bit peculiar. Those odd looking houses are mainly just around the ground. It was a small town that expanded rapidly in recent decades with new housing, presumably for overspill from elsewhere.

Canvey Island is odd. Lots of bungalows and you get whole streets where no two houses look similar. It almost looks like each resident built their own house.

Essex is quite a large county with a diverse range of towns. The north of the county is a lot different to the southern corridor from East London through to Southend.

 

[chief]

Wrexham Bit intimidating for an away fan, and awkward to get there by train 3/10

Good, get the feck out of my town!

 

[EnglishRed]

We're proper 'ard, like.

 

[Jabba the gut]

All this talk of Essex, the only one I've been to is Braintree, and I was amazed all the housing appearing to consist of pastel-coloured cardboard boxes. Is it all like that round there?

Absolutely not! Travel further south and it looks like the place is ruled by the Blue Meanies who have outlawed joy and every colour except grey.

 

[Silver Stone]

At least the 'Stone isn't a bad town, unlike many of its neighbours.

 

[Raymondo316]

At least the 'Stone isn't a bad town, unlike many of its neighbours.

I've always found it funny when I encounter Ebbsfleet, Dover, Dartford, Margate or Gills fans and they moan on & on about how much of a shithole Maidstone is.....yet whenever I've been to said towns I've thought Maidstone really aint to bad in comparison.

 

[Pink Panther]

I've always found it funny when I encounter Ebbsfleet, Dover, Dartford, Margate or Gills fans and they moan on & on about how much of a shithole Maidstone is.....yet whenever I've been to said towns I've thought Maidstone really aint to bad in comparison.

Pretty much every town along the Kentish Thames Estuary from Woolwich to Sittingbourne is thoroughly grim. Dartford town centre is like a set for a Little Britain sketch. At least Dover (and Chatham) are historically interesting. Margate, Ramsgate and Folkestone are a contrasting mix of hopeless underclass and incomers creating a bit of a cultural/hipster scene. Gillingham is basically the arse end of Chatham, a truly hellish place.

Maidstone may not be a sensational town but it's pleasant enough for a football away day, and at least it doesn't make your jaw drop for the wrong reasons.

 

[Jabba the gut]

Pretty much every town along the Kentish Thames Estuary from Woolwich to Sittingbourne is thoroughly grim. Dartford town centre is like a set for a Little Britain sketch. At least Dover (and Chatham) are historically interesting. Margate, Ramsgate and Folkestone are a contrasting mix of hopeless underclass and incomers creating a bit of a cultural/hipster scene. Gillingham is basically the arse end of Chatham, a truly hellish place.

Maidstone may not be a sensational town but it's pleasant enough for a football away day, and at least it doesn't make your jaw drop for the wrong reasons.

I like to explore the local town/city/area on away days, rather than sit in a pub. The first time I went to Gillingham i asked a newsagent where the nice bits were. He replied, "there ain't no nice bits - it's all shit mate".

A denizen of Basildon used almost the exact same words the first time I went there and asked a similar question.

 

[Farleigh]

I wanted to prove you wrong on Gillingham, but on TA pretty much anything decent involves leaving Gillingham.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g503904-Activities-Gillingham_Kent_England.html

Central Maidstone could be so much better if the council hadn't allowed a retail park on one side of the river and a motorway on the other. Have MBC not heard of ring roads?

 

[Jabba the gut]

...

Still, given the choice of South Essex or North Kent, there's only one way, and it's not the same side of the river as the A2.

The only way is...

...nope, I'm not going to do it.

 

[Jabba the gut]

Grays is the absolute pits (most of Thurrock is hideous, with Tilbury worst of all, but there's not usually any particular reason to go there). Killed off by Lakeside and Bluewater and the M25 and cheap trains to London.

Canvey is maybe a bit of an acquired taste (and is well rough in an "old East End" sort of way) but it at least has some life to it, although the sub-sea level status meaning it is surrounded by an enormous concrete wall thing adds bleakness even on top of the gasworks and among the ruins of the never opened or completed 1970s oil refinery (exceptionally rare insect life there, from the sub-Thames soil dredged up and placed there apparently). Granted Concord Rangers are in possibly the bleakest bit of the island, but if you know where to look there's a smugglers Inn referenced in "Great Expectations" maybe 15 mins walk away, and also in a desolate location (the big post-1953 sea wall rather spoils the ambience). And it charges very much Not London prices. South Benfleet is fine, North Benfleet (eg Tarpots) rather not.

Still, given the choice of South Essex or North Kent, there's only one way, and it's not the same side of the river as the A2.

I spent a few years in Witham as a child - too long ago to admit to without embarrassment. What's that like now?

