...argh! why do major conferences get located in really hard to get to towns!!!!????

They are only 'difficult' relative to where you live!

I always envy people living in London - a choice of airports and usually only one flight, not like the multiple flights I had to get to a conference recently!

I guess I regard as anything other than a major city 'difficult'!

You are based in Manchester? Yes? Where are you intending to go to for conferences.
As part of my research involved visiting small country churches down unadopted lanes in the middle of nowhere, even out of the way towns seem easy to get to now!

Yep, I'm headed to Winchester. Wincheser...

There's a direct train that goes from Manchester Piccadilly to Winchester (it's the train that runs from Edinburgh - or I think it's Edinburgh - down to Bournemouth).

Also, you can fly from Manchester to Southampton Airport Parkway (the train station is right next to the terminal, and it's only a 10 minute journey from Southampton Airport Parkway to Winchester).

Now, that's not so difficult ...

Hey sorry to send a personal message through this thread, but Pamw, what research are you doing that takes you down small lanes to visit churches? I am doing a bit of church research as well, and would like to compare notes. :)

I am looking at medieval costume on funeral monuments. What are you researching?

Sometimes the largest places are the most difficult to get to and around...London is no picnic. Smaller towns have venues not likely to be so far away from train stations, etc, usually walking distance, or a very short and cheap cab ride away. London can take an hour or more to cross, you have to hope the tube is running on time, and contend with the crush of people at all times of the day and night. YIKES! Its much nicer to travel to a small town, IMO!

How I actually got to Winchester:

National Express Manchester - London

(delayed by 1 hour due to traffic jam, coach driver getting lost in Milton Keynes, and rain) Missed national express connection, national express paid for a two and half hour taxi ride for me.

Taxi London-Winchester

Train Winchester -Birmingham - Manchester

Phew!

This proves my point about travel in and through London! What an experience, Chris!!! YIKES!!!! Better to avoid London if traveling...! I have heard all sorts of things for delays whilst traveling in and through London, the infamous leaves on the line, the infamous snow that halted the Underground! the fact once that a tube station had caught on fire!!! or the usual signal delays, unspecified problems at a station...etc....

Pamw, that sounds really cool. I'm studying the growth patterns of churches in the last 200 years.