With a significant number of social media savvy millennials having kids – there are a rising number of parents venturing into the world of influencing.
But how are dad influencers matching up to their mummy counterparts? New research from gifts and gadgets retailer Menkind explores the untapped potential of the dad influencers by revealing a ranking of the UK’s top InstaDad content hotspots.
New ranking reveals top locations where dad life Instagram content gets shared most
Greater Manchester ranks fifth in the chart, based on number of posts
Town of Wigan ranked in top 10 cities for most active InstaDads
Greater Manchester ranks fifth in the top InstaDads chart
The new study analysed publicly available Instagram posts based on their geo-location tags, and crunched the numbers on the top UK regions, counties and cities where dads share fatherhood related content the most.
Greater Manchester ranks fifth amongst the top counties where InstaDads are most active, posting the most about dad life or being featured on their families’ feeds. At a city level, two locations in the county were shortlisted as hosts for some of the most social-media savvy dads, who clearly love snapping their proudest family moments – Wigan, ranking fifth in the top cities for InstaDads, and Bolton, ranking 12th in the chart based on number of Instagram posts.
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Relative to the size of the population, however, Greater Manchester dads come third in 14th our ranking of dad life content per 1000 county residents, with Northumberland and Southampton dads splitting the podium. Nevertheless, Essex dads still share over two times more family content on Instagram than Londoners.
North West ranks third among regions with most InstaDads
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Overall, InstaDads in the North West are the third most active on Instagram in the UK, whilst the North East and Northern Ireland are home to the least active Instagrammer dads, according to the regional data. When it comes to the most popular Instagram posts, North Western dads rank seventh in the top, with over 5,000 likes for geo-located posts.
At a county level, Milton Keynes, Stirling, Hartlepool, Monmouthshire, Caithness, Peterborough, South Gloucestershire, Wrexham, Thurrock and Falkirk all split the last position in the ranking, with the lowest amount of fatherhood related content shared.
Top five proudest InstaDads revealed
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The social media study also crunched the numbers on the profiles with the most liked public Instagram posts which used dad related hashtags in the last three months, and shortlisted the top dads that get most recognition on the platform for their heart-warming family life content.
Top InstaDads
InstaDad
Number of likes
Location
@ed_stafford
11167
Leicestershire, East Midlands
@daddiesonamission
3686
Blyth, Northumberland, North East
@jj.chalmers
2353
Scotland
@the_running_dan
1085
Chester, North West England
@harvey_and_adam
1068
Doncaster, Yorkshire and the Humber
*Top five InstaDads based on most liked dad-life Instagram content in the UK
Legendary city centre boozer named one of the best beer gardens in the UK
Daisy Jackson
No phones, cheap pints, and bags of sunshine – that’s the USP of Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, and now it’s earned itself the title of being one of the UK’s best beer gardens.
This legendary local pub has placed in an impressive eighth place on a new list of the nation’s top outdoor watering holes, beating beachside boozers and countryside pubs.
Sinclair’s Oyster Bar is the only Greater Manchester pub to make the new list published by Big 7 Travel.
They celebrated it for its ‘old-school pub characteristics’, which is a pretty fair summary of this local legend.
As well as a strict no-phones policy, encouraging its inhabitants to keep devices in their pockets and have a chin wag over a Taddy Lager instead, the pub is also serving pints at some of town’s most old-school prices.
This is one of the few places in town where you can still get a pint for less than a fiver, with its humble selection of beers and stouts priced from £3.50.
It’s also cash-only, and housed in a fascinating building that dates back to the 18th century – though it didn’t always stand in its current location on Exchange Square.
The pub has actually been rebuilt twice – once in the 1970s, being raised up by five feet to match new street levels during the construction of the Arndale Centre; then again in 1996 after the IRA bomb.
The 3000-pound bomb that changed the face of Manchester left the little pub with only minimal damage, but left it (and its neighbour, the Old Wellington) in need of a new home.
Sinclair’s in Manchester has been named as having one of the best beer gardens in the UK
So these centuries-old buildings were popped up on stilts and moved 300m down the road, meticulously reassembled over 11 months like a giant LEGO set to form the new square beside Manchester Cathedral.
You can read more about Sinclair’s Oyster Bar’s fascinating history HERE.
As for the present day, the pub’s suntrap outside terrace is forever heaving on match days, when football fans from across the globe pack around its picnic tables.
Big 7 Travel wrote: “Known for its old-school pub characteristics, including being cash-only and a no-phones policy, this historic pub – whose origins date back to the early 18th-century – is well known for serving cheap and easy-drinking Sam Smith’s beer, making it the perfect spot to socialise with friends in the city.
“The beer garden is also a complete suntrap, so when the sun’s shining in Manchester, there are few better places to spend an afternoon than Sinclair’s.”
It has placed in the top 10 of the guide’s list of 30 beer gardens in the UK, which has also named a couple of spots in the Lake District and Peak District.
Demolition and regeneration plans for former Manchester shopping centre to begin next month
Emily Sergeant
Plans to demolish and regenerate a former shopping centre in a Manchester suburb are set to kick off from next month.
Following planning approval at the end of 2025, major plans to transform the former Chorlton Cross Shopping Centre into a ‘thriving’ new destination to live and shop are set to commence with demolition in the next couple of weeks.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plans for the new Chorlton neighbourhood, they include 262 one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, all with access to outdoor space through balconies and gardens, 53 affordable homes – with 49 of them being available for social rent – and around 3,500 sq metres of public open space with fully walkable routes and outdoor seating areas.
A mix of flexible retail spaces, including a new ‘Makers Yard’ suitable for smaller start-up businesses will also be included, alongside new tree planting.
Phase one of the project will involve the dismantling the former shopping centre and neighbouring Graeme House buildings.
According to developers, the first step will be to close the precinct car park at the end of this month, before new hoardings are installed around the site to close the area off to pedestrians and vehicles for safety reasons.
The demolition work is expected to begin in mid-June, and be completed by August.
Where possible, materials from the existing buildings will be reused during construction of the new neighbourhood in a bid to help reduce the number of vehicles needed to remove materials from the site.
“Demolition marks another major milestone for the project, which will completely transform the former shopping centre,” commented Georgina Lynch, who is the managing director at Manchester-based developers, PJ Livesey.
“Our demolition contractor will carefully manage any issues throughout the work, and we will continue to stay in regular contact with local residents and businesses as the demolition progresses.”