Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kirn was a calling point for the Clyde Steamers, immortalised in the song "The Day We Went to Rothesay O". (It sounds like a grand day out!):

Thank you for awakening my memory of my 1960s folk-singing days, as this was one of the songs of the type that always fell upon me to sing....

Golspie in Sutherland has also hosted the Royal National Mod on two occasions.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland ("The Wee Frees") have well-established congregations in Golspie, but the Roman Catholic and Scottish Episcopal Churches worship in nearby Brora.

 

[Calthrop]

Kirn was a calling point for the Clyde Steamers, immortalised in the song "The Day We Went to Rothesay O". (It sounds like a grand day out!):

I seem to recall from the song, that all went well until there came on the scene some half a million fleas: an encounter in which the insects prevailed over the humans.

The Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland ("The Wee Frees") have well-established congregations in Golspie, but the Roman Catholic and Scottish Episcopal Churches worship in nearby Brora.

Quoting verbatim from Wiki: "Brora was the first place in the north of Scotland to have electricity thanks to its wool industry. This distinction gave rise to the local nickname of 'Electric City' at the time."

Near Dunure, South Ayrshire, there is a spot on a road, called "Electric Brae" -- where it appears that gravity is "back to front": and vehicles not under power, roll uphill instead of down. It's understood, though, that this is an optical illusion resulting from a freak combined physical set-up -- it isn't really happening.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I seem to recall from the song, that all went well until there came on the scene some half a million fleas: an encounter in which the insects prevailed over the humans.

I remember singing the line....
Till somebody happened for to sneeze
And it woken half-a-million fleas
In a single bed in Rothesay-O
(But I was never sure if these were the right words, but it felt OK to me!!!)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Near Dunure, South Ayrshire, there is a spot on a road, called "Electric Brae" -- where it appears that gravity is "back to front": and vehicles not under power, roll uphill instead of down. It's understood, though, that this is an optical illusion resulting from a freak combined physical set-up -- it isn't really happening.

Portballintrae in County Antrim also has a ruined castle in its local area.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The River Bush is a river in County Antrim with it's source in the Antrim Hills. It flows northwest and then west, and then bends north, passing through Bushmills (from which it takes it's name and to which it gives the name of the whiskey) before reaching the sea at Portballintrae on the North Antrim coast.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Killowen in County Down is another settlement with an Ulster distillery.

 

[Calthrop]

I remember singing the line....
Till somebody happened for to sneeze
And it woken half-a-million fleas
In a single bed in Rothesay-O
(But I was never sure if these were the right words, but it felt OK to me!!!)

The versions I've heard / read, tell of a single room, rather than bed; but "whichever", getting up close and personal with half a million fleas, is unlikely to improve your day...

Killowen in County Down is another settlement with an Ulster distillery.

Killowen lies on the shore of Carlingford Lough; as does the eponymous Carlingford, across the lough and the Border in Co. Louth. Carlingford, though only a tiny town, boasts not just one castle, but two (to be precise, the second -- though grandiloquently referred to as Taaffe's Castle -- is actually only a fortified town house).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Burrishoole in County Mayo was also chosen as a site in which to build a Dominican friary.

 

[Calthrop]

Wiki would seem to suggest that Burrishoole is not and has not been a settlement as such: rather, name of one of the Baronies of Co. Mayo -- in which lies Burrishoole Abbey / Friary (nearest thing to a settlement of the name, which there has been -- now a ruin). Said foundation lies a few km. west of Newport, Co. Mayo -- which bears or has borne the alternative names of Ballyveaghan, and Newport-Pratt(!). With a little bit of "licence" -- another Irish settlement endowed with, at times of its existence, three different names: is Dun Laoghaire / Dunleary / Kingstown, County Dublin.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Fishguard in Pembrokeshire has another ferry terminal offering services between the UK and the Irish republic.

 

[Calthrop]

Rather than being to do with protecting fish: Fishguard's name comes from the Old Norse Fiskigardr = fish-catching enclosure. Another "Old Norse plus finny / scaly friends" name is Fishtoft (near Boston, Lincolnshire): originally just O.N toft = building site or enclosure-including-dwelling -- addition of the "Fish" prefix in the 14th century may feature a family name, or may indicate a connection with fishing.

