Where tourists seldom tread, part 4: five UK towns with hidden histories

Heritage is as good an excuse as any to enjoy a pie and a pint. Here are more excellent reasons to visit places that rarely feature in the guidebooks

Part one / Part two / Part three

No compelling reasons underlie the selection of Bury, Burton upon Trent, Wigan, Workington and Whitehaven. These are not places with a single major attraction. None fits neatly beside the adjectives we use to sell and hype a sense of place – quaint, fashionable, cool, happening, filmic. One reason for holidaying somewhere is that no one else does. But for this edition, food and drink are a tangential focus. A few decades ago, dining was a peripheral, an extra, for travellers; today there are festivals everywhere and every week, for seafood, rhubarb, curry, real ale, eels, seaweed and even tripe.