British rust belt

Shildon, Co. Durham—population 9,565, two Greggs, one railway museum, and, depending on whom you ask, either the quiet epicentre of global decline or the last honest place left on Google Earth. To the casual commuter hurtling south on the A1(M), Shildon is a blink-and-you-miss-it blur of boarded-up terraces and weather-beaten “For Sale” signs stapled to…