Settlement Association

[A0]

Hackney is a twin-town with Haifa in Israel - so too is Portsmouth.

 

[Calthrop]

Hackney is a twin-town with Haifa in Israel - so too is Portsmouth.

Portsmouth's popular nickname (especially re its football club) "Pompey": there are a number of theories put forward for the origin thereof. My favourite one, involves a character whom I have mentioned before in this game: the earnest and pious, and pleasingly eccentric, lady Agnes Weston (I'd thought, prior to Googling just now, that her name was Agatha) -- dates 1840 to 1918. Agnes W. had a big concern for seafarers, and ran various programmes to instititute helpful facilities for them; hoping also thus, to lead them into the paths of righteousness. Although the seagoing guys mostly reckoned that she was on a hiding to nothing as regards this last; they developed a considerable affection for her, calling her (not to her face) "Aggie". Per this account, the "Pompey" nickname came from a lecture to the tars, conducted by A.W. in Portsmouth, on ancient Roman history; including the sad fate of the figure therein, Pompey. In the course of the talk, someone became quite emotional and cried out, "poor old Pompey !" -- which for some reason, really took the seamen's fancy, and "it led on from there".

The lady's nautical "clients" took to -- per a bit of bad punning -- calling Weston-Super-Mare (Somerset), "Aggie On Horseback".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Lochinver in Sutherland also has an association with sand sculpture contests.

 

[A0]

Lochinver is dominated by the "sugar loaf" shape of the summit peak of nearby Suilven.

Meppershall in Bedfordshire's village pub is named The Sugar Loaf.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stotfold in Bedfordshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Clifton.

 

[A0]

Stotfold has a grade 2 listed watermill as does Hall Green in Birmingham (Sarehole Mill).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

On School Road, Hall Green, is the Church of the Ascension (previously known as the Job Marston Chapel and Hall Green Chapel) It was built in 1704 and is believed to have been designed by Sir William Wilson (1641 – 1710). In 1693, he was commissioned to design and build Sir John Moore's Grammar School in Appleby Parva, Leicestershire, which was completed in 1697.

 

[Calthrop]

Sir John Moore appears to have been the 17th-century local magnate in and around Appleby Magna (he died before completion of the school which bears his name). Another and perhaps more celebrated Sir John Moore (unrelated, it would seem) was the prominent soldier, dates 1761 -- 1809: killed at the battle of Corunna (A Coruna) in the Peninsular War, at which he commanded the British force; this commemorated in the much-loved poem by Charles Wolfe. Sir John M. ("Corunna"), was born in Glasgow.

 

[D6130]

Kirkfieldbank in South Lanarkshire is also located on the River Clyde.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Offenham in Worcestershire is also a noted area for tomato cultivation.

 

[Calthrop]

Offenham's church has a dual dedication: to St. Mary, and St. Milburgh (aka Milburga) -- a new one on me. I learn that she was abbess of Wenlock Priory in the 8th century; and seems to be a speciality of this particular bit of England. The only other churches dedicated to her, findable by me: are one at Church Stretton, Shropshire; and another in a tiny village near Brown Clee Hill.

 

[A0]

Church Stretton was granted its Market Charter by King John in 1214. Wendover (Bucks) was also granted its Market Charter in 1214.

 

[Calthrop]

Lymington, Hampshire, is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Ille-et-Vilaine. Wendover's "twin" is Liffre; Lymington's is Vitre.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bedhampton in Hampshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Thomas the Apostle.

 

[Calthrop]

John Fredrick Thomas Jane (1865 -- 1916) -- student of things naval, who first came to prominence for his exhaustive work Jane's Fighting Ships (later development and expansion led to the emergence of Jane's Information Group, publishing regularly-updated encyclopedic works on various subjects, including railways worldwide): lived in the later part of his life, in Bedhampton. He was born in Richmond -- at that time in Surrey, now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

 

[DerekC]

The most obvious association for Richmond, Surrey is, of course, Richmond, North Yorkshire. And as it happens both towns stand on meanders in their respective rivers. In the Surrey case the Thames and in the North Yorkshire case the Swale.

 

[D6130]

Muker in North Yorkshire also lies on the River Swale.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Leadhills in South Lanarkshire also has historical connections to lead mining.

 

[Calthrop]

Leadhills is -- surprisingly -- the location of the oldest subscription library in the British Isles: the Leadhills Miners' Library, founded in 1741. A visitor in the later 18th century observed that the library had "as many valuable books as might be expected to be chosen by promiscuous readers". One could write and publish those words back then; unlike in the present day, with its tedious fixation about jumping everywhere to perceivedly dirty meanings. As with Thomas Hardy's 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge (Dorchester, Dorset), with its celebrated reference to "Farfrae's erection", i.e. the imposing building designed by Mr. Farfrae. A thing for which no modern-day novelist would have the "bottle" ...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Woodsford in Dorset also lies on the line of the River Frome.

 

[A0]

Woodsford's parish church was rebuilt to designs by Thomas Henry Wyatt who also designed the church of St George the Martyr in Wolverton (Bucks).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ramsgate in Kent also has a church that is dedicated to St George the Martyr.

 

[Calthrop]

"Twinning" again: can't resist it, what with Ramsgate's "twin" -- Chimay, Belgium -- having associations with the local preserved Chemin de Fer des Trois Vallees. Twin towns in the Belgian province of Hainaut: Ramsgate's is, as above, Chimay; whereas Mons is twinned with Sefton, Merseyside.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Litherland in Merseyside was also once administered by the Hundred of West Derby.

 

[Calthrop]

Litherland was the scene of the last horse-worked section of the Liverpool area's 19th / 20th century tram network -- a short stretch north from the boundary of Bootle's local-government jurisdiction: electrified in 1903. Greater London's last horse-tram route, at Kew (now London Borough of Richmond upon Thames) lasted until electrification in 1915.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Coventry was another settlement chosen as a site for a Carthusian religious house.

 

[Calthrop]

Coventry is situated on the short River Sherbourne: a tributary of the River Sowe, which in turn flows into the Stratford Avon. "Sherbourne" comes from the Old English scir burna = "clear stream". Derived also thus, is the name of Sherborne, Dorset (which I used in the game a week ago; but never mind) -- from the "Scir Burna" brook which runs through that town, to flow into the River Yeo aka Ivel.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ilchester in Somerset also lies on the line of the River Yeo.

 

[A0]

Ilchester was a notorious 'rotten borough' so too was Dunwich (Suffolk).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wangford in Suffolk was also once administered by the Hundred of Blything.