Settlement Association

[EbbwJunction1]

Richard Norman Shaw RA (1831 – 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, designed All Saints Church, Swanscombe in 1894. It was built out of knapped flint for the workers of the cement industry, and survives as a rare example of his design, covering several Gothic Revival styles throughout its architecture and features. Another All Saints’ Church in which he was involved is at Youlgreave in Derbyshire. It is a Grade I Listed building which dates from the late 12th century, with 14th-, 15th- and 16th-century elements; it was restored by Norman Shaw between 1869 and 1870.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Alport in Derbyshire also lies on the line of the River Bradford.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Alport lies on a named (Lawn Road) but unnumbered road, which leads to the east onto the B5056. This runs from the A6 truck road to a junction with the A515 at Fenny Bentley Corner, passing through the small village of Grangemill, Derbyshire, on the way.

 

[Calthrop]

Dunford Bridge, South Yorkshire, also lies on the very edge of the Peak District National Park.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire also lies on the route of the long-distance footpath known as the Trans Pennine Trail.

 

[Calthrop]

The area of Hornsea and thereabouts is noticeably affected by coastal erosion: a local rhyme proclaims (rather exaggeratedly), Hornsea steeple, when I built thee, Thou was ... ten miles off sea. This process besets various parts of England's east coast; including in Norfolk, around Mundesley.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Mundesley has an historic golf course in the Mun Valley, designed with the help of six-times Open Champion Harry Vardon. He convalesced at the nearby sanatorium while recovering from tuberculosis, and his association with the course spanned many years. It is said that he scored his only hole-in-one on what is now the sixth. The course was reduced to nine holes when land was required for wartime farming, which was very important in that era. Harry Vardon was born in Grouville, Jersey on 9th May 1870.

 

[Calthrop]

Jersey's neighbouring parishes of Grouville; and St. Martin; are to some extent, administratively merged. The town of Gorey lies approximately at the boundary of the two parishes. There is another town of that name elsewhere in our islands -- Gorey, Co. Wexford: on the main routes Dublin -- Wexford.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Brecon in Powys also has a church that is dedicated to St Michael.

 

[Calthrop]

We learn that Brecon had a part in the genesis of the song in the folk idiom The Bells of Rhymney, which has had a number of previous mentions in this game. It would seem that the words "the pink bells of Brecon" appear in a poem by Idris Davies, in T. S. Eliot's Gwalia Deserta. Copied subsequently by Dylan Thomas in his Quite Early One Morning; then put to music, with wording-alterations, by Pete Seeger in the song which we know. Song in said form, does not mention Brecon; that would seem to make sense, with Brecon -- basically a small country town -- presumably being less disastrously hard-hit by the Depression of the 1930s, than places in the industrial Valleys.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bedwas in Caerphilly County Borough was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Wentloog.

 

[Calthrop]

Bedwas's name comes originally from the Welsh meaning "grove, bank or place of birch trees". A settlement with a name of similar meaning is Birchanger, Essex (very near Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire) -- the name from Old English, signifying "wooded slope growing with birch trees".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Great Easton in Essex is part of an area grouping particular to that geographical area known as The Hundred Parishes.

 

[Calthrop]

Close to Great Easton -- and closer still to neighbouring Little Easton -- was the stately home of Easton Lodge; part of the estate of Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick: one of the mistresses of King Edward VII. Somewhat over a century ago, Easton Lodge was much frequented by a section of the country's "great and (sometimes not-so-) good". The house was largely destroyed owing to World-War-II-and-after circumstances.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stivichall in the West Midlands was also once under the jurisdiction of the Warwick Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Stivichall in the West Midlands was also once under the jurisdiction of the Warwick Poor Law Union.

There is some local disagreement re the preferred written rendering of the above-bolded's name (standard pronunciation, by the way, is "Styche-ull"). Some people feel that "Stivichall" looks ugly, and lobby for the standard spelling to be made "Styvechale". Some while ago, there was a comparable situation in Neston, Cheshire. A street in the town is called Buggen Lane -- from the dialect word "buggen" = ghost, evil spirit. Some folk in the town disliked the name: ill-informedly associating it with a well-known coarse word, and wishing for its replacement with something more genteel. The local council were having none of this prissy nonsense, and pronounced, "Buggen Lane it is, and remains".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thingwall on the Wirral peninsula was also once administered by the Hundred of Wirral.

 

[Calthrop]

Thingwall's name comes from an Old Norse expression (it seems the Norsemen were quite busy in the Wirral) -- thing vollr = assembly field. The same is true of Dingwall (Highland); and the Isle of Man's legislature, the High Court of Tynwald; which holds an annual outdoor ceremonial meeting at St. John's, I.O.M.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Union Mills also lies on the route of the A1 (Isle of Man) road.

 

[Calthrop]

A settlement with a rather "kindred" name -- right across the Irish Sea on its western side -- is Sion Mills, Co. Tyrone.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Strabane in County Tyrone also lies on the line of the River Mourne.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm sure I'm not the only English lover of Ireland; to have come across various Irish place-names in print, before ever hearing them spoken by someone from Ireland. Spelling here, is often "a snare and a delusion" for "Saxons", leading them to inaccurate mental transliteration. Encountering as a child, the name "Strabane" as printed: had me mentally calling the place, "Stra-bayn"; in fact it's "Stra-ban". Likewise Athenry, Co. Galway; correctly pronounced "Ath-en-rye"; but I mentally called it "Ath-en-ree".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

One good way of resolving the query is to listen to Paddy Reilly sing "The Fields of Athenry" that was written by Pete St John in 1970, especially the version on the Dubliners Anniversary Concert on YouTube.
I have sung it many times in my much younger days in our folk group.

Gortnalone in County Galway also lies on the line of the River Clarin.

 

[Calthrop]

One good way of resolving the query is to listen to Paddy Reilly sing "The Fields of Athenry", especially the version on the Dubliners Anniversary Concert on YouTube.
I have sung it many times in my much younger days in our folk group.

A moving, but relatively recently-written, song -- unfortunately not a lot of help to juvenile me looking at the map 60-plus years ago ...

Gortnalone in County Galway also lies on the line of the River Clarin.

Approximately "the same distance north and south" (afraid I don't know the technical "doings" re these matters) as these Co. Galway places -- but far to the east -- is Donington on Bain, Lincolnshire.

 

[DerekC]

The only surviving Chain Home radar mast is at RAF Stenigot, near Donington on Bain. The historic significance of the radar system as a key element of victory in the Battle of Britain means that it is listed Grade II. The very first Chain Home station built in its developed form was at RAF Bawdsey, Suffolk.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Woodbridge in Suffolk also lies on the line of the River Deben.

 

[Springs Branch]

Thorrington in Essex also has a heritage-listed Tide Mill.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

West Bergholt in Essex was also once administered by the Hundred of Lexden.

 

[Springs Branch]

A resident of West Bergholt, Agnes George, was amongst the unfortunate Stratford Martyrs - a group of Protestants dissenters burnt at the stake in June 1556 at Stratford-Atte-Bow (in today's east London) during the reign of Mary Tudor (a.k.a. "Bloody Mary")

Another of the Stratford Martyrs was Henry Wye, a brewer from the Essex town of Stanford-le-Hope.

 

[Calthrop]

We are told that as Stanford-le-Hope has grown, it has come pretty much to swallow up the nearby settlements of Mucking, and Fobbing. Unfortunate-seeming names, perhaps (one thinks of "fobbing off"): in fact they're thought to originate from the names of the chief citizens there in Saxon times.