Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ramsgill in North Yorkshire also lies on the line of the River Nidd.

 

[John Griffiths]

The Yorke Arms in Ramsgill lost its Michelin star in 2020; the same culinary fate befell L'Ortolan in Shinfield, Berkshire in 2022.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Barkham in Berkshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Charlton.

 

[John Griffiths]

Horseman Coaches service 145 runs from Three Mile Cross via Barkham to Winnersh, Berkshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sherfield on Loddon in Hampshire also lies on the line of the River Loddon.

 

[John Griffiths]

Didcot (since 1974 in Oxfordshire) was also the location of an Army Ordnance Corps depot in World War I.

 

[Calthrop]

Opium poppies are legally grown, for medicinal purposes, near Didcot; also close to Hibaldstow, North Lincolnshire (near Brigg).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Winteringham in Lincolnshire also lies on the route of the Roman road called Ermine Street.

 

[Calthrop]

Dawlish Warren, Devon, also has a nature reserve of particular note for waterfowl.

 

[John Griffiths]

Dawlish Warren is dominated by campgrounds and caravan parks, one of which is named Golden Sands, the same as a Black Sea resort near Varna in Bulgaria. Another major Black Sea resort in that Balkan republic is Slanchev Bryag, or Sunny Beach, a name more or less identical to the resort area of Sunny Sands Beach in Folkestone, Kent.

 

[Springs Branch]

Elmore in Gloucestershire also hosts a classical chamber music festival.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

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

 

[Springs Branch]

Pitchcombe is served by Stagecoach West's 66 Gold bus service, which operates between Cheltenham and Stonehouse, via Stroud, Gloucestershire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Faversham in Kent also was settled by Huguenot refugees.

 

[John Griffiths]

For centuries Faversham was an important manufacturing centre for gunpowder and other explosives, but in the 1930s the last surviving enterprises of that kind were transferred to Ardeer in Ayrshire.

 

[Calthrop]

There are various interesting tales from past times concerning Ardeer, featuring monks and their assorted doings. A parallel herewith on the other side of Scotland is Arbroath, Angus: in the ballad of the pirate Sir Ralph the Rover. The Abbot of Arbroath arranges the placing of a bell on the notorious Inchcape Rock, just off the town, to warn mariners of this hazard. The dastardly Sir Ralph removes the bell, out of pure mischief-cum-malice / to increase the likelihood of shipwrecks and consequent cargo-plundering. Subsequently, Sir R. manages to very satisfyingly shoot himself in the foot: on a dark and stormy night, his own ship runs on to the bell-less rock, with the loss of all hands.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Rosemarkie in Highland also has finely carved Pictish stones in its environs.

 

[Springs Branch]

Muthill in Perthshire is another small village today, which historically had been an important religious centre and, for a time in the early mediaeval period, one of the seats of a Scottish bishop.

 

[Calthrop]

Born at Muthill was Helen Gloag (1750 -- 1790): who, captured in 1769 on an intended sea journey from Scotland to America, by Barbary Corsairs; became the "slave consort" and ultimately, favourite wife, of Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah of Morocco -- in which position she attained a certain amount of political influence. A lady who was her quasi-contemporary, though from a higher social "drawer", came -- in her case, voluntarily -- to slightly comparable eminence and greater fame in, broadly, that part of the world. This was Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 -- 1839), born at Chevening, Kent (near Sevenoaks): in the latter part of her life, traveler, explorer, and active archaeologist, at basically the opposite end of the Arab world (Egypt / Palestine / Lebanon / Syria), and ultimately, effectively ruler of her small patch of the Lebanon.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Horton Kirby in Kent also lies on the line of the River Darent.

 

[John Griffiths]

Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire, also has a Roman villa.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Havercroft in West Yorkshire is also a village in the Hemsworth Improvement Area.

 

[johnnychips]

Dudley also has a Living Hope church.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Colchester in Essex also has a zoo within its environs.

 

[Springs Branch]

In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Colchester was referred to as the location of the detonation of an atomic bomb.

Another real-life location mentioned as the target of a fictional nuclear attack (in the BBC TV's 1966 pseudo-documentary The War Game) was Manston in Kent.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Fobbing in Essex was also involved the early stages of the Peasant's Revolt of 1381.

 

[Calthrop]

St. Michael's Church, Fobbing, has historic associations with smuggling -- smugglers sailed up Fobbing Creek, guided by the distinctive church tower. There are, as well, allegedly many tunnels underneath the church, which were used by smugglers. There is also -- at least in fiction -- a Church of England / smuggling connection, to do with Dymchurch, Kent: in the novels by Russell Thorndike, set in Napoleonic times -- Dymchurch's actual vicar, the Reverend Dr. Syn, is unashamedly a prominent and active figure in local smuggling operations.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Harwich in Essex is another settlement where a redoubt fort was constructed.

 

[Calthrop]

Harwich holds an international sea shanty festival, of good repute. Various other towns have held similar events, including -- in 2022, for the first time -- Oban (Argyll and Bute).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Mallaig also has ferry services to Scottish offshore islands.