Settlement Association

[EbbwJunction1]

Trinity Chain Pier, originally called Trinity Pier of Suspension, was built in Trinity, in 1821. It was designed by Captain Sir Samuel Brown of Netherbyres KH FRSE (1776 – 1852), who was a pioneer of chains and suspension bridges. in 1808, with his cousin Samuel Lenox, he set up a company that would become Brown Lenox & Co, with factories at Millwall and in Pontypridd in South Wales; this was to become the company's main chain works.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Treforest in Rhondda Cynon Taf also lies on the line of the River Taff.

 

[D6130]

Welsh singing legend Sir Tom Jones was born in Treforest. He spent his early years singing in working mens' clubs and miners' institutes across South Wales and got his big break when he was spotted by a prominent London theatrical agent while performing in the Top Hat in Cwmtillery.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Senghenydd in Gwent was also the scene of a mining disaster.

 

[Calthrop]

Senghenydd is nowadays physically pretty-well merged with the next settlement down the valley and the B4263 road: Abertridwr.

 

[DerekC]

The Windsor Colliery at Abertridwr was connected underground to the Universal Colliery at Senghenydd and also to the Nantgarw Colliery.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Abercynon in Rhondda Cynon Taf also lies on the line of the River Taff.

 

[D6130]

Tongwynlais also lies on the line of the disused Glamorganshire Canal.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Talybont-on-Usk is also a settlement on the route of the Taff Vale Cycle Route.

 

[D6130]

Gilwern also lies on the line of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.

 

[Calthrop]

My motto -- if in difficulty, resort to alder trees ! Gilwern's name comes from the Welsh for "recess or bend of the alders" -- likely referring to Gilwern being at a sharp bend in the river on which it lies. The name of Alderwasley, Derbyshire -- north of Belper -- is from the Old English for "clearing near alluvial land growing with alders".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Turnditch in Derbyshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Belper Poor Law Union.

 

[341o2]

The next settlement to Turnditch is Cross 'o th' Hands
Cross Hands is a settlement in Camarthenshire

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Port of Ness on the Isle of Lewis is also a settlement with a Site of Special Scientific Interest in its environs.

 

[Calthrop]

Natural-history department: in cases where alder trees don't help, gannets can be useful. By special permission re this otherwise protected species, a small group of men make an annual sailing from Port of Ness to the islet of Sula Sgeir, to catch young gannets which are then salted-down (long-standing local ?delicacy). Ferries plying between -- formerly Stranraer, nowadays Cairnryan -- and Larne, are often good for watching close-up, gannets from the large colony of the birds on the small island of Ailsa Craig in the outer Firth of Clyde,

 

[DerekC]

Larne is at one end of the Irish Sea Bridge (Galloway Route), often discussed and most recently raised as a possibility by the current government. The other end would be at Portpatrick. A recent report has estimated the cost at £335Bn and although the project is said to be technically feasible, it has now been shelved.

 

[Calthrop]

Portpatrick is sometimes referred to in that part of the world, a little unkindly, as "God's Waiting Room": owing to its popularity as a place for people to go and live after they retire. Hove, East Sussex, is sometimes given the same nickname for the same reason.

 

[DerekC]

Edinburgh, like Hove, possesses a floral clock.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dumfries also has a camera obsura.

 

[D6130]

Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns, died and is buried in Dumfries. He was born at Alloway in Ayrshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Patna in East Ayrshire also lies on the line of the River Doon.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Scottish physician and pharmacologist Sir David Campbell MC FRSE was born in Patna on 6th May 1889 and was Professor of Materia Medica at Aberdeen University from 1930 to 1959. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 due to his bravery serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps whilst serving in northern France. After a long medical career, he retired to Peterculter, west of Aberdeen in 1961, and died there on 30th May 1978.

 

[Calthrop]

Back to Edinburgh -- I think I'm OK, with four intervening posts about other settlements. At Peterculter there is a (fully-coloured) Highland-warrior statue, most often reckoned to be of Rob Roy McGregor; but on the basis of who, historically, operated where: informed opinion thinks it more likely to represent another McGregor -- Patrick of that name alias Gilderoy, a kind of rather-less-benign, "Robin Hood" figure. Gilderoy was executed for his activities in 1636, in Edinburgh.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ness on the Wirral peninsula also has noted botanical gardens.

 

[Calthrop]

Lord Nelson's renowned lady friend Emma Hamilton was born in Ness. She and Lord N. resided for a spell, in what is now the London Borough of Merton.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Glossop in Derbyshire also has historical links to the trade of calico printing.

 

[Calthrop]

Glossop is the birthplace of Hilary Mantel, author of the -- published over the past dozen years -- historical-novel trilogy on theme of the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister and hatchet-man in the later 1530s. (These novels are greatly lauded by the literary cognoscenti: I haven't tried them, being put off by indications that they are written in a deliberately convoluted and difficult style.) Thomas Cromwell was born in Putney, now in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Another, very different, resident of Putney was Marc Bolan, singer and leader of the band Tyrannosaurus Rex (later known as T.Rex), who lived at 6a Schubert Road, Putney and died in a car crash in near-by Barnes on 16th September 1977.

 

[Calthrop]

There is also a Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust reserve at Steart, near Bridgwater, Somerset.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

St Andrew's Church, Steart was designed by Messrs Foster and Wood of Bristol and constructed by Messrs Joseph Willis and Son of Bridgwater and opened on 30th November 1882. It was erected as a Chapel of Ease to the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, Stockland Bristol (formerly Stockland Gaunts) which is a village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset.