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If so, let me offer this: The J D Wetherspoon pub "The William Rufus" is to be found on Botchergate in Carlisle, one of two in the city. Another JDW pub in the area, albeit nearly 22 miles away, is The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, which can be found in Keswick.
"West Indian name-likenesses" -- as well as the Cheshire Havannah (so named, I understand, in commemoration of the capture by British forces, in the war of the time, of the capital of Cuba in 1762); there is in Cornwall, the venerable Jamaica Inn -- former coaching inn, nearest settlement Bolventor -- a very much factually existing hostelry, but perhaps owing its greatest fame to the novel by Daphne du Maurier.
Bolventor is thought to take its name from the nearby "Bold Adventure" tin mining area. There is an ancient copper mine of the same name near Slaggyford in Northumberland
William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived long, and happily, at Grasmere. The humorous author Sue Limb (born 1946 at Hitchin, Hertfordshire) has written an affectionate satire on same, titled The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere.
Yes, I thought so ... but thanks for clarifying this.
Hexton parish church is dedicated to St Faith or Saint Faith of Conques, who is said to have been a girl or young woman of Agen in Aquitaine, France. Horsham St Faith is a village in Norfolk, which takes its name from the River Hor, which runs through it on its way from Horsford to Horstead; and a Benedictine Priory, founded in honour of St Faith that, until the dissolution of the monasteries, stood there.
Dreadful-and-feeble-wordplay department: the riddle -- "Which is the most studious county in England?" -- "Berkshire; because there is one town in it which is always 'Reading'. "
Moving a little westwards: "Why don't they have French-fried potatoes in Wiltshire?" -- "Because there are no Devizes for Chippenham." (The D-place, as opposed to the C-place, randomly selected for bolding.)
Hungerford Town FC is affiliated to the Berks & Bucks FA and are currently members of the National League South and play at Bulpit Lane in the town. Ebbsfleet United FC are in the same League, and play at Stonebridge Road, Northfleet, Kent.
Northfleet was the location of the Rosherville Gardens, an amusement park with music, dancing, refreshments, fireworks and illumination, entertainers and more, opened in a disused chalk pit in 1837. They closed in 1901. Such gardens were popular from the late seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, the most famous, perhaps, being at Vauxhall in SW London.
Rottingdean's Black Horse pub is thought to be the settlement's oldest entire building. It used to be called, more interestingly, the Black Hole. There is a B & B in Winchester called the Black Hole: an "advertising pitch" for which, describes it as adjacent to the Black Boy pub -- re which one reads, "famously quirky ... think stuffed donkeys, baboons, and church pews, Agas ..." Enquiring minds wish to know more ...
Reigate is home to Britain's first purpose-built road tunnel. The tunnel opened in 1823, paid for and built by Earl Sommers who lived in the splendid house on a hilltop by the town centre. His estate stood between the town and the road north to London, meaning traffic had to divert around the outside. He built the tunnel through his grounds so his estate could remain peaceful and locals could directly access the London Road.
Another early road tunnel, constructed between 1830 and 1832, is the 345-foot-long Beaminster Tunnel or Horn Hill Tunnel on the present-day A3066 road between Mosterton and Beaminster in Dorset.
The novelist Mary Anna Needell (wrote under the name of "Mrs. J.H. Needell"), 1830 -- 1922 (of whom I admit never having heard, before Googling a few minutes ago) lived for a time with her family in Netherbury. She was born in Blackheath (now Boroughs of Greenwich, and Lewisham). I gather that some regard this lady as a sort of poor man's Charlotte Bronte.
Richmal Crompton, teacher and author -- best known for her humorous tales of the mischievous schoolboy William Brown and his colourful assortment of pals -- lived for a time in Chislehurst. I seem to recall from the books that the Browns lived somewhere in the Home Counties, and that their two nearest towns were called Marleigh, and Hadley. So far as I can ascertain, Marleigh is a total invention; but there is a real settlement called Hadley -- in Shropshire, now encompassed by Telford New Town.