Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Crewe in Cheshire East also has a church that is dedicated to St Michael.

 

[DerekC]

Rolls Royce motor cars used to be produced at Crewe, but after complex changes of ownership of the brand, Crewe is now the home of Bentley and Rolls Royces are produced at a new production facility near Westhampnett, Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Almodington in West Sussex was also once under the jurisdiction of the Westhampnett Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

There also is, or has been: an exotic-butterfly collection, open to the public, near South Woodham Ferrers (Essex).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Little Baddow in Essex was also once administered by the Hundred of Chelmsford.

 

[Calthrop]

The manor of Little Baddow was once a possession of Robert the Bruce, the famous King of Scots (what he was doing down here in Essex, heaven knows). R. the B. died in 1329 at Cardross, near Dumbarton -- different parts of him were buried / memorialised at a variety of places in Scotland.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

From a death to a birth ... the Scottish physician and novelist Archibald Joseph Cronin, known as A J Cronin, was born in Cardross on 19th July 1896. The television drama series Dr Finlay's Casebook was produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1962 until 1971. It was based on his 1935 novella Country Doctor, and the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s. Location work for the original series was filmed in the town of Callander in Perthshire, although the very first six episodes were filmed in Tannoch Drive, Milngavie.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Deanston in Perthshire also lies on the line of the River Teith.

 

[Calthrop]

Deanston is of note chiefly for its whisky distillery. This establishment has been used as a filming location for the Outlander television drama, based on Diana Gabaldon's novels of 18th vis-a-vis 20th century time travel. I've read and enjoyed the books, but basically know nothing about the TV version; so need to do a "crossover" between the two -- among the non-fictional settlements which feature in the books, is Inverness.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

In 2011, Inverness hosted the Scottish Open Golf Championship, which was played at Castle Stuart the week before the 2011 Open Championship. Since 1987, the Scottish Open Golf Championship has been one of the two last chances (the other one is in America) to qualify for The Open. The 140th Open Championship was held from 14th to 17th July at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent; it was won by the Northern Irish golfer Darren Clarke.

 

[Calthrop]

In the 16th century, Sandwich became home -- this facilitated by Letters Patent of Elizabeth I -- to many settlers / refugees from what is now Belgium ("both parts"). Appropriately, Sandwich is now twinned with Ronse in Belgium. Hythe, Kent -- not very far from Sandwich -- also has a Belgian twin town: Poperinge -- like Ronse, in the far western part of Belgium.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The British Army's School of Musketry was established in Hythe in 1853; it is now known as the Small Arms School Corps (SASC), and since 1969 has been based at the army training establishment at Warminster.

 

[Calthrop]

Freddie Bartholomew, very popular child actor in 1930s films, was born in 1924 in Harlesden, now in the London Borough of Brent. He spent most of his first ten years in Warminster.

 

[DerekC]

Weymouth in Dorset, like Harlesden, has a Jubilee Clock erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1888.

 

[Calthrop]

The author Gerald Basil Edwards (1899 -- 1976) is chiefly famous for one novel, which he wrote over many years; it was published in the last couple of years of Edwards's life, for the latter period of which he lived in Weymouth. The novel is The Book of Ebenezer le Page: the eponymous character's life-span is roughly contemporary with that of his creator; he lives throughout his life, in the parish of Vale, Guernsey.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Between August 1778 and March 1779, fifteen Guernsey Loophole Towers were built at various points along the coast of Guernsey to deter possible French attacks after France had declared itself an ally of the Americans in the American Revolutionary War. Towards the start of the Napoleonic Wars, several towers received additional reinforcement in the form of batteries at their bases. The towers were numbered sequentially, in a counter-clockwise direction from St Peter Port. Eight of the towers were in the parish of Vale; one that was not (and still survives) is Petit Bôt Tower, in the parish of Forest. The tower was placed at Petit Bot because it has a sandy beach, making it one of the few potential landing places on the south coast of the island. The tower was renovated between 2011 and 2012 and the information centre on the ground floor opened in June 2012.

 

[Calthrop]

In Forest parish, Guernsey, is the Mallard Cinema. Lyneham, Wiltshire -- between Swindon and Chippenham -- has a pub / restaurant called the Mallard. (One would be inclined to suspect, I'd think, that in both cases the name commemorates the bird rather than the locomotive.)