 

[Jabba the gut]

Have to agree with that. I grew up in Dagenham, and have relatives in Basildon and Stevenage, and know Harlow a bit too, and Crawley is quite a cut above those other new towns from the same period and with similar histories. Granted the town centre is horrible and soulless (one surviving old street apart), but the residential areas (those I've walked through between the station and the ground at least) didn't seem at all unpleasant. I was surprised.

Dagenham and environs were built/rebuilt almost from scratch not all that many decades ago, weren't they? Certainly within living memory.

I never realised that Becontree is a made up place that was simply a gigantic council estate. The fact that it seems to be mainly normal houses rather than blocks meant that I didn't immediately realise. (On that note its interesting that we could once provide masses of social housing when the national debt was much bigger than it is today, when we're told we can't afford to build it).

I think it was BBC London who produced a documentary about London's lost and hidden villages. I was very surprised to see pensioners talking about how they spent their childhood in a much-smaller Dagenham that was not far off being a picturesque English village. In a relatively short time it was all pulled down and replaced by the much larger, more urban, completely different place that Dagenham is today. I found it a little sad.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Dagenham and environs were built/rebuilt almost from scratch not all that many decades ago, weren't they? Certainly within living memory.

I never realised that Becontree is a made up place that was simply a gigantic council estate. The fact that it seems to be mainly normal houses rather than blocks meant that I didn't immediately realise. (On that note its interesting that we could once provide masses of social housing when the national debt was much bigger than it is today, when we're told we can't afford to build it).

I think it was BBC London who produced a documentary about London's lost and hidden villages. I was very surprised to see pensioners talking about how they spent their childhood in a much-smaller Dagenham that was not far off being a picturesque English village. In a relatively short time it was all pulled down and replaced by the much larger, more urban, completely different place that Dagenham is today. I found it a little sad.

Yeah, Becontree was built as "homes fit for heroes" after the First World War. It was supposedly the largest public housing estate in the world at the time. Mostly houses, a few flats, but mostly two-storey buildings.

The Old Dagenham Village (not far from the football ground, in fact, but visitors - err, Nick Griffin apart - are definitely not welcome in the pub there that is the oldest secular building in the town) is still there, in part. And in the right light still might almost verge on being picturesque. Although a fair bit was demolished and replaced with low-rise (and for a time crime-ridden) council flats in the late 70s. Originally the plan had been to put a high rise estate there, but somehow it was stopped. But the Becontree estate (west of the village) was built mostly on marshland and market gardens, and the few older houses that existed there mostly survived. Certainly changed the character of the place and the nature of the population greatly, very quickly.

There never has been such a place as "Redbridge Forest" though....

 

[Camborne Gills]

Good, get the feck out of my town!

Gladly

 

[Solihull Mooron]

Daggers is the pits

 

[B2TF]

Chesterfield's not a bad place, but the trek to the ground is a pain compared to Saltergate, which was central. Only passed Fylde on the way to Bloomfield Road from Preston station - I got the bus once just to look around. Not much there from what I saw.

It's a bit run down, I mean, there's a church that looks like it's falling down there, and they can't even afford to fix it.

 

[ForzaCounty]

It's a bit run down, I mean, there's a church that looks like it's falling down there, and they can't even afford to fix it.

Chesterfield's got perhaps the nicest cricket ground in the world

 

[B2TF]

Must be well over a decade since I've been to the Shay, but remember feeling Halifax was slightly surreal (in a good way) with that honey-coloured stone everywhere. Dramatic countryside on the route of the connecting train as well.

Thank you. That honey coloured stone (sandstone) was hidden for a hundred years and more under a pitch black coating of soot from the hundreds of chimneys attached to the dark, satanic mills which it is said were the inspiration for that line in the national hymn. Halifax had got in early on the industrial revolution. It took an intensive sand blasting campaign in the 70s to clean everything up but doing so revealed that actually, it ain't so bad.

 

[Farleigh]

Halifax was an unexpected pleasure. Finding the Piece Hall. Pubs advertising gigs. Close to the town centre. Just a nice town with a good vibe. No doubt it has its rough side...

 

[joethegill]

I wanted to prove you wrong on Gillingham, but on TA pretty much anything decent involves leaving Gillingham.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g503904-Activities-Gillingham_Kent_England.html

Central Maidstone could be so much better if the council hadn't allowed a retail park on one side of the river and a motorway on the other. Have MBC not heard of ring roads?

Gillingham is a shitehole, as is most of North Kent as mentioned. Maidstone is decent - would imagine as an away day it's pretty good. Close to the motorway if you drive, train station close to the ground which is close to the town centre, loads of pubs and places to get food and the chances of 3 points are high.

The town centre is knackered traffic wise. Makes me laugh when I hear people from around the country moan about traffic - the levels in the south east are way above anything I've experienced anywhere else in the country, basically thanks to the government chucking concrete on anything vaguely green for the past decade.