Settlement Association

[John Griffiths]

Sandhurst fulfils the same role for the British Army's officer corps.

Not by being 169 miles from London, but by hosting the main training centre for future army officers, as Dartmouth does for naval.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Finchampstead in Berkshire also lies on the line of the River Blackwater.

 

[Calthrop]

It sometimes seems that the British Isles are full of Rivers Blackwater. The best-known river by that name in Ireland, is situated in the south-west of the island; one of the settlements which lie on it, is Mallow, Co. Cork.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Clonmel in County Tipperary also has a racecourse.

With regards to Mallow, that town's name always puts me in mind of the tune called "The Rakes of Mallow".

 

[John Griffiths]

Laurence Sterne, clergyman and modernist author before his time, was born in Clonmel in 1713 and died in London in 1768, but is associated with the Yorkshire village of Coxwold.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kilburn in North Yorkshire was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Yarlestre.

 

[Calthrop]

Kilburn in North Yorkshire was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Yarlestre

The furniture-maker Robert Thompson (1876 -- 1955) was born and lived in Kilburn. He was nicknamed "the Mouseman", from his "trade-mark" of including in almost every piece of furniture of his making, a small carved mouse. (It is suspected that the painter Terence Cuneo -- well known to "us types" [died, aged 88, in Esher, Surrey] -- copied Thompson's practice, in his including a mouse somewhere in every picture which he painted.)

With regards to Mallow, that town's name always puts me in mind of the tune called "The Rakes of Mallow".

...breaking windows, damning, sinking,
ever raking, never thinking ...

etc. etc.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Cobham in Surrey was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Elmbridge.

 

[Springs Branch]

During World War 2, research and development staff from the Vickers aviation company were stationed around Cobham, involved in various wartime "hush-hush" projects.

One of these, Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb, underwent early concept testing on Silvermere Lake at Cobham using catapults.
More advanced prototypes of bouncing bombs were subsequently tested from aircraft on the sea off Chesil Beach, adjacent to the Dorset village of Chiswell.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wynford Eagle in Dorset was also once under the jurisdiction of the Dorchester Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Wynford Eagle's name comes about in a "mixed-languages" way: the "Wynford", from the Celtic words winn and frud = white or bright stream; and "Eagle" from the 13th-century local Norman manorial family, that of L'Aigle. That in Latin, de Aquila -- whence, I'm afraid, "low-hanging fruit" regarding Dorset, and Thomas wretched Hardy and his literary pseudonyms for numerous settlements in said county. For the village of Toller Porcorum ("Toller of the pigs") a couple of miles distant, old Thomas shuffles things around a bit and calls it in his books, "De Aquila Porcorum".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Toller Fratrum in Dorset also lies on the line of the River Hooke.

 

[Calthrop]

Toller Fratrum's church is dedicated to St. Basil -- a decidedly uncommon dedicatee for British churches. Deritend -- area of central Birmingham -- used to have a St. Basil's Church -- now decommissioned as a church, and operating as a centre for a charity.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Rubery in West Midlands also lies on the line of the River Rea.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The author Jonathan Coe was brought up in Rubery, and his novel "The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim" names several local places and landmarks. He was, though, born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on 19th August 1961.

 

[Calthrop]

The author Jonathan Coe was brought up in Rubery, and his novel "The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim" names several local places and landmarks. He was, though, born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on 19th August 1961.

Belper, Derbyshire; was also in times past, a prominent centre for the trade of nail-making.


I read a good deal; but to best of knowledge, I'd never in my life heard of Jonathan Coe before reading the above post. Having Googled, I don't feel that he'd be my cup of tea; but thanks for information !

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Quorndon in Derbyshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Belper Poor Law Union.

 

[John Griffiths]

Quarndon in Derbyshire had a name confusingly similar to Quorndon in neighbouring Leicestershire. To avoid postal confusion, and doubtless after much ill-tempered "You change!" "No! You change!", the Leicestershire village adopted the truncated name of Quorn in 1889.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Great Stukeley in Cambridgeshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Bartholemew.

 

[D6130]

Back in the 1970s Great Stukeley was one of the four locations shortlisted for the third London airport. Another of them was - appropriately - Wing in Buckinghamshire.

 

[Calthrop]

England has another village called Wing: in Rutland, a little way south-east of Oakham.

 

[John Griffiths]

Like the Rutland Wing, Saffron Walden also has a turf maze.

 

[Calthrop]

Henry Winstanley (1644 -- 1703), creator of the first Eddystone Lighthouse: was born near, and in his youth lived in, Saffron Walden. The nearest significant mainland settlement to the Eddystone Rocks is Cawsand, Cornwall.

 

[DerekC]

Fort Cawsand guards (or guarded) the west side of the entrance to Plymouth Sound. The east side was guarded by Fort Bovisand, near the village of Staddiscombe.

 

[John Griffiths]

Cawsand had a 'Palmerston's Folly' fort, built in the 1860s; another place with such a fortification was Hartlepool: the Heugh Battery, which inflicted damage on the Imperial German Navy vessels which bombarded the port on 16 December 1914 (108 years ago tomorrow) killing 122 civilians and 7 servicemen in Scarborough, Whitby and the Hartlepools.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Throston in County Durham was also once under the jurisdiction of the Hartlepool Poor Law Union.

 

[Springs Branch]

One of the few things of note about Throston is the existence of three oriental takeaways within very close proximity along Duke Street. And that's not counting 'The Odd Cod' chippy and 'Charlie's' if you fancy a pizza.

Anyhow, one of these takeaways is the 'Thai Pan Authentic Oriental Take Way'. Another takeaway establishment trading as 'Thai Pan' is located in Bognor Regis West Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Skegness in Lincolnshire also has a functioning Butlins holiday complex.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

St Matthew's Anglican Church, Skegness was built in the 1880s and has an organ built by Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool; it is recognised as one of the best in the country and has recently been extensively overhauled. Rushworth and Dreaper was founded in 1828 by William Rushworth, and operated until 2002. Possibly the earliest organ built by the company (in 1838) is in St Oswald's Church, Winwick, Cheshire.

 

[Calthrop]

Going to be rather un-PC here -- Winwick at any rate used to be the location of the mental hospital for its "catchment area": hence the local expression applied to a mentally disturbed person, " 'e's gone clean winnuck". Similarly, concerning north London, and the area of Friern Barnet (London Borough of Barnet) -- vulgar expression with similar significance, " 'e belongs Friern Barnet."