Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dromara in County Down also lies on the line of the River Lagan.

 

[Calthrop]

Dromara's name is derived from the Irish Droim mBearach = "ridge of heifers". Another bovine-related settlement name is Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan: the town's current Welsh name, Y Bont-faen, means "the stone bridge"; but the English name comes directly from (not dissimilar looking / sounding) older-Welsh, from past centuries, wording meaning "bridge of the cow".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Brodick on the Isle of Arran also hosts an annual musc festival.

 

[Calthrop]

Although Brodick is the largest settlement in area, on Arran; Lamlash, some 4 / 5 miles to its south, has a greater population.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aith in Shetland also has an RNLI lifeboat station.

 

[Calthrop]

Aith's name comes from the Old Norse word ei ["th" letter], meaning "isthmus". In the "counterpart" Orkney archipelago, there is a similarly-derived name -- Eday, Orkney's ninth-largest island: name from the Old Norse meaning "isthmus island" -- the island is widely described locally as being "eight miles long by a mile wide, but pinched in the middle". Eday island has a total population of 130; its largest settlement, in relative terms, is Backaland.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Calfsound also lies on the route of the B9063 road.

 

[DerekC]

Calfsound overlooks the Calf Sound which separates the Calf of Eday from the main island. In the same way Cregneash, Isle of Man overlooks another Calf Sound which separates the Calf of Man from the main island.

 

[Calthrop]

Cregneash is reckoned to have been the last place in the Isle of Man, where the Manx language -- learnt as a birth-speech -- remained customarily used in daily conversation: this lasting until about the 1940s. Such a status for the Cornish language is considered to have ceased to be, roughly half a century earlier: accounts / theories as to exactly "where and when", vary -- one "contender", is an old couple at Budock Water near Falmouth, who reportedly spoke Cornish with each other as at the 1880s. (Present-day movements to revive the languages, would be felt to be a different thing -- essentially artificial, no matter how admirable.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

St Gluvias in Cornwall was also once under the jurisdiction of the Falmouth Poor Law Union.

 

[DerekC]

The Wesleyan missionary Benjamin Carvusso was born in the parish of St Gluvias. In the 1820s he went to Australia and led the building of the first Wesleyan Church in Tasmania, at Hobart. It was an exact copy (except for being larger) of the church at Mousehole, Cornwall.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pendeen in Cornwall is another settlement noted for historical involvement with smuggling.

 

[Calthrop]

The clergyman, antiquary, geologist and naturalist William Borlase (1696 -- 1772) was born in Pendeen. In the mid-1740s Borlase, in his capacity as magistrate as well as vicar of his then parish: took a hand in the persecution of local Methodist preachers -- issuing warrants for press-ganging them into the Navy. He embarked initially on giving this treatment to John Wesley himself; but "laid off" when he realised that Wesley was a gentleman (as opposed to a prole). Wesley was of course born in Epworth, Lincolnshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Haxey in Lincolnshire is also a town that is situated in the land area known as the Isle of Axholme.

 

[Calthrop]

An annual custom at Haxey is the Hood Game: with similarities to old-fashioned anarchic town-wide football, but with a difference; a few other English towns have annual events "something like", but those usually take place on Shrove Tuesday. Haxey's custom is observed on Jan. 6th -- the Twelfth Day of Christmas -- and features characters peculiar to it: the Lord, the Fool, and eleven guys referred to as "Boggins". A town still observing the more conventional "Shrovetide Football", is Atherstone in Warwickshire.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Atherstone was a town well known for it's wool industry. It also lies on the important 'Watling Street'. Both these features are shared by Lavenham.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wem in Shropshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul.

 

[DerekC]

Wem was at some period the home of George Jeffries, the Judge Jeffreys of "Bloody Assizes" fame. He had a long and successful career, becoming Lord Chancellor and being made a Baron. However he backed the wrong side in the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, stayed in London when James II fled to France and was captured by William of Orange's supporters in a pub in Wapping. He was imprisoned and died in the Tower of London and is buried in front of the altar of St Mary Aldermanbury.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Abingdon in Oxfordshire also lies on the line of the River Thames.

 

[D6130]

Kendal in Cumbria (formerly Westmorland) is also represented by a Liberal Democrat MP.

 

[Calthrop]

A rather far-fetched connection: but the makers of the famous Kendal Mint Cake, set up a contract to supply that commodity to Sir Ernest Shackleton's epic Antarctic expedition of 1914 -- 16. Shackleton, of Anglo-Irish stock, was born and grew up at Kilkea, Co. Kildare.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Athy in County Kildare also lies on the route of the R418 regional road.

 

[Calthrop]

There is a genre of traditional Irish songs from centuries past, involving laments over young men who unwisely allow themselves to be recruited into the army of the British oppressor: with unhappy consequences for them. One such is Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye: in which the eponymous lad comes home to Athy, crippled in a military engagement with far-distant people who were being offered the benefits of British Empire membership; but with force of arms, declined that kindness. Another such song concerning another Johnny, is Johnny Gallagher: which begins set in Newry, Counties Down / Armagh.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Lisburn is another Ulster settlement that was granted city status in 2002.

 

[Calthrop]

Lisburn has a (Church of Ireland) Christ Church Cathedral. So has Oxford -- the C of E cathedral of that diocese, also serving as a "chapel" for Christ Church College. (In Oxford University circles: those of Christ Church are thought by folks belonging to lesser colleges, to be more than a little "up themselves" -- "we have to content ourselves with chapels; while that lot have a blasted cathedral...")

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bolton also has an elephant in its town coat of arms.

 

[D6130]

Rochdale also has historical connections with the cotton industry.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Littleborough in Greater Manchester also lies on the line of the River Roch.

 

[D6130]

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

 

[Calthrop]

The motto accompanying Todmorden's coat of arms is "By Industry We Prosper". That with the coat of arms of Glasgow expresses a fairly kindred sentiment: "Let Glasgow Flourish". (Also, both mottoes are in standard English -- none of the possible alternative languages / dialects, which might conceivably have been used.)