Tackleford

**Tackleford** is a medium-sized city located somewhere in West Yorkshire (on the shore of the River Tack), and is the central location for most Bobbins, Scary Go Round, and Bad Machinery stories.

Tackleford is part of an eponymous metropolitan borough, which either means that it is replacing one of the five real life metropolitan boroughs of West Yorkshire, or that it constitutes an additional sixth one.

There is numerous information about the towns neighboring Tackleford. Wendlefield is seven miles away [1] (to the east, between Tackleford and the sea [2]), and Wakefield is also in walking distance.[3] Dingham-On-Wharfe, host of an annual pig race for at least 400 years, is presumably also nearby.[4] Likewise Sutton-On-Sea, which is close enough for Tacklefordians to go to work there.[5] Sutton-On-Sea is a coastal town, and in fact, Tackleford itself can be considered to be close to the sea.[6] (Even though Linton once claimed that the distance is 40 miles.[7]) More whimsically, Bloom County was once alleged to be nearby as well. It seems that Tackleford and Wendlefield are somewhere along the A59 road.

An unusual number of supernatural events and beings have appeared in the Tackleford area, including a large number of portals through time, space, and dimensions (or to Hell), as well as various alien invasions and the presence of trolls, fairies, selkies, and the like.

## History

Tackleford was founded in 1760, having its grand bicentennial celebration in July of 1960. Since Griswald's Grammar School was founded in 1701 according to its sign, it apparently predates the city it's in. Locomotive steam trials were held at some point in the town's history, giving the place a connection to railway history that was commemorated through the featuring of the Flying Scotsman locomotive during the bicentennial festivities. The ghost train that's reputed to appear on Halloween is perhaps also related to the town's railway history.

### Known mayors of Tackleford

* Egbert Ernest (lived 1798 - 1899), Lord Mayor and "Destroyer of Wendlefield", due to widdling in Wendlefield's mineral spa, and thus turning it into a plague lagoon.
* Byron DeGroot (1918 - 1920) The first mayor, according to his grandson. (Perhaps as opposed to "Lord Mayor"?) The great grandfather of Esther DeGroot.
* Arthur Rowley (??? - 1999) Remained in charge for two weeks following his death [8].
* James Mayor (??? - 2005 [9]) Fought desperately for reelection during his 2005 campaign, but ultimately lost to Tim Jones, in spite (or rather because?) of his assistant Shelley Winters trying her best to support him.
* Tim Jones (2005 - 2006 [10]) The candidate of the Scientific Democrats in the 2005 election. Was exiled to Wales after losing an invent-off against Prof. Davies.
* Prof. Dai Davies (2006 - 2007 [11]) Took over the mayor's office after Mayor Jones stepping down, but was stripped of the office himself after an attempt to defenestrate Shelley Winters.
* James Mayor (2007 [12]) Just like Grover Cleveland, had two nonconsecutive terms. Was also then the last mayor, due to the government having been dismantled afterwards.

## Notable Places in Tackleford

* Griswald's Grammar School
* The University of Tackleford
* The offices of the Tackleford Cormorant
* The Town Hall (at least until it was knocked down [13])
* Beckwith's Folly, a public park that was designed by Ryan Beckwith's great-great-uncle
* A bridge that is notable for being the main meeting point of Tackleford's mod scene.[14]
* Belmont Bridge [15], which may or may not be the same bridge as above, and is near the central business district of Tackleford and was the place the mystery girls asked Amy to meet them in the alternate timeline.
* The Fig Roll Stadium, home of the Tackleford City FC.[16]
* The fairgrounds, site of the Great Tackleford Show. [17]
* The priory of the Little Sisters of Belial
* Eisegesis Supernatural Services
* Bric-A-Brac, an antique store owned by Amy Beckwith-Chilton. (Got later replaced by Chilton Antiquities, located a bit further out of town.[18])
* Tackleford City Station, site of the 1960 bicentennial festivities
* The Station, the pub at the train station mentioned above[19]; it was pivotal in kickstarting Ryan's and Amy's romantic relationship.[20]
* Hugo's sandwich shop, run by Hugo Rodriguez.
* Percy Import/Export, owned by Hamilton Percy.[21]
* The Percy Peas factory, possibly owned by the very same Mr. Percy mentioned above. A very distinctive feature of its building are huge letters on the roof, which spell out "PEAS + BEANS" and are illuminated at night.[22] This sign constitutes a landmark tightly associated with Tackleford.[23]
* The Rugged Stoat, the pub run by Tessa Davies and Rachel Dukakis-Monteforte, and a popular hangout for many of the major characters of Bobbins and Scary Go Round.
* St Tibbs Girls' High School,  a school that by the 2010s is closed down and waiting for demolition.
* The Swarbrick Estate, a notorious "bad" quarter of Tackleford, and the early childhood home of Shauna Wickle.
* Emerald Dell, was once a hotbed for Wee Folk and other supernatural beings, but then got turned into the Emerald Glades housing estate.[24] Luckily, the former supernatural inhabitants managed to take refuge in a pocket dimension formed out of the body of the Four Dimensional King.[25]
* The Tackleford Chamber of Commerce, located right across the road from the Cormorant office.[26]
* The statue of Tommy Binks (and his dog Vengeance).[27]
* The Inland Marina construction site, formerly an undeveloped estate by the river, and *allegedly* the future site of luxury apartments.[28] But it turned out that this was just a cover story for erecting a dam with the sole purpose of flooding Tackleford.[29]
* Fishman Acres AKA Sunderland Hall, the current stately home of Desmond Fishman and his butler Fotheringay.[30]