Settlement Association

[John Griffiths]

The first Wurlitzer organ in Britain was installed in Walsall in 1925. The same organ is now used at the Congregational church in Beer, Devon.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Earby in Lancashire also has a youth hostel.

 

[Calthrop]

Dunham-on-the-Hill, Cheshire -- a little way north-east of Chester -- also lies on the A56 road.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Plemstall in Cheshire West & Chester was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Eddisbury.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The hamlet of Plemstall contains only a farm, a former level crossing keeper's house and the Grade I listed St Peter's Church. The church is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester; its benefice is combined with that of St John the Baptist's Church, Guilden Sutton.

 

[Calthrop]

Witney, Oxfordshire, also has a pub called the Bird in Hand.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ducklington in Oxfordshire also lies on the line of the River Windrush.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Church of England parish church of St Bartholomew, Ducklington is 12th century, and has a ring of six bells. William and Henry III Bagley of Chacombe, Northamptonshire cast four of these bells in 1708.

 

[Calthrop]

Seems I'm being boring about pubs this morning ! Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, also has a hostelry called the George and Dragon.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Cley windmill was built in the early 19th century, and operated as a mill until c1912. In 1921, the windmill was sold to Mrs Sarah Maria Wilson for the sum of £350 and she had the mill converted to a holiday home. The architect responsible for the conversion was Cecil Upcher, who was born in the village and civil parish of Barnham Broom in 1884 and practiced in Norfolk for the whole of his life until his death in 1972.

 

[Calthrop]

Another something-of-obsession of mine: J.R.R. Tolkien. The "Barnham" part of Barnham Broom, means by one reckoning, "Beorn's homestead / village" (the "Broom" bit, a very much later addition): thoughts conjured up, of Beorn the redoubtable shapeshifting man / bear in The Hobbit, and his homestead, where the travellers stay for a while. Another imaginable association re Tolkien's fiction: Rivenhall, Essex (near Witham) -- shades of, in The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, Elrond's stronghold and place of great beauty.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

RAF Rivenhall was a former Royal Air Force station, located near the village and also used by United States Army Air Force during the Second World War. It closed in 1946 and was kept in reserve until 1956. RAF Acaster Malbis was also a former Royal Air Force station located in the village and civil parish of the same name during the Second World War.

 

[D6130]

Saltburn-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire also has a pub called the Ship Inn.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Folkestone also has a water-powered funicular cliff railway.

 

[D6130]

Newhaven in East sussex also has ferry services to France.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Lewes in East Sussex also lies on the line of the River Ouse.

 

[D6130]

Castle Acre in Norfolk also had a Cluniac priory.

 

[John Griffiths]

Narborough, unsurprisingly, is also on the River Nar.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Litcham in Norfolk also has a church that is dedicated to All Saints and also lies on the route of the walking trail known as the Nar Valley Way.

 

[Springs Branch]

There are two parallel thoroughfares in Litcham named Front Street and Back Street.
Confusingly, Front St is a relatively minor affair, whilst Back St is the main road through the village.

There is also a pair of close-by roads named Front Street and Back Lane (in a more intuitive order of importance) in Pity Me Co. Durham.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

There are a number of other instances of the place name "Pity Me" in the north of England and elsewhere: near Morpeth and Barrasford in Northumberland, near Bradbury in south County Durham. However, we'll go a long way south, to Pityme in north Cornwall, where the name of the village seems to have its origins in a tragic tale of loss at sea. The skipper of a fishing vessel set to sea despite the deteriorating weather. All hands were lost. The women of the village went, as a group, to the widow of the captain to berate her for her husband's culpability in their widowhood. She explained: "I have lost my husband too, so you should also pity me" - hence Pityme Inn.

 

[Calthrop]

The various "Pity me / Pityme" 's (Cornwall, as well as up north) have assorted alternative explanations for their names, to the person-requesting-persons-to-be-sorry-for-them one -- alternatives, often decidedly on the far-fetched side. Some involve corruptions of the French petite mer = "little sea" or "lake": including the Cornish village -- a notion of the sea's once having been closer to it (??). England has quite a number of instances of place-names originally -- via the Normans -- French-language, which over the centuries have received rough treatment from English tongues. An example is Herstmonceux, East Sussex: part-Norman-French -- Anglo-Saxon hyrst = "wooded hill", plus name of the Monceux family, lords of the manor as at the 12th century: name generally pronounced approximately "huhst-muhn-zoo" -- less brutalised than some place-names in similar case !

 

[D6130]

Edinburgh also has a castle and an observatory....but, in this case, not in the same building.

 

[John Griffiths]

Swindon also boasts a New Town developed at some distance from the original settlement.

 

[D6130]

Harrogate is also the largest settlement in its county, but isn't the County Town.

 

[Calthrop]

The firm of Farrah's of Harrogate, specialises in treacle toffee. An undertaking in another prominent Yorkshire town -- Amy Smiths in Doncaster -- is in a similar line of business, namely toffee and fudge.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Newmarket also has a Group 1 rated racecourse.

 

[Calthrop]

Billericay, Essex, also has a "sister city" in the USA. Newmarket's is Lexington, Kentucky -- also a very "horsey" place. Billericay's is, appropriately enough, Billerica, Massachusetts (the latter town named directly after the former -- early settlers from those parts; but, Americans and spelling ...).

 

[DerekC]

Zeppelin L32 was shot down near Billericay on 23rd September 1916 by 2nd Lieutenant F Sowrey , RFC, flying a BE2C. Three weeks earlier Lieutenant W L Robinson flying a similar aircraft had shot down the first to be destroyed by a fighter over the UK. That was airship FL11, which crashed at Cuffley, Hertfordshire.

 

[John Griffiths]

William Leefe Robinson VC, mentioned above, was captured after being as shot down over the western front in April 1917. Repatriated in December 1918, he died of Spanish Influenza in Stanmore, Middlesex on 31 December 1918.