Settlement Association

[D6130]

Lichfield also has a cathedral with three spires.

Coventry has a junction named Three Spires Junction but, in this case the spires belong to three different churches....one of which is the ruined cathedral.

 

[John Griffiths]

Philip Larkin was born and brought up in Coventry, but spent most of his adult life as university librarian in Hull.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Liverpool is another port that was bombed by the Luftwaffe in WWII

 

[Springs Branch]

There are two road tunnels under the Mersey linking Liverpool with the Wirral.
There are also two road tunnels under the Thames (two one-way bores in this case) linking North Greenwich with Blackwall.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Torquay also has a church that is dedicated to St Matthias.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The writer Agatha Christie was born in the town on 15th September 1890 and lived at Ashfield in Torquay during her early years. There is an "Agatha Christie Mile", a tour with plaques dedicated to her life and work. She died on 12th January 1976 (aged 85) at Winterbrook House, Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

 

[341o2]

Wallingford has a donkey sanctuary as does Sidmouth

 

[Springs Branch]

Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman was very fond of the town of Sidmouth.
He had less favourable opinions ("Come friendly bombs.....") about Slough.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Leamington Spa also lies on the line of the Grand Union Canal.

 

[Calthrop]

Trespassing a bit into cryptic-clues territory, perhaps: another settlement sounding "in whole or in part", like a rodent species; is Belvoir (Leicestershire) -- the way they pronounce it thereabouts !

 

[John Griffiths]

Pickering also has an associated vale named for it (Vale of Belvoir, Vale of Pickering).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Barmby on the Marsh in the East Riding of Yorkshire also lies on the line of the Costa Beck.

 

[Calthrop]

Barmby on the Marsh in the East Riding of Yorkshire also lies on the line of the Costa Beck.

(My italics -- can't resist -- sounds like a thoroughly unwholesome Spanish / North of England hybrid .)

Billericay, Essex, also has a pub called the King's Head.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Mintlaw in Aberdeenshire also has a farming museum.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

As well as the Farming Museum mentioned above, the Aberdeenshire Museums Service is based in a new purpose-built museum building in Mintlaw, housing Aberdeenshire's large reserve collections, a conservation laboratory and the Discovery Centre. The service also runs two other museums: the Arbuthnot Museum in Peterhead and Banchory Museum.

 

[Calthrop]

Peterhead lies "hard by" the easternmost point in mainland Scotland. The Irish "mainland easternmost" equivalent is Burr Point, County Down; situated near the village of Ballyhalbert.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Trory in County Fermanagh is another Ulster settlement where a RAF base was established.

 

[John Griffiths]

Luss in Argyll also has a ferry to a lake island.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Edinburgh is another settlement where bagpipes are made.

 

[Calthrop]

The novelist Muriel Spark (1918 -- 2006) was born and spent her childhood and youth in Edinburgh -- that city, the setting for probably her best-known novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. For a while in the 1950s / 60s, she lived in Camberwell (London Borough of Southwark).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Letterston in Pembrokeshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Giles.

 

[Calthrop]

Letterston in Pembrokeshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Giles.

A number of settlements in Ireland also have names which start with "Letter": nothing to do with spelling or correspondence, re either the Welsh community, or the Irish ones. Letterston's name comes from the medieval owners of the parish, the Lettard family; the "Letter" part of the Irish settlements' names is from the Irish-language word meaning "hillside". An example is Letterfrack ("speckled hillside") in Connemara, Co. Galway.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Mountmellis in County Laois is another settlement that was developed by Quakers.

 

[Calthrop]

Honiton, Devon, has also been renowned for lace-making.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kirriemuir in Angus also hosts an annual agricultural show.

 

[Springs Branch]

Although now manufactured by a larger food company based in Shotts, Kirriemuir Gingerbread was originally produced in its namesake town by local baker Walter Burnett.

Another noted producer (the fastest growing and award winning artisan gingerbread bakery, according to their own publicity) is Hawkens Gingerbread in Grantham.

 

[Calthrop]

Plungar, Leicestershire, also lies on the (disused) Grantham Canal.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tithby in Nottinghamshire was also once administered as part of its very extensive rural area remit by the Hundred of Bingham.

 

[Calthrop]

This Vale of Belvoir area contains, to my taste, many settlements with delightfully strange and sonorous, often "double-barrelled or more", names. Near neighbours of Tithby are Cropwell Butler, Cropwell Bishop, and Colston Bassett. Quite a number of settlements in various parts of England bear the Bassett suffix: which we learn comes from a widespread Norman family name (nothing, directly anyway, to do with floppy-eared dogs called Fred). A fairish way from the Belvoir region is Compton Bassett, Wiltshire -- near Calne.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bathford in Bath and North East Somerset also has a church that is dedicated to St Swithun.