Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bromborough on the Wirral also has a Gospel Hall.

 

[Calthrop]

Bromborough had until recently, a pub called "The Archers" (it is now no more). Redditch, West Midlands, still has a pub of that name. One presumes that in both cases, the reference is to toxophilic fighting men of bygone times; rather than to "Ambridge and all that".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aldfield in North Yorkshire was also a settlement that was chosen as a site for a Cistercian Abbey.

 

[Springs Branch]

Aldfield is the location of Yurtshire, a glamping operation where one can spend a night or two sleeping in a luxury yurt (no doubt for a very un-Yorkshire-like price).

Aficonados of this kind of malarkey might have a similar experience (I assume) at Peak Yurts at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bridford in Devon also has a church that is dedicated to St Thomas a Becket.

 

[Calthrop]

Folklore has it that nightingales have been absent from Otford, Kent (a county which they on the whole frequent during their summer visiting) since the time of Thomas a Becket; who when "stationed" there, was disturbed from his devotions by a nightingale's song, and thus miraculously banished the species from that immediate area, for all time. (Miserable old so-and-so; no wonder Henry II got fed up with him.)

 

[Springs Branch]

Staying in historical times - Otford's name, by some accounts, is derived from Offa, the 8th century Mercian king, who was visiting the area to do battle with local Saxons.

A larger settlement associated with Offa, as well as being a seat of other Early Medieval kings of Mercia, is Tamworth in Staffordshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Clifton Campville in Staffordshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Tamworth Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Clifton Campville lies very near the meeting-point of four counties; as does Finnea, Co. Westmeath. The "other" counties for the English settlement are Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire; for the Irish one -- Meath, Cavan and Longford.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Loughborough in Leicestershire also has a church that is dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels.

 

[Calthrop]

Kingston-upon-Hull is also twinned with a settlement in Poland. Loughborough's "twin" is Zamosc; Hull's, Szczecin.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dolgellau in Gwynedd is also an estuarine settlement.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Dolgellau is one of a number of Welsh places which used to to be known by an anglicised spelling of the name. There had been several versions of this from the earliest recorded spelling in 1253 - "Dolkelew", "Dolgethley" "Dôlgelly" "Dolgelley", "Dolgelly" "Dolgelli" "Dolguelli" and "Dolgelleu". In 1825, became standard in Welsh and is now the standard form in both Welsh and English. It was adopted as the official name by the local rural district council in 1958. Another place where this happened is Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, where the anglicised spelling “Llanelly” was used until 1966, when it was changed after a local public campaign.

 

[Calthrop]

Humour about this general stuff, rather than "serious and official" -- hoping that this is acceptable as a sufficient change of subject. This overall theme has often provided material for good-natured fun. A friend of mine -- Welsh, but not Welsh-speaking -- from Pembrokeshire (where the two tongues are thoroughly muddled-up place-name-wise): used jocularly to call Llanelli, "Flannel-y". Similarly: my mother and her siblings -- English, resident in their youth in Chester, and often visiting North Wales -- enjoyed corrupting the name of Prestatyn, to "Press-me-'at-in" (press my hat in).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ravenglass in Cumbria is another settlement where the remains of a Roman bathhouse were discovered.

 

[Calthrop]

There is an assortment of different theories about the derivation of Ravenglass's name -- but it seems that it is for sure, nothing to do with corvids; or visual aids or drinking vessels. A similarity here with another coastal settlement, on the opposite side of England and a lot further south: Stiffkey in Norfolk. Reckoned, from an ?Old English? wording meaning "island with stumps of trees" -- no connection with rigid lock-opening implements or musical stuff ! (This place is a long-standing pronunciation "bogey" -- often claimed correct pronunciation "Stewkey", not as spelt; but by some accounts, the locals pronounce it more often as per spelling, than the "Stewkey" version.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sea Palling in Norfolk also lies on the route of the long-distance footpath known as the Norfolk Coast Path.

