Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sheldwich in Kent also has an example of a medieval period threshing barn.

 

[Calthrop]

Sheldwich would appear to be rich in interesting features and buildings, especially of agricultural significance: features several oast-houses (formerly for drying hops). One of these is called the Jesmondene Oast -- name presumably with some connection with the scenic and much-loved public park Jesmond Dene in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

 

[John Griffiths]

Britain's first dog show was held in Newcastle upon Tyne. Crufts, the country's leading dog show, is based in Birmingham but first took place in 1891 at the Agricultural Hall in Islington, north London

 

[Calthrop]

The poet and hymn-writer William Cowper (1731 -- 1800) wrote -- in an unusually frolicsome mood -- the much-liked comic ballad The Diverting History of John Gilpin: about a rather pompous successful London draper, who by misadventure experiences a wild ride involving places north of London, in which he gets into all sorts of messes -- some of these happenings taking place in Islington. Cowper lived for much of his life in Olney, Buckinghamshire.

 

[John Griffiths]

North Somercotes in Lincolnshire also holds a pancake race every Shrove Tuesday.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Louth Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

One of my favourite manoeuvres in this game -- Chesterfield, Derbyshire, is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Aube. Ludford Magna's "twin" is Voue; Chesterfield's is Troyes. There is a particular story here re Ludford Magna: at which settlement there was during World War II, an important RAF station. In the war, a Lancaster bomber based at RAF Ludford Magna was shot down over Voue -- all the crew were killed; the villagers of Voue buried them, and tended the graves for many years. In time, this link with Ludford Magna was learned of; the English and French villages were formally twinned, and have been so ever since.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Calow in Derbyshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Scarsdale.

 

[John Griffiths]

Congham, Norfolk, also has a pub named The Anvil.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wroxeter in Shropshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Andrew.

 

[Calthrop]

Wroxeter, now a small village, was long ago a place of much greater magnitude: Roman Britain's fourth-largest city, then called Viroconium Cornoviorum (strewth, those old Romans didn't half go in for long, tongue-twisting names) -- the second word thereof, referring to the locally dominant tribe, the Cornovii. Ptolemy's Geography (2nd century AD) mentions, as cities of the Cornovii: our place under discussion here; and Chester (Deva Victrix).

 

[John Griffiths]

Blyth, Northumberland, is another urban settlement whose main association football team plays (2023-2024) in National League North.

 

[Calthrop]

Blyth as above, is at the point where the eponymous river, some 27 miles long, flows into the sea. Suffolk also has a, rather shorter, River Blyth; also debouching into the North Sea, after flowing, a few miles inland, by the village of Blythburgh, Suffolk.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Elsecar in South Yorkshire also has a church that is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

 

[D6130]

Ironbridge in Shropshire also has an industrial archeology and history museum.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Abermule in Powys also lies on the line of the River Severn.

 

[Calthrop]

The composer Philip Arnold Heseltine -- pseudonym Peter Warlock -- spent periods of his short and turbulent life (1894 -- 1930) at Abermule. He also lived for a while at Eynsford (Sevenoaks District of Kent).

 

[D6130]

Strathaven (pronounced 'Stray-ven') in South Lanarkshire also has the remains of a medieval castle.

 

[Calthrop]

Strathaven's coat of arms prominently features blue dragons. Among the assorted creatures -- of varying degrees of "fancifulness" -- appearing on the coat of arms of Cardiff: is, appropriately enough, a red dragon.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pontsticill in Methyr Tydfil County Borough also lies on the line of the River Taff.

 

[Calthrop]

I feel a bit Pavlovian here; but -- Ashford, Kent, is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Ille-et-Vilaine. Pontsticill's "twin" is Livre-sur-Changeon (sounds as though invented by a writer of comic fiction ); Ashford's is Fougeres.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hothfield in Kent was also once administered by the Hundred of Chart and Longbridge.

 

[Calthrop]

High Bentham, North Yorkshire, also has a church dedicated to St. Margaret.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sedbergh (just inside the West Riding area) was also once administered by the Ewcross Wapentake.

 

[Calthrop]

Sedbergh is designated as England's official "book town" -- plenteous bookshops, second-hand and otherwise; counterpart in this, although on a lesser scale, to Wales (Powys)'s Hay-on-Wye.

 

[D6130]

Knighton Is another town that is partly in England and partly in Wales.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Leintwardine in Herefordshire also lies on the line of the River Teme.

 

[Calthrop]

Leintwardine's parish is the most northerly in Herefordshire. Further east: the parish of Dean and Shelton is Bedfordshire's northernmost -- the village of Shelton being its chief settlement.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Yelden in Bedfordshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Stodden.

 

[Calthrop]

Yelden had, it appears, an exciting time (in the main, not in a lethal way) in World War II: largely involving its proximity to a US air force base. It would seem to have this in common, for largely the same reason, with the not very far away King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire (loosely, between Peterborough and Corby) -- King's Cliffe's experience thus, told of in a novel, Our Yanks, by Margaret Mayhew -- village name disguised therein, but identity unmistakable.