Have just got back from the birthplace of the co-op movement, where I was doing a recce on local restaurants ( food and drink writing being one of the ways I earn a living) .It's over 20 years since I entered the portals of the Rochdale Observer building in search of a job - and was dispatched over the Pennines to Rawtenstall, where the Lancashire accents were so dense that I had difficulty understanding them ( and I'm from Manchester!)
Sadly, that once-proud newspaper building, where we all rallied for NUJ meetings, is now for sale.The print workers are long gone and I understand the journalists either work from home or at a centralised operation in Manchester city centre.
It's a while since I visited the town and somewhat striking that the consumer renaissance which has transformed Manchester almost beyond recognition just hasn't registered only 10 miles from Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.
The town centre has a hard-up, flyblown air which is more reminiscent of Thatcher's Britain than Brown's supposedly affluent UK. Actually , in 1984, when I first visited the place at the height of the miners' strike , it looked far more prosperous.
One restaurant owner I met (somewhat bizarrely cooking up Cajun cuisine !) told me he only opens two nights a week as people only go out at the weekends. Another cafe was run by Kurds who have joined the many refugees in the town . His establishment, he told me, was almost exclusively used by the Kurdish community and, unlike London, there's not much of a cultural crossover. Curry houses abound and there are cheap shops but it's still a pretty depressing place with lots of derelict land and "To let" signs.
By now, the new Metrolink station should have opened (and that really will have a dramatic effect on the town) but Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive is still trying to plug the gap in Govt funding which was taken away a couple of years ago.
Towns like Rochdale are far more typical of the north-west than glitzy Manchester. And if they are to survive they need far more commitment from central government to help local authorities build the infrastructure and attract the investment they need to stop places like this dying on their feet economically.
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