Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Cumnor in Oxfordshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Homer.

 

[John Griffiths]

Cumnor has a pub named The Bear and Ragged Staff, named for the heraldic emblem of the Earls of Warwick, so it is more than appropriate that there should also be a pub of that name in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

 

[John Griffiths]

Cumnor has a pub called The Bear and Ragged Staff, named for the heraldic emblem of the Earls of Warwick, so it is more than appropriate that there should also be a pub of that name in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Cumnor has a pub named The Bear and Ragged Staff, named for the heraldic emblem of the Earls of Warwick, so it is more than appropriate that there should also be a pub of that name in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

Colchester in Essex also has an example of a Norman castle built in the early post-invasion period.

 

[John Griffiths]

Colchester's skyline is dominated by Jumbo, a vast Victorian water tower. Goole has two such imposing towers, but we went there recently, so we will land in Swindon, another town with a large water tower.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Cricklade in Wiltshire was also once served by the North Wilts Canal

 

[John Griffiths]

Cricklade had a royal mint between 979 and 1100; Kings Norton in Birmingham had a mint between 1912 and 1926* which produced coins for the UK and colonies - imagine my excitement as an infant numismatist at finding in my change old pennies bearing the 'K.N.' Mark!

*I think. Wikipedia is a bit unclear on this, but it was definitely active in the reign of George V.

 

[Calthrop]

King's Sutton, Northamptonshire (just south of Banbury) is a "twin" of King's Norton "in form and sense" -- meaning "King's south estate" and "King's north estate" respectively -- but they are situated some seventy miles apart.

 

[John Griffiths]

Kings Sutton was the birthplace of Saint Rumbold in 662. He was a pious infant, like his mother but unlike his grandfather, the pagan Penda, king of Mercia. His first words were a cry of "Christianus sum, Christianus sum, Christianus sum", and before his death at the age of three days he expressed a wish to be buried at Buckingham.

 

[Calthrop]

Faversham, Kent, is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Nord. Buckingham's "twin" is Mouvaux, part of "greater Lille" (thank you, Wikipedia). Faversham's "twin" is Hazebrouck.

 

[John Griffiths]

Musician Bob Geldof of Boomtown Rats and Live Aid fame has a home in Faversham (I once went to a garden fete in the grounds, but no sign of the great man). He was born in Dun Laoghaire.

 

[Calthrop]

There is a resemblance between Dun Laoghaire; and Immingham, North Lincolnshire: in that both were for many centuries, small villages -- their expansion into sizeable communities, was initiated by their development as important ports (the former as a ferry port; the latter, predominantly for cargo shipping). This happened with the Irish settlement, in the early 19th century; with the Lincolnshire one, about a hundred years later.

 

[DerekC]

Immingham played a small part in the story of the Pilgrim Fathers. Their ship put in there in 1608, in course of leaving England for the Netherlands, their first attempt to escape persecution for their unwillingness to follow Anglican doctrine and religious performance. The women of the party decided to sleep in the church, where they were arrested by the authorities. The men escaped to Holland, but the women were soon released after popular protest. In 1620, en route from the Netherlands to America, the party left England in the Speedwell and the Mayflower from Southampton. (Plymouth always gets the credit, but they only put in there for repairs and for consolidating the party after finding that the Speedwell was unseaworthy, having already called at Dartmouth for supplies.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dundee also has a Sikh Gurdwara.

 

[Springs Branch]

I'm sure we've had this one many times before, but here goes . . . .

Chorley in Lancs. also lends its name to a type of cake.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Brindle in Lancashire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Chorley Poor Law Union.

 

[John Griffiths]

Some claims have been made that the battle of Brunaburh in 937, at which Aethelstan, the first king of England, defeated a coalition of forces from Ireland, Scotland and Strathclyde (and thereby preserved the integrity of the nascent English Kingdom) was fought at Brindle. Other suggested locations for the battle include Barnsdale in South Yorkshire and Bromborough on the Wirral.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Shoeburyness in Essex also has a Gospel Hall.

