Settlement Association

[Springs Branch]

Harrow has been described as "the unofficial capital of Metroland" (that stretch of comfortable suburbia developed in the first half of the 20th Century to take advantage of easy commuting links to central London).

Another settlement reckoned to be an icon of the Metroland ideal (described by John Betjeman, among other references to the place, as "quintessential Metro-land") is Chorleywood in Hertfordshire.

 

[Calthrop]

Chorleywood is included in the Three Rivers Non-Metropolitan District; said rivers being the Chess (on which Chorleywood lies), the Colne, and the Gade: all three ultimately reaching the Thames. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is in the District concerned; and is situated on the River Gade.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bicester in Oxfordshire was another settlement to have received bailwick status in medieval times.

 

[Calthrop]

Leominster, Herefordshire: has in common with Bicester, that both are pronounced not as spelt -- pronounced with fewer syllables ! (My eccentric friend who believes that English spelling is phonetic, would think otherwise; his position would be, "correct pronunciation of these -- and all other -- places, totally follows the spelling; and I couldn't care less how the local idiots render the names".)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Presteigne in Powys also lies on the line of the River Lugg.

 

[Calthrop]

Presteigne's name, in the language of neighbouring Wales, is Llanandras. Another "near-the-border" town whose English and Welsh names seem greatly to differ from each other, is Welshpool (Powys) -- Welsh, Y Trallwng.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dolgellau in Gwynedd also has a livestock market.

 

[Calthrop]

Dolgellau was the home of John Elwyn Jones, a Welsh-language author (a teacher in his "day job"): wrote an account of his time as a POW of Germany in World War II, and his several escape attempts (the last one successful); also a three-volume autobiography. Another and earlier Jones (this one using the English language), E.H. Jones, wrote -- re the previous World War -- of his struggles to escape, as a POW in Turkey: his book The Road To En-Dor (IMO a terrific read), telling of these doings -- unusual and highly complicated escaping strategies, which sadly in the end, profited him very little. After World War I, E.H. Jones lived in Bangor, Gwynedd.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Gyrn Goch in Gwynedd is another settlement that was chosen to be the site of a Seion Evangelical Chapel.

 

[Calthrop]

Close to Gyrn Goch is Trefor; with its granite quarry, granite from which is used to make curling stones. The Royal Caledonian Curling Club -- the national Governing Board for Curling in Scotland -- is based in Stirling. ("Stirling for curling ..." )

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Peebles in the Scottish Borders area was also created a Royal Burgh in the 12th century.

 

[Calthrop]

Paxton (Scottish Borders -- near Berwick-upon-Tweed, but in the other country) also lies on the River Tweed.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Foulden in the Scottish Borders area also lies on the line of the Whiteadder Water.

 

[Calthrop]

Foulden's most-renowned son would seem to be Robert Christison (1837 -- 1915), son of Foulden's minister: who went out to Australia, and spent the majority of his life there, as a pastoralist and an explorer of some note. He returned to Britain in 1910, and spent the last years of his life not back on his native heath, but in Burwell, Lincolnshire (a little way south of Louth) -- no doubt he had his reasons. He is however, buried at Foulden.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Utterby in Lincolnshire also lies on the route of the A16 road.

 

[Calthrop]

Utterby in Lincolnshire also lies on the route of the A16 road.

Wiki tells us at some length, that Utterby's name is reckoned not to be derived from any reference to the lovable aquatic mammal of the mustelid family (celebrated literature-wise by Henry Williamson and Gavin Maxwell) called the otter; but from the Old English / Old Norse uttera, cognate with "outer" -- thus, "the remote village". Otterburn, Northumberland, on the other hand, is considered to be indeed about the beastie -- from Old English "a stream frequented by otters".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Redesmouth in Northumberland also lies on the line of the River Rede.

 

[Springs Branch]

Along with Glamping and Yurts, there seems to be something of a fad for staying in luxury Shepherd's Huts these days (with access, in some cases, to an in-house chef!).
One such de-luxe shed is available for rent at Redesmouth. Another option is on the outskirts of Crewkerne, Somerset.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ducklington in Oxfordshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Bartholemew.

 

[Calthrop]

Along with Glamping and Yurts, there seems to be something of a fad for staying in luxury Shepherd's Huts these days (with access, in some cases, to an in-house chef!).
One such de-luxe shed is available for rent at Redesmouth.

Glamping and Yurts, Glamping and Yurts:
Not about the simple life, till living it, hurts ...

Ducklington in Oxfordshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Bartholemew.

Ducklington, and Oxfordshire as a whole, are in general "big" on the Morris-dancing scene. Something of an outlier of same, up North, is the Chapel-en-le-Frith Morris Side; who claim to be "the most hyphenated Morris side in the world" (I'll bet there's another somewhere, with yet more hyphens).

 

[D6130]

Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, has a women's Morris Dancing side...the Hebden Bridge Hill Millies.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire also lies on the line of the Rochdale Canal.

 

[D6130]

Mytholmroyd was the birthplace in 1930 of former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. He died in 1998 at North Tawton in Devon.

 

[Springs Branch]

North Tawton was the location for filming Jennifer Saunders' BBC TV series Jam & Jerusalem, the town representing the fictional Clatterford St Mary.

Another settlement used in filming a Jennifer Saunders production on the topic of a village Women's Institute (Calendar Girls) was Kettlewell, North Yorks.

 

[Calthrop]

Kettlewell holds in the summer, an annual scarecrow festival; where scarecrows dressed up as various characters, are placed around the village. One gathers that a fair number of other settlements engage in such doings; including Heather, Leicestershire. As I have mentioned in the past, I don't get this seeming obsession with scarecrows -- but "for them as likes it", good luck to them, I suppose.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ditton Priors in Shropshire also has a church that is dedicated to St John the Baptist.

 

[Calthrop]

Ditton Priors in Shropshire also has a church that is dedicated to St John the Baptist.

Bonby, North Lincolnshire (near Brigg) is also 147 miles from London -- or very close to that figure.

(I didn't think I'd ever come across any mention of Ditton Priors, other than "the obvious; and for this game, off-limits" !)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Winterton in Lincolnshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Glanford Brigg Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Winterton in Lincolnshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Glanford Brigg Poor Law Union.

A "twinning" one which I can't resist -- involving as it does, a place which I'd never before heard of. Sunderland is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Loire-Atlantique. Winterton's "twin" is Saffre; Sunderland's, St. Nazaire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ossett in West Yorkshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Ignatius.