Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Gresford was also the scene of a mining disaster.

 

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Gresford Colliery was the site of one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters, which occurred on 22nd September 1934, when 266 men died following an underground explosion. The disaster is commemorated in the hymn tune "Gresford", which is also known as "the Miners' Hymn"; it was written by the miner Robert Saint of Hebburn, which is now in the county of Tyne and Wear.

 

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Until 1986, The Mid Tyne Ferry Company operated ferry services between Hebburn, Walker, and Wallsend. One of its boats -- renamed from Tyne Queen to Jacobite Queen -- is now in tourist service on Loch Ness, based at Inverness.

 

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Highland RFC play in the Scottish National League Division One, the 2nd tier of Scottish club rugby; their home ground is Canal Park, Inverness. Cartha Queens Park RFC are in the same Division, and play their home games at Dumbreck, on the South side of Glasgow.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kirkcaldy also has an accredited conservation area.

 

[Calthrop]

The crime writer Val McDermid (a favourite of mine) was born in Kirkcaldy. She now lives, part of the time, in Alnmouth (Northumberland).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Alnham also lies on the line of the River Aln.

 

[Calthrop]

Corbridge also has a pele tower (speciality of these parts).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Fourstones also lies on the route of the Roman road known as Stanegate.

 

[Calthrop]

Hoping that Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, counts as a settlement -- one assumes that it will have a tiny resident population, to look after the various amenities for which people visit the island -- it was the venue in 1907, for Lord Baden-Powell's first experimental Boy Scout camp. Following on from the success thereof, the movement's first properly official camp was held the next year, at Fourstones.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Porthcurno in Cornwall is another settlement that was chosen to host an open-air theatre.

 

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The Minack Theatre in Porthcurno was created by Rowena Cade, who was born in Spondon, Derbyshire on 2nd August 1893.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Chester also has a church that is dedicated to St Werburgh.

 

[Calthrop]

Londonderry also has a complete encircling city wall which can be walked right round.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Carrigans in County Donegal also lies on the line of the River Foyle.

 

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Agatha Christie of detective-fiction fame, visited Carrigans several times as a guest of the prominent local McClintock family. In a well-known personal-life episode in 1926, she spent a number of "unscheduled" days in Harrogate.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

York is another tourist haven where an iconic branch of Betty's Tea Rooms can be queued at.

 

[Calthrop]

From tea to stronger wares; the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) appears to hold York in high esteem -- a hundred-odd pubs in the city, are on its "recommended" list. CAMRA's headquarters are, however, a good deal further south: in St. Albans.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wakefield was also the site of a battle during the Wars of the Roses.

 

[Calthrop]

The Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 74) wrote among sundry other works, the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (though it's reckoned that he borrowed the name of the busy Yorkshire town, for his fictional smaller and sleepier community); and the poem The Deserted Village -- a melancholy reflection on the fate of a village which he had known well in his childhood, Lissoy aka Auburn: for various reasons, itself seemingly not eligible for this game -- nearest qualifying settlement, Ballymahon (Co. Longford).

 

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The Royal Canal links Ballymahon to Dublin, via several towns such as Mullingar and Maynooth.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Loughrea in County Galway also has a cathedral.

 

[Calthrop]

Among the fish species found in the eponymous and adjacent Lough Rea, are eels. Toomebridge (Co. Antrim), on Lough Neagh, is Ireland's acknowledged eel-fishing capital (one understands that re this threatened species, conservation measures are intendedly taken).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Coleraine also lies on the line of the River Bann.

 

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Coleraine Cricket Club play in the North West Senior League, as do Bready Cricket Club; they are located in the village of Magheramason, County Tyrone.

 

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My favourite standby; Magheramason lies only-just-and-barely in its county of Tyrone: being right on the Co. Londonderry border. The same applies to South Witham, Lincolnshire -- on the very border of Rutland.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dogdyke also lies on the line of the River Witham

 

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Asking forgiveness for being a bit facetious, in realms of seeming reference to our two favourite companion-mammal species: in that connection, a possible partner for the above-bolded settlement, in a (just) neighbouring county: Catfield, in the Broads area of Norfolk.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sible Hedingham in Essex also has an illustrated village sign.

 

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The Domesday Book lists the village of Sible Hedingham and Hedingham Castle amongst the lands given to Roger Bigod by the King. He was a Norman knight who travelled to England in the Norman Conquest, and who held great power in East Anglia. His base was in Thetford, Norfolk (then the See of the Bishop), where he founded a priory later donated to the abbey at Cluny, France.