 

[Calthrop]

Some claims have been made that the battle of Brunaburh in 937, at which Aethelstan, the first king of England, defeated a coalition of forces from Ireland, Scotland and Strathclyde (and thereby preserved the integrity of the nascent English Kingdom) was fought at Brindle. Other suggested locations for the battle include Barnsdale in South Yorkshire and Bromborough on the Wirral.

Both strike me as more likely in the role than Barton-upon-Humber -- posted by me in that connection a while ago -- but in many ways, it was a funny old world hereabouts in the 10th century.

Shoeburyness in Essex also has a Gospel Hall.

Outside Shoeburyness is an Iron Age Danish camp. Willington, Bedfordshire -- near Sandy -- also has a Danish Camp; but not in the "archaeology department" -- this is a modern holiday venue, specialising in Scandinavian-style eco-camping.

 

[Springs Branch]

Hugh de Grandmesnil was a Norman nobleman, living from 1032 to 1098, who was granted a substantial landholding in England by William the Conqueror as reward for his support during 1066 and all that.

Willington in Beds. was one of these landholdings, as recorded in the Domesday Book. Most of de Grandmesnil's lands, however, were in modern day Leicestershire, including the village of Barton in the Beans.

 

[Calthrop]

Barton in the Beans gets its name from having been a centre for growing broad beans -- in former times, a speciality of Leicestershire in general. By the same token, Kent has been pre-eminent for the growing of hops; but that crop, a relative newcomer to Britain -- reputedly, introduced in 1520: Britain's first hop garden claimed to have been at Westbere in Kent, near Canterbury.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Upstreet in Kent also lies on the route of the A28 road.

 

[Calthrop]

Upstreet has one of England's multitude of pubs called the Royal Oak. The same is true of Naseby in Northamptonshire -- rather incongruously; one feels that the name of some Parliamentarian hero would be more suitable here.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Torrington in Devon was also the site of a battle in the English Civil War.

 

[Calthrop]

According to a recent survey, Torrington is the healthiest place to live, in Britain. Among Britain's reckoned ten unhealthiest places, a number of areas of London are prominent; but second-unhealthiest was ranked North Killingholme, North Lincolnshire -- the proximity of a couple of power stations and an oil refinery, presumably has something to do with this. (We seem to be on something of a Lincolnshire-side-of-the-Humber "kick" at present; with Immingham, and Barton-upon-Humber, also recently featuring.)

 

[John Griffiths]

The motor manufacturers Kia have a 55 acre car import facility - essentially, a gigantic car park - at North Killingholme Haven. A similar but opposite facility - Nissan's 74 acre car export facility - is located on the former Jarrow Slake (a drained intertidal bay on the south side of the River Tyne) at Jarrow, Tyne & Wear.

 

[Calthrop]

Jarrow's name derives from an Anglo-Saxon / Latin "mix": as at the 8th century -- at the time of Jarrow's probably most famous denizen, the Venerable Bede -- it was "Gyruum": "at the marsh-dwellers' " -- Anglo-Saxon gyr = mud / marsh. A kinship here, with -- in Gwynedd, near Porthmadog -- Penmorfa = "head of the marsh".

 

[John Griffiths]

Penmorfa has a noteworthy Victorian church built on the site of St Beuno's cell. St Beuno, of royal lineage, lived in the early seventh century, and was a prodigious miracle-worker, raising seven from the dead including his niece St Winifrede (of Well fame). He also established a monastery at Clynnog Fawr on the Llyn peninsula.

 

[High Dyke]

St Cuthbert's church in Bewcastle, Cumbria also has an example of a Tide dial. The Bewcastle Cross, which probably dates from the 7th or early 8th century also features reliefs and inscriptions in the runic alphabet.

 

[Springs Branch]

Bewcastle was the location of a Roman defensive fort, associated with (but not directly on) Hadrian's Wall. Hadrian's Wall ran from west of Carlisle, ending at - surprisingly enough - Wallsend on the River Tyne.