 

[D6130]

Lyneham used to be the location of an RAF Transport Command base which handled the movement of large numbers of UK services personnel, their families and luggage when travelling to and from overseas postings. Nowadays its function has been taken over by the similar air base at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

 

[DerekC]

Brize Norton is the home of "Crocodiles of the World" which claims to be the UK's only crocodile zoo. However a crocodile has been seen and photographed recently in a garden close to the River Aire at Castleford, West Yorkshire.

 

[D6130]

Castleford is the home of Fawcett's Maltings which supply high quality malt to breweries all over the North of England. Another town which still has active commercial maltings is Alloa in Scotland.

 

[Calthrop]

Alloa's football club bears the name of Alloa Athletic. Another, also alliterative, football club -- not very far distant in Scotland -- is Raith Rovers; based in Kirkcaldy, Fife (seemingly there isn't actually a settlement called Raith).

 

[D6130]

(seemingly there isn't actually a settlement called Raith).

Correct....but I'm told by friends in the area that Starks Park - the Raith Rovers stadium - was built on the site of a stately home called Raith House. Kirkcaldy was for years the main UK centre for the production of linoleum and the smell of hot linseed oil and pine resin used to permeate the town and surrounding areas. Linoleum was invented in the nineteenth century by Frederick Walton, who established his first factory at Staines in Middlesex (now in Surrey).

 

[Calthrop]

Correct....but I'm told by friends in the area that Starks Park - the Raith Rovers stadium - was built on the site of a stately home called Raith House.

Ah, thanks. One gathers that the people of this particular area have a name for being cussed so-and-so's, and proud of it -- they can be imagined as taking pleasure in their football team, about which they are passionate, being named after a totally non-existent place ! (I get this "meme" about the locals, from one of my favourite murder-mystery authors -- Val McDermid, who comes from those parts herself. Her creation DCI Karen Pirie -- described as, also, a native of the area -- certainly fits the "cussed" label, in hearts and spades.)

Kirkcaldy was for years the main UK centre for the production of linoleum and the smell of hot linseed oil and pine resin used to permeate the town and surrounding areas. Linoleum was invented in the nineteenth century by Frederick Walton, who established his first factory at Staines in Middlesex (now in Surrey).

In stagecoach days, Staines was an important staging-point for that mode of transport; as was Grantham -- coaching focal point, the town's Angel Inn.

 

[D6130]

St Wulfram's parish church in Grantham contains a rare example of a sixteenth century chained library. The largest chained library in the world is to found in Hereford Cathedral.

 

[Calthrop]

Lincoln likewise gives its name to a recognised British cattle breed: the Lincoln (aka Lincolnshire) Red.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

King's Lynn was also the scene of anti-Semetic rioting in the year 1190AD.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

King's Lynn's speedway team, the King's Lynn Stars, race at the Adrian Flux Arena, King's Lynn. They compete in the Speedway Great Britain (SGB) Premiership, which is the top division of league competition in the United Kingdom. The Star's best recent season was in 2018, when they were defeated by Poole Pirates in the Play Off Final. Poole's home track is the Poole Stadium, Wimborne Road, Poole, Dorset.

 

[DerekC]

By far the largest British onshore oilfield is at Wytch Farm on the western edge of Poole Harbour. The second largest (less than one tenth the size in terms of total reserves) is at Welton in Lincolnshire.

 

[Calthrop]

One of Welton's two pubs, the Black Bull, is supposedly haunted. The same goes reputedly -- and, it is suggested, frighteningly so -- for another farm-animal-titled hostelry: the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

One of the oldest churches in its area, St Mary's, Wootton-under-Edge, was consecrated on 19th August 1283 by the Bishop of Worcester, Godfrey Giffard. It is believed that most of the church as it is today was completed in 1325, some 171 years after its first recorded vicar, Gerinus, in 1154. The bells were originally cast in 1756 by Abel Rudhall of the firm of Rudhall of Gloucester, which was a family business of bell founders, who between 1684 and 1835 cast more than 5,000 bells. One of the earliest ring of bells he cast was for St Nicholas' Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire in 1684.