Settlement Association

[Calthrop]

Runcorn and its one-time ferry across the River Mersey, feature in one of the many comic monologues (this one called The Runcorn Ferry -- featuring Mr. and Mrs. Ramsbottom and their son Albert, whose final unfortunate denouement is to become a lion's dinner) composed by Marriott Edgar and performed by Stanley Holloway. The Runcorn Ferry, with its theme of financial trickery concerning the fare for same ("Per tuppence per person per trip") is thus reminiscent of another of these Edgar / Holloway works of genius, Three 'alfpence a Foot: which concerns Sam Oglethwaite of Bury, now Greater Manchester; and his somehow getting embroiled with Noah and his Ark -- the two fall out, over rates for bunk-pannelling in said vessel.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stornoway, capital of Lewis and Harris, is also noted for its Black Puddings.

 

[Calthrop]

Since 2018, in Stornoway, the Western Isles' first mosque has been in operation, to serve a small Muslim population. One might imagine the Free Kirk folks having hysterics over this; but you never know -- some severe and generally non-inclusive Protestant Christians express admiration for Islam, re the discipline which it exercises over its flock, if for nothing else... another settlement which has, perhaps a bit unexpectedly, a mosque: is Douglas, Isle of Man.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bebington in Merseyside also has a church that is dedicated to St Andrews.

 

[John Griffiths]

Bebington is one of many locations suggested for the 937 battle of Brunanburh, a critical event in the formation of a unified English kingdom. Another suggested location is Barton upon Humber in Lincolnshire.

 

[Calthrop]

Sewstern, Leicestershire -- three or four miles west of Colsterworth -- also lies on the Viking Way long-distance trail.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wartnaby in Leicestershire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Melton Mowbray Poor Law Union.

 

[High Dyke]

The Wartnaby name quite probably derives from the basic Norse word for a farmstead or small village.

Another word derived from the Vikings is thwaite, meaning a clearing in a forest and a settlement that’s put there. Bassenthwaite in Cumbria is derived from an Old Norse name meaning Bastun's clearing.

 

[John Griffiths]

Kielder in Northumberland also has a large body of water named after it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Troughend in Northumberland was also once under the jurisdiction of the Bellingham Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Troughend proved a bit of a problem -- my Michelin Britain Road Atas hasn't heard of it (not that said volume claims to be omniscient): all that I could find re Troughend, is that it was a township in the ancient parish of Elsdon, Northumberland -- Elsdon village being located some ten miles south-west of Rothbury, and having a decent amount of material to tell about.

 

[High Dyke]

Elsdon was the location of a gibbet. Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains".

The Murder Act 1751 (25 Geo. 2. c. 37) stipulated that "in no case whatsoever shall the body of any murderer be suffered to be buried"; the cadaver was either to be publicly dissected or left "hanging in chains". The use of gibbeting had been in decline for some years before it was formally repealed by the Hanging in Chains Act 1834.

One of the last men to be gibbeted in England was James Cook, in 1832. James Cook was a bookbinder convicted of the murder of his creditor Paas, a manufacturer of brass instruments, in Leicester. During an attempted robbery, Cook beat Paas to death, and then took the body to his home, where he cut it into pieces and burned it to try to hide the evidence of the crime. He was executed on Friday, 10 August 1832, in front of Leicester prison.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Alexandria in West Dunbartonshire also has an ornamental town-centre fountain.

 

[Calthrop]

Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, also shares the name of a settlement in Africa (if I'm right, in both cases coincidentally -- no direct link).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hinckley in Leicestershire also has historical connection to hosiery manufacturing.

 

[Calthrop]

Hinckley has long been popularly dubbed "Tin Hat" -- a couple of rather convoluted explanations for same -- the town holds an annual Tin Hat Fair. More straightforwardly -- the football club of Luton, Bedfordshire, has the nickname of the Hatters -- Luton was formerly a big centre for hatmaking.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stockport also has a noted hat museum.

 

[Tetragon213]

Cardiff also has an EFL League One football club

 

[D6130]

Twickenham also has an international Rugby Union stadium.

 

[John Griffiths]

Twickenham was the first place in the UK where sulphuric acid was manufactured. The acid was also made until recently at Runcorn, Cheshire, by the INEOS company of Jim 'Sack all the Tea Ladies' Ratcliffe.

 

[High Dyke]

The home of industrialist, Thomas Johnson, became Runcorn Town Hall, a Grade II listed Italianate building with similarities to Osborne House at East Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Shalfleet in the Isle of Wight also lies on the route of the circular long-distance footbath known as the Isle of Wight Circular Path.

 

[Calthrop]

Binstead, Isle of Wight, also lies on the A3054 road (and possibly the Circular Path as well).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Crediton in Devon also has a place of worship named Church of the Holy Cross.

 

[John Griffiths]

Crediton became the seat of a bishopric in 909, and so remained until 1050, when the see was transferred to the fleshpots of Exeter.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Chichester in West Sussex also has an Anglican cathedral.

 

[John Griffiths]

There is also a district named Chichester (although there the Chi- is pronounced to rhyme with sky) in the town of South Shields.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Whitburn in Tyne & Wear was also once under the jurisdiction of the South Shields Poor Law Union.

 

[High Dyke]

Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire was also the location of a Starfish decoy site during WW2.

 

[Calthrop]

There is also a district named Chichester (although there the Chi- is pronounced to rhyme with sky) in the town of South Shields.

In and around the Sussex Chichester: local folk often colloquially call the city "Chi" -- rhyming with sky.

Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire was also the location of a Starfish decoy site during WW2.

Skenfrith, Monmouthshire -- some half-dozen miles north-west of Monmouth -- also has a church dedicated to St. Bridget.