Settlement Association

[Calthrop]

Walberswick was formerly famous for its annual British Open Crabbing Championship, last held in 2010. The winner was the person who caught the heaviest crab within 90 minutes -- proceeds went to charity. Mudeford, Dorset -- near Christchurch -- is also a place favoured for the catching of crabs, in a less formal context.

(We know what also used to link Walberswick and Southwold, don't we, guys?)

 

[A0]

Mudeford was notorious for smuggling in the late 1600s. Another place with a smuggling history is Rye in Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Beckley in East Sussex was also once administered by the Hundred of Goldspur.

 

[Calthrop]

Ripley, Derbyshire, also has a namesake city in the US State of West Virginia.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

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

 

[Calthrop]

Faversham, Kent, also has a pub called the Bear.

 

[A0]

Faversham was the location of a major gunpowder factory. Another major gunpowder production facility was at Waltham Abbey.

 

[Calthrop]

Waltham Abbey; and Bosham, West Sussex (near Chichester); both claim to be the burial place of King Harold Godwinson, last king of Anglo-Saxon England -- loser at the Battle of Hastings ("arrer in 'is eye" and all that).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pontnewydd in Cwmbran also has a church that is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

 

[Calthrop]

Pontnewydd is located on on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. Groesffordd, Powys -- near Brecon -- lies close by the line of that canal.

 

[DerekC]

Bighton in Hampshire, like Groesffordd, has a pub called the Three Horseshoes. Both are freehouses (when small I though that a freehouse must be a pub that served free beer!)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bramdean in Hampshire was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Bishops Sutton.

 

[Calthrop]

... (when small I though that a freehouse must be a pub that served free beer!)

Me too !

Bramdean in Hampshire was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Bishops Sutton.

Milton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire -- near Burford -- also has a church dedicated to St. Simon and St. Jude (I learn that these two saints are often "paired" dedication-wise).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Little Rollright in Oxfordshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Chipping Norton Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Little Rollright is located near the Oxfordshire / Warwickshire boundary; and four miles north-west of it, is a spot still called the "Four Shire Stone"; though said spot is now at the meeting-point of only three shires: Oxford, Warwick, and Gloucester. The formerly-involved fourth county was Worcestershire: county boundaries hereabouts used to be very complicated, with enclaves, exclaves, and things. The one-time section of Worcestershire around here, was a small detached portion of the county which included the village of Blockley, now in Gloucestershire.

 

[Springs Branch]

This is Rail UK Forums, so how could I go past . . .

There's also a pub named The Great Western Arms in Aynho Oxfordshire.

 

[Calthrop]

The architect Philip Speakman Webb (1831 -- 1915) -- whom I confess to never having heard of before Googling Aynho -- was born in Oxford, but in his youth studied at Aynho. He designed various buildings of note, including the Arts & Crafts house of Standen, near East Grinstead, West Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire also has a church that is dedicated to Our Lady and St Peter.

 

[Calthrop]

That ship which came to grief in 1912 will usually do the job, if one is willing to get sufficiently far-fetched... Wallace Hartley, the leader of the orchestra on the Titanic -- famous for the heroic manner of their perishing thereon -- led an orchestra in Bridlington in 1902 (he's accordingly commemorated with a blue plaque in the town). Hartley was born and grew up in Colne, Lancashire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wilmslow in Cheshire East also has a church that id dedicated to St Bartholemew.

 

[Calthrop]

Wilmslow's coat of arms features a bear's head. The coat of arms of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, has two bears as supporters.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Purfleet in Essex was also the site of an 18th century gunpowder magazine.

 

[Calthrop]

Purfleet in Essex was also the site of an 18th century gunpowder magazine.

Hampstead (London Borough of Camden) also features, relatively briefly, in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.

 

[A0]

A well known resident of Hampstead was intellectual socialist Michael Foot. Whilst many recall him being the MP for Ebbw Vale, later Blaenau Gwent (the seat which had been held by his political mentor Aneurin Bevan), it is less well remembered that he was previously MP for the Devonport area of Plymouth.

A final twist of history, the Devonport seat was later that of Dr David Owen who famously was one of the "Gang of Four" high profile cabinet ministers who left Labour to form the SDP in response to Foot's election as leader.

 

[DerekC]

Plymouth claims the honour of being the port of departure for the Pligrim Fathers on board "Mayflower" - but in fact they only called there to dump some of the passengers from the accompanying vessel "Speedwell" which had sprung a leak 200 miles beyond Lands End and had to be abandoned. The rendezvous for the two vessels had been Southampton, Mayflower coming from London and Speedwell from Holland. They called at Dartmouth as well, intending that to be their final departure point. By the time "Mayflower" finally left Plymouth the passengers had been on board for a month and half the provisions had been eaten!

 

[Calthrop]

Rudyard Kipling (1865 -- 1936), "poet and novelist celebratory of the British Empire"; was in that capacity -- unsurprisingly -- conscious of the importance of Southampton in more than one context: I can think off-hand, of two poems / ballads of his, in which that city is mentioned by name. Kipling spent some of his youth in foster-care in Southsea, Hampshire -- not far down the coast.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wigan in Greater Manchester also has a church that is dedicated to St Jude.

 

[Springs Branch]

Food manufacturing behemoth Kraft Heinz has factories in Wigan and Worcester (where, appropriately enough, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is made)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sedgeberrow in Worcestershire was also once administered by the Hundred of Oswaldslow.

 

[Calthrop]

Sedgeberrow is situated on the River Isbourne (tributary of the Stratford Avon). Further up its course, the Isbourne passes through Toddington, Gloucestershire.