Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders also lies on the line of the River Tweed.

 

[John Griffiths]

Innerleithen has a nineteenth century printworks preserved by the National Trust for Scotland. The British Printing Museum is - where else but that splendid county of Lincolnshire? To be exact, in Mablethorpe.

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks for your support and encouragement of Lincolnshire !

Mablethorpe holds each September, a unique beach-hut festival: in which, Wiki tells us, privately-owned beach huts compete in outward design, amidst a backdrop of poetry, music, and drama. West Mersea, Essex, also has an impressive array of beach huts.

 

[John Griffiths]

Early on 24 September 1916 German airship L33 crashed at Little Wigborough in Essex.The crew (all of whom survived, with one injured) were marched by local police officers to West Mersea, where they were handed over to the custody of the local vicar and spent the night in the church hall (except the injured man, put up in the vicarage). The Zeppelin had been struck by an anti-aircraft shell while bombing Bromley-by-Bow in east London; it had previously bombed Upminster.

 

[Calthrop]

Jack Warner, the actor who played "Dixon of Dock Green" in the mid-20th-century television series, was born in Bromley-by-Bow. During his long life he engaged in a variety of occupations, including doing some car racing at Brooklands circuit near Weybridge, Surrey.

 

[John Griffiths]

Until 1989 Weybridge had a Catholic church dedicated to St Charles Borromeo; the same saint is the dedicatee (?) of the Catholic church in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

[Calthrop]

There is another Gosforth, on the other side of the country in Cumbria. A few years ago, my brother and I made a trip up North to see various things; including the impressive Viking cross in the Cumbrian Gosforth's churchyard -- only we went instead, in error, to the Tyneside Gosforth. Twits !

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bothel in Cumbria is also served by the A595 road.

 

[Calthrop]

Botcheston, Leicestershire -- just west of Leicester -- also has a pub called the Greyhound.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Newtown Unthank in Leicestershire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Hinckley Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Newtown Unthank in Leicestershire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Hinckley Poor Law Union.

Wonderfully barmy name -- suggesting a recently-opened re-education settlement for the ungrateful...

Stanton under Bardon, Leicestershire, lies -- a few miles to the north -- on the same system of small watercourses: which feed the former reservoir now called Thornton Water, and open for recreational use.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sibson in Leicestershire was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Guthlaxton.

 

[Calthrop]

Bedworth, Warwickshire, also lies on the A444 road.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aberdeen also has a church that is dedicated to St Francis of Assisi.

 

[Calthrop]

Wilmington, Borough of Dartford, Kent: also has a namesake settlement in the U.S. State of North Carolina. (Neither this, nor the several other Wilmingtons in the U.S.A., are named after any of the several settlements in England called Wilmington; all were called after the 18th-century politician Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Canterbury and its environs was also a settlement of the Iron Age Celtic tribe known as the Cantii.

 

[John Griffiths]

Christopher Marlowe - born Canterbury - wrote plays - Dr Faustus - dodgy acquaintances - sticky end - in Deptford, SE London.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Peckham in south-east London also lies on the surface water flow of the River Peck.

 

[Calthrop]

Another item remembered, from the daft "clerihews on places" in the book of mid-20th-century "funnies" which we used to have at home. One -- mildly saucy -- runs:

The girls of Peckham
Don't readily let men neck 'em:
For they're in no way to blame
For its name.

The other goes as follows:

Manchester
Conferred the Freedom of the City on Elsa Lanchester
As a riposte to Houghton,
Which did the same for Charles Laughton.

This is one of several of these ?gems, which appear to be totally nonsensical, and not intended to be otherwise. What Lanchester and Laughton -- prominent actors of that period, married to each other -- actually have to to with anything here, is entirely unclear. Neither does the clerihew make it clear, which of England's dozen-plus settlements called sometimes just Houghton, sometimes Houghton with a suffix; is referred to. I choose to guess the biggest: Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear.

 

[341o2]

Going with -le- in the town's name
Newton-le-Willows

 

[John Griffiths]

Possibly Newton-le-Willows' most famous son is singer Rick Astley, of 'Never Gonna Give You Up' renown. He lives in Molesey, Surrey, where at school I made futile attempts at being a competitive oarsman.

 

[Calthrop]

Molesey lies on the river Mole, just before its joining the Thames. The name is thought, though, not to be derived from that of the river; but from that of the local boss-man in Anglo-Saxon times. On the River Mole further up its course, lies Brockham, Surrey -- a little way east of Dorking.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Teindhillgreen in Scottish Borders also has a place of worship named Christ Church.

 

[Springs Branch]

The A6112 road approaching Teindhillgreen is named 'Preston Road', despite being a significant distance from, and not eventually leading to the Lancashire city of Preston.

Another thoroughfare named Preston Road - also a long way from Preston and where following the road will not take you there - is in the London suburb of Wembley.

 

[D6130]

Southall, in the former county of Middlesex, also has a large concentration of Indian restaurants.

 

[Springs Branch]

Purfleet-on-Thames in Essex has also been a centre for the industrial-scale manufacture of margarine.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Corringham in Essex is another of the seven Thurrock conservation areas.

 

[Calthrop]

According to tradition, Corringham's church was established in the 7th century by the Northumbrian St. Cedd; who was brought up in the monastery on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Clonmacnoise (near to Athlone) in County Offaly was also a Christian religious centre that was attacked during the early period of Viking incursions.

 

[Calthrop]

Along the River Shannon around Clonmacnoise, is the area called the Shannon Callows: of much biological interest, and thus protected and conserved in various degrees. It is one of the few places in the British Isles where the corncrake (Crex crex) is nowadays reliably to be found. Another good corncrake spot is the island of North Uist (Outer Hebrides) -- main settlement Lochmaddy.