Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

St Ives in Cornwall also has a community choir.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

In 1978 / 1979 the town, The Sloop Inn and Barnoon Cemetery were filmed and appeared in Jerry Jameson's film Raise the Titanic, released in 1980. The final scenes with Guinness (who was born Alec Guinness de Cuffe in Maida Vale, London in 1914) were meant to have occurred in a local church but an unusually strong storm a few days earlier had damaged the building rendering it unsuitable for filming.

 

[Calthrop]

Maida Vale gets its name, in a convoluted way, from the town of Maida in the far south of Italy: via Maida Vale's having developed around a pub, now vanished, called after "Sir John Stuart, the Hero of Maida". Sir John was in command of the British force which defeated a French ditto at Maida in 1806. Also with a name incorporating, "sort-of", a settlement in Italy: is the village of Florencecourt, Co. Fermanagh -- west of Enniskillen. The N.I. village is in fact called after the nearby "stately home" Florence Court -- named actually after the 17th / 18th century noble lady Florence Wrey.

 

[D6130]

Florence Court house was designed by Richard Cassels (or Castle), one of the greatest 18th century architects in Ireland. He was born in Kassel, Germany, in 1690 and died in Kildare, Co. Kildare in 1751.

 

[Calthrop]

Bicester Village outlet shopping centre -- loved by some, abominated by others, situated outside Bicester, Oxfordshire; has an Irish equivalent: Kildare Village Outlet Centre -- on the outskirts of Kildare town.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Aunt Sally is a traditional English game usually played in pub gardens and fairgrounds, in which players throw sticks or battens at a ball, known as a 'dolly', balanced on top of a stick; traditionally a model of an old woman's head was sometimes used. Leagues of pub teams still play the game today, throughout the spring and summer months, mainly in Oxfordshire and some bordering counties. On 24th August 2019, the first world championship for Aunt Sally pairs was held in The Bull, Launton, Oxfordshire and was won by the pub team from The Bell, Bicester. Darren Moore and Billy Craig were the winners; the runners-up were Aimee Sheehan and Christopher Hulme.

 

[Calthrop]

In the general "nature conservation" sphere; adjacent to Launton is Island Pond Wood: a woodland-conservation area, bought by public subscription among local residents, and managed by the Woodland Trust. That organisation manages many such features; including the magnificently-named Dick Buck's Burrows, near Cromer in Norfolk.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Trunch in Norfolk was also once under the jurisdiction of the Erpingham Poor Law Union.

 

[D6130]

Trunch was home to the Kipper family of traditional Norfolk folk singers and musicians. Sid Kipper, the last remaining member of the band, now lives in Queensbury, West Yorkshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Huddersfield in West Yorkshire was also connected with the production of worsted cloth.

 

[D6130]

Mossley in Greater Manchester is also situated on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

 

[Calthrop]

As often: name-derivation time. Name of Mossley (seemingly something of a "latecomer" settlement, well post-Domesday) means -- from Old or Middle English -- "a woodland clearing by a swamp or bog". A settlement far to the south -- name with a somewhat similar beginning: owes that name to something entirely else. Said settlement: Mosterton, Dorset (near Crewkerne, not to be confused with nearby Misterton) -- name nothing to do with bogs or marshes; is from Old English meaning "thorn tree belonging to a man called Mort" (so says Wiki, anyway).

 

[John Griffiths]

Mosterton has a pub named after Admiral Hood, as did Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire also lies on the line of the River Ouzel.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Great Train Robbery took place in 1963 at Bridego Bridge just outside Leighton Buzzard. The robbers were held at the Old Police Station on Wing Road in the adjoining village of Linslade while waiting to be seen by the local magistrate after being captured a month after the robbery.

 

[John Griffiths]

In 1965 Linslade was transferred from Buckinghamshire up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire. Nine years later Slough was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Berkshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Leamington Spa in Warwickshire also lies on the line of the Grand Union Canal.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Another Civil parish with a town council to have a "Royal" prefix is Royal Wootton Bassett.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Lydiard Millicent was also once under the jurisdiction of the Cricklade Poor Law Union.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The east window of All Saints' Church, Lydiard Millicent depicts "All ye works of the Lord" and is by M E (Margaret Edith) Aldrich Rope (1891 – 1988); it was installed in 1963. This is the only example of her work in Wiltshire; there are two examples in Cornwall, at St John the Baptist, Polperro - "No man cometh ..." (1956) and "Jesus and His Disciples" (1959 – 1960).

 

[Springs Branch]

In 1892, Sir Francis Galton published a detailed statistical analysis of fingerprints and their use for unique identification in his book Finger Prints. This was based partly on a detailed study of the population at Polperro. He had calculated that the chance of a "false positive" (two different individuals having the same fingerprints) was about 1 in 64 billion. Galton suggested the use of fingerprints for the identification of criminals to Scotland Yard, but his proposal was dismissed at the time.

Following further work by Galton and others, much of it overseas, fingerprinting was eventually accepted by the Metropolitan Police as a method of identification of criminals in the early 20th Century.

The first criminal to be convicted on the basis of fingerprint evidence was Harry Jackson, who was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1902 for a burglary he had carried out in Denmark Hill South London.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Mr W Peia tells us that Jenny Agutter has lived in Denmark Hill at one stage or still lives there; she was born on 20th December 1952 in Taunton, Somerset.

 

[Calthrop]

Swindon, Wiltshire, is also twinned with a settlement in the German State of Niedersachsen. Taunton's "twin" is Koenigslutter am Elm; Swindon's is Salzgitter.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) was established on 1st April 2010 to replace the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and took over responsibility for government policy and key budgets for space exploration. It is based at the former BNSC headquarters in Swindon. The UK Space Gateway, part of the UKSA, is based at Harwell, Oxfordshire, and is the focal point for growth in the UK's space sector.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dyffryn in Vale of Glamorgan also has a church that is dedicated to St Matthew.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The River Waycock flows through the village of Duffryn, and leads to the Kenson River, which in turn flows through the village of Penmark, Vale of Glamorgan.

 

[Calthrop]

Penmark is near one end of the A4226 road. Close to the other end of that road is Bonvilston, Vale of Glamorgan.

 

[John Griffiths]

Bonvilston was named after a Norman oppressor, Simon de Bonville, but he was not celebrated by the village pubs, one of which, the Aubrey Arms, shares its name with a boozer in Ystradgynlais, Powys.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Rhosllanerchrogog in Wrexham County Borough has also hosted the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

 

[Springs Branch]

Stokeinteignhead in Devon is another unhyphenated British place name with 17 letters.