Elizabeth Gaskell grew up in Knutsford and made it the model for her novel Cranford, and the town still has that genteel, small-scale charm — two winding streets of independent shops and tearooms, and a good monthly artisan market. Look out too for the eccentric Italianate buildings on Legh Road, designed by Richard Harding Watt, which stood in for 1930s Shanghai in Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun. The station is right in the centre.
