Settlement Association

[Purple Train]

Willen was also consumed by a New Town.
(Incidentally, the parish church of St Mary Magdalene in Willen was designed by the scientist Robert Hooke.)

 

[Calthrop]

Willen lies on a smallish river which rises near Whipsnade Zoo, then runs northward to join the Great Ouse at Newport Pagnell. The river concerned is named the Ouzel; north of Willen, it also bears the alternative name of Lovat. Also on the river -- the "Ouzel-only" part -- lies Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire also lies on the line of the River Ouzel.

 

[Calthrop]

Newport Pagnell would seem to be a place to reckon with, on the bowls scene -- it would appear that bowls has been played there for at least the past four hundred years. Also with an association with that game -- to cliche-point -- is, of course, Plymouth. (I like the school-kid's howler to the effect that when the Armada showed up: Drake was on Plymouth Hoe, playing with his bowels.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hull also has a noted aquarium.

 

[Calthrop]

Keel on Achill Island, Co. Mayo: also bears a name, which has also a meaning connected with the making of ships.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Saunton in Devon also has a noted attraction for surf enthusiasts.

 

[Calthrop]

Ellerker, East Riding of Yorkshire (some way west of Hull), also has a church dedicated to St. Anne. (It seems that Saunton's establishment is in fact only a chapel -- but I don't have the learning about these matters, that some participants here do.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Blacktoft in the East Riding of Yorkshire was also once administered by the Howdenshire Wapentake.

 

[Calthrop]

Blacktoft is located on the Yorkshire River Ouse, near the river's "lower end": i.e. shortly before it joins the River Trent, and the two unite as the Humber. West Lynn, Norfolk, is -- analogously -- near the "lower end" of the River Great Ouse, which a few miles to the north, flows into the Wash.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Fleetwood in Lancashire also has a cross-river ferry.

 

[DerekC]

Fleetwood was the site of the first screw-pile lighthouse to be lit in the United Kingdom. Virtually all have been demolished but the Gunfleet Lighthouse remains, in a derelict state, six miles off the coast at Frinton on Sea, Essex.

 

[Calthrop]

Frinton on Sea has long had a reputation as a decorous, high-toned place: for a very long time, had no pubs (hotel bars were a different matter). Frinton's first genuine fully-fledged pub opened in 2000. Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, near Stroud: is reputedly today pub-less.

(This game is wonderfully educational: I now know, after some reference to the oracle, what sort of lighthouse a screw-pile one is.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Randwick in Gloucestershire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Stroud Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Randwick in Gloucestershire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Stroud Poor Law Union.

Liverpool also has a namesake in the shape of an area of the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

 

[Springs Branch]

The Liverpool Reform Synagogue in Church Road North is one of a number of Reform Judaism synagogues around the country.

Another Reform Judaism Synagogue is located in Finchley, London N12.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Camberley in Surrey was also once noted for being a favoured haunt of highwaymen.

 

[Calthrop]

It seems hard to get away here from John Betjeman; or, in present times, from "Shropshire Lad" stuff. The action of Betjeman's much-loved poem A Subaltern's Love Song (Miss Joan Hunter-Dunn), takes place in Camberley. Another Betjeman poem is titled A Shropshire Lad; but is completely un-Housman-ish: it's a rollicking number, focused on Captain Matthew Webb (1848 -- 1883), the first person to swim the Channel --

"Captain Webb the Dawley man,
Captain Webb from Dawley ..."

Capt. W. was indeed born in Dawley (Shropshire), near Telford.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Telford in Shropshire is another of the settlements involved in what ended as the 19th century Cinderloo Uprising.

 

[Calthrop]

Telford is situated on a watershed: the land to the south draining towards the River Severn, and that to the north, sloping gently down towards the low-lying area called the Weald Moors. There lies thereon, a couple of miles north of Telford, a village -- still in Shropshire -- whose name I've always liked: Preston upon the Weald Moors -- this said by some, to be the longest village name in England.

 

[DerekC]

Preston has a house and farm known as "Hoo" or "Preston Hoo". The only other Hoo I know about is Luton Hoo, a country house (now a hotel) near Pepperstock in Bedfordshire

 

[John Griffiths]

Pepperstock, according to Professor Wiki, rather depressingly "mostly consists of residential caravan parks". However, and fortunately for all residents, whether on wheels or in bricks and mortar, it has a pub called The Half Moon, as does Ryton, Tyne & Wear.

 

[Calthrop]

We learn that Ryton's village green has a rich history with religious and social significance. Among many other happenings, John and Charles Wesley both preached there. John particularly, of these two: went all over the place preaching, throughout the majority of the British Isles; including at least on one occasion, Castletown in the Isle of Man.

 

[Springs Branch]

Castletown is the former capital of the Isle of Man and was the site of the Tynwald (Manx parliament).

Prior to the 1707 Act of Union, Scotland's historic parliament sat in a variety of locations around the country, including the city of Perth.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tain in Highland is another settlement that was a first-created Royal Burgh prior to AD1153.

 

[Calthrop]

Kells, Co. Meath, is another settlement whose "standard" (English / Scots) name is short and monosyllabic; in contrast to the places' names in their countries' Celtic languages. Tain = Baile Dhubhthaich; Kells = Ceannanas Mor.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pellon in West Yorkshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Columba.

 

[Calthrop]

Pellon has one of those Net features of a kind with which I have "crossed swords" recently -- "the twenty best things [or equivalent] to do in..." That for Pellon does seem to be more honest than the majority of these things: it essentially lists attractions in "Greater Halifax", of which Pellon is part. One such, mentioned there: is an indoor ice- and roller-skating venue a very little way up the road in Ovenden -- basically nowadays, also a Halifax suburb.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Fixby in West Yorkshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Halifax Poor Law Union.

 

[John Griffiths]

Marsden also lies on the Kirklees Way long distance path.