 

[Calthrop]

Sea Palling's inhabitants have a long history of scavenging from the cargoes of ships in distress on the coasts close-by; with some incidents of same, in modern times. A modern counterpart of this, at Branscombe, East Devon (near Seaton), in 2007: with the container ship MSC Napoli having got into bad trouble nearby, thus having essentially to shed her cargo -- much scavenging fun, contrary to proper process of law, was had there by many people.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The North Sea flood of 1953 was the worst flood in England and Scotland of the 20th century. It took the lives of seven villagers from Sea Palling, some of the one hundred who perished in Norfolk alone; a memorial plaque is in St Margaret's Church. Another thirty seven died when the seafront village of Jaywick near Clacton in Essex was flooded.

I was beaten to this by seconds, I think!

Branscombe has one of the South West's most scenic bus routes. AVMT Buses run service 899 from Seaton to Sidmouth via Beer and Branscombe.

 

[Calthrop]

The North Sea flood of 1953 was the worst flood in England and Scotland of the 20th century. It took the lives of seven villagers from Sea Palling, some of the one hundred who perished in Norfolk alone; a memorial plaque is in St Margaret's Church. Another thirty seven died when the seafront village of Jaywick near Clacton in Essex was flooded.

I was beaten to this by seconds, I think!

Did not intend deliberately to "ninja" you -- apologies !

Branscombe has one of the South West's most scenic bus routes. AVMT Buses run service 899 from Seaton to Sidmouth via Beer and Branscombe.

A mile inland from Beer lies the Elizabethan manor house -- appreciated by connoisseurs of such -- Bovey House. Name-similarity: some 25 / 30 miles westward in Devon, is the small town of Bovey Tracey. The likeness in names is presumably, coincidental; B.T. is so-called, from the River Bovey, tributary of the River Teign; on which (the Bovey) the town is located.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I know you didn't ... !

Bovey Tracey is the start point of the Dartmoor Devil bicycle ride, an annual Audax UK Brevet Populaire event held in late October. It takes in over 2,000 metres of climbing and over 100 kilometres around and across Dartmoor; it ends in nearby Manaton, Devon.

 

[Calthrop]

The author John Galsworthy (1867 -- 1933) -- best-known for his Forsyte Saga -- spent a considerable amount of time on and off, in Manaton. He lived for the last seven years of his life in Bury, West Sussex (near Pulborough).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Another author associated with Bury is Richmal Crompton Lamburn who was born in Bury on 15th November 1890. She is best known for her Just William series of books, but also wrote humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books. She died, aged 78, on 11th January 1969 at the Princess Royal University Hospital in Locksbottom, near Farnborough.

 

[Calthrop]

Another author associated with Bury is Richmal Crompton Lamburn who was born in Bury on 15th November 1890. She is best known for her Just William series of books, but also wrote humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books.

Adult aficionados, I gather, tend to delight in the William books; but to find her "adult" novels, dismal in all senses.

She died, aged 78, on 11th January 1969 at the Princess Royal University Hospital in Locksbottom, near Farnborough.

Bedworth, Warwickshire, also has a pub called the British Queen.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Exhall in Warwickshire also lies on the line of the River Sowe.

 

[Calthrop]

Exhall; likewise Coventry a few miles to the south; were in former times, important centres in England for ribbon-making.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Macclesfield in Cheshire East also has a church that is dedicated to St Alban.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

St Alban's Church was designed in 1838 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812 – 1852) and built between 1839 and 1841. Slightly less grand than the Church are the railway cottages at Windermere in Cumbria which have been loosely attributed to Pugin or a follower. Believed to date from 1849, and probably some of the first houses to be built in Windermere, the terrace of cottages was built for railway executives. One of the fireplaces is a copy of one of his in the Palace of Westminster.

 

[Calthrop]

The website "22 pretty towns and villages in the Lake District", has a sub-section "Five must-visit towns in the Lake District": two of which are Windermere; and Keswick.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aldeburgh in Suffolk also has a Moot Hall.