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Settlement Association
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D6130
Established Member
Puttenham, near Guildford in Surrey, also has a pub called 'The Good Intent'.
There appears in Conan Doyle's medieval-historical fiction, a character called "the wild man of Puttenham". The same body of work features a soldier called Hordle John: a not-too-bright but amiable giant who comes from Hordle, Hampshire (near Lymington).
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Sopley in Hampshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Christchurch.
Slad's greatest claim to fame, is that of its having been the birthplace and childhood home of the author and poet Laurie Lee (1914 -- 1997) -- and the place where he chose to dwell in later life. Lee's Slad childhood is celebrated in his "idyllic but with ugly spots" memoir Cider With Rosie. At one point in the book, various local eccentrics of the time are described; including a strange but harmless character whom the village folk called "Percy from [neighbouring] Painswick".
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Thurgoland in South Yorkshire also has a church that is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
There is apt to be doubt-and-disagreement, concerning the origins of English settlement names beginning with "Thur...". Submissions in that line re Thurgoland suggest: from Old Norse, meaning "cultivated land of a man called Thorgein"; or Saxon "the fee farm in the Ga of Thor" = rented farm on the land named in honour of the god Thor (my instinctive thoughts as regards this last are, "no -- someone's taking the mickey there"). Other notions again, re Thursford in Norfolk (seven miles north-east of Fakenham): it could mean "giant ford", or "demon ford".
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Great Snoring in Norfolk was also once under the jurisdiction of the Walsingham Poor Law Union.
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Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Ashmanhaugh in Norfolk also has a post-mounted illustrated village sign.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Storrington in West Sussex also lies on the route of the long-distance footpath and bridleway known as the South Downs Way.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Letcombe Regis in Berkshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Wantage Poor Law Union.
Springs Branch
Established Member
Another settlement entitled to carry a 'Royal' or 'Regis' prefix or suffix is the 'Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield' in the West Midlands (but which doesn't seem to bother on a day-to-day basis)
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Hugglescote in Leicestershire is another settlement where remains of Bronze Age burnt mounds have been discovered.
Probably Hugglescote's most famous son (essentially dwelt there lifelong), is the 19th-century writer and composer of hymns Henry Dennis -- a farmer in his "day job". Producers in the previous century, of hymns in abundance: were William Cowper and John Newton (Amazing Grace, one of the latter's) -- who lived in Olney, Buckinghamshire.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire also lies on the line of the River Great Ouse.
Twin towns again, I'm afraid -- was looking for something "new and different" re Godmanchester, but failed. Godmanchester and its neighbour Huntingdon are jointly twinned with Salon-de-Provence, in the French departement of Bouches-du-Rhone. Glasgow is twinned with Marseille, in the same departement.
(Salon-de-Provence is chiefly famed for having been the home town of Michel Nostradamus [1503 -- 66], generally reckoned the Western world's most famous and remarkable secular "prophet". One feels that a more appropriate British "twin" for Salon than its actual ones as above; might have been Knaresborough, North Yorkshire -- where Mother Shipton, contender for the title of Britain's most prominent seer, did her stuff !)
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Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Cambuslang in what I call Greater Glasgow also lies on the line of the River Clyde.
Cambuslang's patron saint is St. Cadoc -- a much-travelled personage, whose travels supposedly included Cambuslang and his founding a monastery there; some doubt among students of these matters, as to whether he ever in fact got there. Cadoc (c.497 -- c.580) was a Celtic saint, originally a Prince of Glamorgan. According to the lore, he was martyred by a Saxon raiding party at a place called Bennevenna: tentatively identified with Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire (near Daventry).
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Church Stowe in Northamptonshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Fawsley.
Church Stowe's church contains the tomb of Lady Elizabeth Danvers (nee Neville) (1545 -- 1630): wife of Sir John Danvers (1540 -- 1594). The couple had three sons, all of whom achieved various degrees of assorted fame on 17th-century political / social scenes. Sir John is buried on his original "home turf" at Dauntsey, Wiltshire -- near Malmesbury.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Until the amalgamated formation of the Hundred of Malmesbury, Sutton Benger was also previously administered by the ancient Hundred of Startley.
In the 1950s Survey of English Dialects, the recording from Sutton Benger was one of the furthest away from standard English pronunciation, that was recorded. I'd think it likely that in this, S.B. had keen rivals in rural Northumberland. A late uncle of mine told of how, in the Army in World War II, for a while he had a couple of barracks-mates who came from those parts; and hearing these two chaps chatting with each other, initially he genuinely thought they were talking in some tongue other than English. If I recall rightly, he said that they came from somewhere west of Morpeth.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Hartburn in Northumberland also lies on the line of the River Wansbeck.
The eponymous Hart Burn joins the Wansbeck near Hartburn. An instance here -- by no means always the case -- of a seemingly animal-related place name, actually being thus animal-related: "Hart Burn" means "in the old tongue", stag stream. A counterpart thus, way down to the south, is Hindhead (Surrey): meaning, "hill frequented by hinds = female deer".
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Macclesfield in Cheshire East also has a church that is dedicated to St Alban.
Macclesfield has been called in popular tradition, "Treacle Town": this referring to a historical incident when a horse-drawn wagon overturned and spilt its load of treacle onto the street; after which the poor scraped the treacle up. This, one understands, genuinely happened; also, though, there are concerning various localities in widely-spread corners of Britain, local jests to the effect that there are in the areas concerned, "treacle mines". One such is Polegate, East Sussex; which actually has a pub called the Treacle Mine.