Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ickenham in the London Borough of Hillingdon was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Elthorne.

 

[Calthrop]

Toponymy and confusions / oddities concerned therewith, can be fun. Largely quoting / slightly paraphrasing Wikipedia: Ickenham's Old English meaning is, "homestead / village of Ticca". The T was lost in the 13th or 14th century because of confusion with the Middle English word for "at". (If you say so, Wiki...). The same kind of thing has affected Nottingham: the name Anglo-Saxon in origin, arising from the area's having been ruled by a Saxon chieftain named Snot -- Old English, "homestead of Snot's people". The Normans, after their arrival: dropped the initial S in their rendering of the name -- not because they thought it sounded rude, but because they had difficulty in pronouncing "sn" -- the "Nottingham" form became the official and generally-used one.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sheffield also has a modern tramway system

 

[Calthrop]

Many cities worldwide are claimed in local lore to have been built, like Rome, on seven hills. Among such claimants in Britain are Sheffield; and -- of all places -- Torquay, Devon.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Collooney in County Sligo also has a church named the Church of the Assumption.

 

[Calthrop]

At Collooney, is the Connolly Park Gaelic Athletic Association stadium -- one takes it that the name-similarity is coincidental; and that the naming is after Irish Republican leading figure James Connolly (1868 -- 1916; executed for his part in the Easter Rising of that year). Connolly was in fact born in Edinburgh. (I find Collooney irresistible in a rail context: meeting-point pre-1925, of three rail routes of no less than three different companies; but that's "by the way" here.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Littlehampton in West Sussex also has a millenium clock tower.

(I was always amused by Victoria Wood calling one of the episodes of "Dinnerladies" as....Minnelium.)....

 

[Calthrop]

Littlehampton is the westernmost settlement of the Brighton / Worthing / Littlehampton conurbation: the fifteenth-largest urban area in England and Wales. Saltdean, East Sussex, is its easternmost.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aberdeen also has a church that is dedicated to St Nicholas.

 

[Calthrop]

In the strange world of heraldry, the difference between a lion and a leopard is non-biological; it seems in fact rather hard to pin down, if you're not a herald. Aberdeen's coat of arms has as supporters, two of what are referred to as leopards; that of Shrewsbury is reckoned to feature three leopards' heads (or they might be lions' ).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Whitchurch in Shropshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Alkmund.

 

[Calthrop]

There are likely more places in Britain called Whitchurch, than bearing any other name, with the exception of Newport ! "The oracle" gives (including "Whitchurch plus suffix" places) eight reckonably "pukka" Whitchurches -- plus a few questionable ones -- in England; and three in Wales. The non-Shropshire Whitchurch which I'm choosing, is Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire; on the banks of the Thames immediately opposite Pangbourne, Berkshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Newnham Murren in Oxfordshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Langtree.

 

[John Griffiths]

Newnham Murren lies in a 'strip parish' - a style of parochial organisation whereby the parish boundaries surround a long strip of territory, thereby giving the community a share of various types of land: water meadow, loam, heath, wood etc. Lincolnshire abounds in strip parishes, one such being Normanby by Spital.

 

[Calthrop]

Normanby by Spital has a pub called the Bottle and Glass. Villages called Gibraltar: there is one such, also in Lincolnshire -- but another Gibraltar, this one with a Bottle and Glass pub, is in Buckinghamshire; a couple of miles north-east of Haddenham.

 

[DerekC]

Gibraltar, Bucks is on the Wychert Way.

For interest, here’s the explanation of the name “Wychert” on the Way website: “in Haddenham and a belt of villages west of Aylesbury are a number of villages whose cottages have rendered walls. These are mostly built in 'witchert', Buckinghamshire's version of the cob or earth-wall construction more usually associated with Devon and Dorset. Still used in this part of Bucks until the 1920s, witchert is a corruption of 'white earth' which roughly describes the lime rich sub soil that lies above the Portland Limestone belt that passes through the Vale of Aylesbury.”

The village of Ford, Buckinghamshire, is also on the Wychert Way.

 

[Calthrop]

Gibraltar, Bucks is on the Wychert Way.

For interest, here’s the explanation of the name “Wychert” on the Way website: “in Haddenham and a belt of villages west of Aylesbury are a number of villages whose cottages have rendered walls. These are mostly built in 'witchert', Buckinghamshire's version of the cob or earth-wall construction more usually associated with Devon and Dorset. Still used in this part of Bucks until the 1920s, witchert is a corruption of 'white earth' which roughly describes the lime rich sub soil that lies above the Portland Limestone belt that passes through the Vale of Aylesbury.”

The village of Ford, Buckinghamshire, is also on the Wychert Way.

I take back my words above, concerning sundry Whitchurches; that name would seem to have in Ford, at least a rival for frequent and various incidences as a place-name in Britain. My Michelin Britain Road Atlas lists in its gazetteer, no less than sixteen Fords. I'm going for the most distant, and the only one not in England -- Ford, Argyll and Bute (a little over fifteen miles due south of Oban).

Thank you for "wychert / witchert" -- wonderful word. I'll now be keen to include it in my everyday conversation; that'll be a challenge.

 

[johnnychips]

There are also several standing stones near Birchover in Derbyshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Edensor in Derbyshire was also once administered by the Hundred of High Peak.

 

[John Griffiths]

Edensor is mainly owned by the Duke of Devonshire, one of whose predecessors was instrumental in the development of Eastbourne as a high class coastal resort.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Friston in East Sussex was also once under the jurisdiction of the Eastbourne Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Concerning the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise: John Eric Bartholomew, stage name Eric Morecambe, had "ancestral connections" with Friston -- his great-great-grandfather, John Bartholomew, was living there as at 1851. His son -- Eric's great-grandfather -- had moved however in the late 1840s, to the Morecambe area (hence, presumably, Eric's pseudonym). Eric's "oppo" Ernie Wise (real name Ernest Wiseman) was born in Leeds; and would seem -- boringly, in comparison with the other guy -- to have come from a family which had long lived in said west Yorkshire metropolis.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Oldham in Greater Manchester also has an owl in its coat of arms.

 

[johnnychips]

The Oldham Tinkers are/were a well known folk group. One of their songs was The Stockport Strike.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan was also the scene of an air disaster.

 

[John Griffiths]

Croft-on-Tees in North Yorkshire also has a motor racing circuit.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ainderby Steeple in North Yorkshire was also once administered by the Gilling East Wapentake.

 

[Calthrop]

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, also has a church dedicated to St. Helen. (St. Helen's, Ainderby Steeple, has -- according to the picture -- a tower, not a steeple...)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Alrewas in Staffordshire alo has a noted arboretum.

 

[Calthrop]

Wheelock, Cheshire -- four miles north-east of Crewe -- is also situated on the Trent & Mersey Canal.