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DerekC

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Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
In July 1862 Hamilton was in a state of fear because it was the apparent site of a murder when bloodstained clothes were found in a field nearby. However it turned out that in fact a woman called Jessie McPherson had been murdered in Anderston, Glasgow and the clothes dumped elsewhere in order to distract attention. Her friend Jessie McLachlan was convicted of the murder and served life imprisonment, but modern studies suggest that she was innocent.
 

Calthrop

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The multi-talented entertainer Billy Connolly was born in Anderston. He co-starred with Dame Judi Dench in the 1997 film Mrs. Brown -- a historical piece concerning Queen Victoria and her "favoured servant" (some scurrilous folk have suggested, perhaps more than that) John Brown -- who was born at Crathie on Deeside, Aberdeenshire, in 1826. (On the posters for the film, the juxtaposition / arrangement of the pictures for the two; and the shown names of the actors; suggested to me for an initial moment, that Connolly was playing the Queen; and Dench, John Brown -- had me thinking, "well, that's experimental, for sure.")
 

Calthrop

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Port Elphinstone, Aberdeenshire: lies some 15 to 20 miles north-east of Potarch, and is in contrast, on the River Don; but is situated, like Potarch, on the B993 road.
 

Springs Branch

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Where my keyboard has no £ key
Between 1805 and its closure in the 1850s, Port Elphinstone was the terminus of the Aberdeenshire Canal.
Prior to construction, the original plan (never executed) was for the canal to continue to the Aberdeenshire village of Monymusk.
 

Calthrop

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That colourful character Mary Queen of Scots was -- during one of the innumerable political upheavals of the time -- confined for a while, in her extreme youth (happily, it seems) on Inchmahome island in the Lake of Menteith. Later, she spent spells of imprisonment in a large assortment of places in Scotland and England; including a period at the castle of Tutbury in Staffordshire.
 

Calthrop

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Were place-names to be believed: Robin Hood got around in his time, to a lot of places beyond Nottinghamshire. At Pinkneys Green is the wooded area of Maidenhead Thicket (a National Trust property); which contains the banks and ditches of a small Iron Age farmstead called Robin Hood's Arbour. And there is Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire; where according to legend, Robin happened to be, at an opportune time for him to make short work of some dastardly French pirates who had raided that coastal area -- he took back their loot and, of course, restored it to its rightful owners.
 
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341o2

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Leslie Charteris' The Saint has been described as the Robin Hood of crime, born in Singapore, he moved to England, going to the Rossall School Fleetwood
 

Calthrop

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With my tending to like anything to do with wolves: an 18th-century local vicar theorised (whether he knew what he was talking about, might be another thing) that Barkisland's name could possibly come from the Anglo-Saxon for "district where there are wolves". Probably more plausibly -- concerning Wolvey, Warwickshire (near Nuneaton): that settlement's name is very likely from the Old English wulf haeg = enclosure with a hedge to keep wolves out.
 

Calthrop

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Miss Hill Boothby, a friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson, of dictionary fame -- he hoped for a while to marry her, but this was forestalled by her rather early death -- was born and lived in Ashbourne. Johnson, though born in Lichfield and resident there for most of his youth, spent a while during his youth in Stourbridge, West Midlands.
 

Calthrop

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The borough of St. Helens has a reclaimed open space -- dedicated for recreation, and nature conservation -- called The Duckeries. Not to be confused with the Dukeries -- an open-country area of Nottinghamshire, so-called because of its containing four ducal-seat stately homes. Nearest significantly-sized settlement to the Dukeries, is Worksop.
 

EbbwJunction1

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Newport, South Wales
St Mary the Virgin's Church, West Stockwith is a Grade II* listed parish church, which dates from 1722. It is part of a joint parish with five other Churches, one of which is St Peter & St Paul's Church, Gringley on the Hill, Nottinghamshire.
 

Calthrop

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Good long-distance views -- by the modest standards for such, of that part of the country -- are afforded from Gringley on the Hill. Better ones -- in an overall much better location for same -- can be got from the environs of Totland, Isle of Wight.
 

Calthrop

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Basildon is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Seine-et-Marne. Shanklin's "twin" is Coupvray; Basildon's, Meaux.
 

EbbwJunction1

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Newport, South Wales
One of Morecambe's most famous landmarks is a statue (created by sculptor Graham Ibbeson) commemorating one of its most famous sons, Eric Morecambe (1926 – 1984), who took his stage name from his birthplace. Comedian and actor Ronnie Barker (1929 – 2005) began his acting career in Aylesbury in the late 1940s and in September 2010 a bronze statue of him was unveiled on a new public place in Exchange Street.
 

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