Settlement Association

[Calthrop]

Pedant alert: 'Orcadian'!

I admit to being "higgerant" about those islands -- would love to get to know them, but have never been that far north.

Martin Mere, near Burscough in Lancashire, also has a bird observatory.

Perhaps a rather "unaesthetic" subject to latch onto: but Burscough and surrounding area are plagued by recurrent widespread sewer flooding: a combination of new housing development, and a long-term shortage of sewer capacity. Arklow in Co. Wicklow, while in generally beautiful natural surroundings, is afflicted with similar problems.

 

[D6130]

Avoca, Co. Wicklow, also lies on the Avoca River.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Avoca has been used as a filming location for several films and television series. The BBC television series Ballykissangel was filmed there, but quite a few years before that (in 1967), it was one of the locations used in the film Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon. This was a British science fiction comedy film directed by Don Sharp and starring Burl Ives, Troy Donahue, Gert Frobe and Terry-Thomas. The interior scenes were shot at Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow.

 

[D6130]

Tynemouth in Tyne & Wear also has an aquarium.

 

[Calthrop]

Tynemouth has a "giant memorial" to Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1748 -- 1810): Nelson's second-in-command at Trafalgar, who took over command there after Nelson's death. Collingwood was a "local chap": born in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wylam in Northumberland also lies on the line of the River Tyne.

 

[Calthrop]

Wylam's parish church (its rare dedicatee, the Northumbrian saint St. Oswin) is of relatively recent date -- 1886. Previously, worshippers from Wylam had had to walk to church at Ovingham, a couple of miles to the west.

 

[John Griffiths]

Ovingham is pronounced 'Ovinjam'. Another Northumbrian settlement with this local pronunciation pattern is Bellingham.

 

[Calthrop]

Near Bellingham is Hole Bastle: a well-preserved example of a bastle house -- there is a similarly admired specimen perhaps fifteen miles to the north-east, at Hepple. (Have just learnt of the expression "bastle house", and their existence -- thank you, Wiki. A function of the turbulent and much-raided past of this part of the world: a fortified farmhouse [thought to come from the French word bastille]. They also had fortified vicarages hereabouts.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Linbriggs in Northumberland also lies on the line of the River Coquet.

 

[Calthrop]

A daft feature which seems to be cropping up a lot these days -- consult Wiki about a tiny settlement, and you get a whole "banner" thing about "xx (number) best things to do in yy"; only they aren't in yy -- they're tourist attractions of some note, "not a million miles from" it. "The twenty best things to do in Linbriggs" is a case in point: one of the nearer ones is Chillingham and its castle and park, fifteen miles or so to the north.

 

[John Griffiths]

Chillingham Castle is the property of Sir Humphrey Wakefield, whose son-in-law, Dominic Cummings, famously drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight.

 

[DerekC]

Barnard Castle was the birthplace of the naval historian C Northcote Parkinson, author of Parkinson's Law. Parkinson was appointed a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in the 1930s and after a WWII period in the Navy spent most of the 1950s in Singapore and Malaya. On his return he moved to Saint Martin, Guernsey.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Saint Martin is the second highest parish in Guernsey, its elevation is exceeded only by the adjoining parish of Forest. There is, however, some uncertainty about the maximum height of both parishes, although it seems certain that Forest is the higher of the two.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Saint Brelade in Jersey also has a hotel called The Golden Sands.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

St Aubin on the Hill, St. Brelade is dedicated to St Aubin of Angers. It was built in the 19th century and is a fine example of Victoria Gothic style, with some beautiful stained glass, including the small north window in the Lady Chapel, which is notable for being the only Pre-Rhaphaelite window in Jersey, created by the firm of William Morris from designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Another example of his work can be seen at St Mary's Church, Huish Episcopi, Somerset which depicts the Nativity.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bishops Lydeard in Somerset was also once administered by the Hundred of Kingsbury.

 

[Springs Branch]

The Bishops Lydeard Mill and Rural Life Museum is a historic building and museum in the town.

Another museum in the same county with a similar theme is the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Goathurst is also on the route of the Samaritans Way South West.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Nether Stowey in Somerset was also once under the jurisdiction of the Bridgwater Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived for a while in Nether Stowey; during which sojourn he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This is commemorated in the name of a pub in the village, the Ancient Mariner. Hunstanton, Norfolk, has a pub of the same name (Coleridge went to many places; but they are not thought to include Hunstanton).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire also had its sea defences breached by the North Sea Flood of 1953.

 

[Calthrop]

Sandwich in Kent also has a church dedicated to St. Clement.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hythe in Kent was also one of the original Cinque Ports.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Army's School of Musketry was established in Hythe in 1853. In 1969, by now known as the Small Arms School Corps (SASC), it moved from Hythe to the army training establishment at Warminster.

 

[Calthrop]

Abingdon in Oxfordshire, also has a namesake settlement in the US State of Virginia.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Willaston in Cheshire East is another settlement where almshouses were established.

 

[Calthrop]

We are told that there are held at Willaston, the annual World Worm Charming Championships. I cannot help but feel, from the Wiki article about these doings, that the whole thing might be an elaborate "wind-up" -- if so, the perpetrators have put a lot of hard work in. The same source informs us that there is also an annual worm charming competition at Blackawton, Devon (near Dartmouth).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

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

 

[Calthrop]

Stockport (Greater Manchester) is also twinned with a settlement in the German State of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Brecon's "twin" (stretching a point -- strictly, the arrangement involves the whole area of former Brecknockshire, not just Brecon town) is Blaubeuren; Stockport's, is Heilbronn.