 

[johnnychips]

Some evidence of a Roman settlement was found at Fishtoft. There was certainly more solid evidence at Gamesley near Glossop which abuts Melandra Roman fort.

 

[Springs Branch]

National Cycle Network Route 62 passes through Gamesley en route from Selby to Fleetwood.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Barton-on-Irwell in the Greater Manchester area also has a church that was built to the design of the noted architect E W Pugin.

 

[Calthrop]

Barton-on-Irwell in the Greater Manchester area also has a church that was built to the design of the noted architect E W Pugin.

The above-bolded settlement is situated on the Bridgewater Canal, and has a couple of, thus canal-related, structures. These feature in the last scene of the 1961 film A Taste of Honey; one of the main characters in that film is played by Dora Bryan, who was born in Southport.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Marcus Wareing, gourmet chef, was born in Southport, his family ran a fruit and veg wholesale that went downhill when school meals changed to processed food.

He keeps an eatery in LONDON. (How often has the Metropolis been mentioned here?).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Colchester was also an important settlement of Roman Britain.

 

[Calthrop]

The renowned Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 -- 92) lived in Colchester in his youth. He was baptised in 1850, in the River Lark at Isleham, Cambridgeshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Little Paxton in Cambridgeshire also has an illustrated village sign.

 

[Calthrop]

Atherstone, Warwickshire, also has a pub called the Anchor. (Little Paxton could hardly be called adjacent to the sea; but it must be hard to get much further from it in Great Britain, than Atherstone.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Walsall in the West Midlands also has historical connections to the trade of leatherworking.

 

[Calthrop]

Sir Henry John Newbolt (1862 -- 1938) -- writer and versifier: his material highly un-PC by present-day standards -- attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, for some of his education. Probably Newbolt's best-known work is the ballad Drake's Drum -- telling initially of Sir Francis being buried at sea very far away, "an' dreamin' arl the time o' Plymouth Hoe".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hull also has a noted aquarium.

 

[Calthrop]

Kirk Ella, a few miles west of Hull and on the edge of the city's built-up area, has a name as a "posh" settlement, characterised by the desirable residences of Hull's wealthy and successful. The local song Three-Day Millionaire, originating a good number of decades ago, is in the form of a soliloquy by a rather cocky young lad, mid-teens, who is about to start work in Hull's fishing trade at the very bottom of the heap: he pictures himself as rising in this occupation with great success, ending up as a highly affluent trawler captain -- song's final words are:

...be a different sort of fella,
Have a big house in Kirk Ella,
And show the bleedin' neighbours who's a man.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Melton in the East Riding of Yorkshire was also once administered by the Hunsley Beacon Division of the Harthill Wapentake.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The local song Three-Day Millionaire, originating a good number of decades ago, is in the form of a soliloquy by a rather cocky young lad, mid-teens, who is about to start work in Hull's fishing trade at the very bottom of the heap: he pictures himself as rising in this occupation with great success, ending up as a highly affluent trawler captain -- song's final words are:

...be a different sort of fella,
Have a big house in Kirk Ella,
And show the bleedin' neighbours who's a man.

No escaping from my folk singing connections, as this was written by Mike Waterson who was one of the four members of the The Watersons folk group, well known in the 1960s. Our group sang a fox hunting song, "Dido, Bendigo" which we learnt from hearing them sing. I am not sure if it is still on YouTube. The other song of theirs that we sang was called "Hilda's Cabinet Band".

 

[Calthrop]

Melton in the East Riding of Yorkshire was also once administered by the Hunsley Beacon Division of the Harthill Wapentake.

Around Melton, there has long taken place quarrying for various materials, especially chalk. Chalk-quarrying is also carried out near King's Somborne, Hampshire -- west of Winchester and north of Romsey.

 

[Springs Branch]

The SO20 Postcode district covers several settlements in the Test Valley, including King's Somborne and Middle Wallop.

 

[Calthrop]

Middle Wallop is suspected to have been the site of a battle in ? 437 AD, between the forces of two rival British leaders, Vortigern and Aurelius Ambrosius. There are traditions of another battle, likely most of a hundred years later -- between Britons (including King Arthur??), and invading Anglo-Saxons -- at "Badon": various sites suggested, one of the preferred ones being Badbury, Wiltshire (just south of Swindon).