Settlement Association

[John Griffiths]

Worcester's local paper, Berrows Worcester Journal, was established (under a different name) in 1690, and is claimed to be the oldest newspaper in the world. However, the London Gazette began as the Oxford Gazette in 1665 and is still in print.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hartington in Derbyshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Giles.

 

[Calthrop]

Sneaking-in ("deniably") something about my beloved Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway -- just over a mile north-west of Hartington, across the border in Staffordshire, is the village of Sheen (the two names were in a "subsidiary" position on the station nameboard of the line's northern terminus). In contrast to this highly rural location, there is far to the south, a thoroughly suburban namesake: Sheen alias East Sheen, in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Litherland in Merseyside also has a church that is dedicated to Our Lady, Queen of Peace.

 

[High Dyke]

The Litherland Gala was staged every year and was famous for the procession of shire horses and floats from the docks. The gala procession ended at the Bryant and May, the match maker's sports field.

In 1913 Bryant & May took over the Gloucester match maker S.J. Moreland and Sons, who made and sold matches under the trade name England's Glory.

Both locations had factories producing matches.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

St Ives in Cambridgeshire also featured in a childrens doggerel.

 

[John Griffiths]

St Ives - initially called Slepe - changed its name after a Huntingdonshire peasant digging in a field came across the remains of St Ivo, abbot of the abbey at Ramsey, also in Hunts.

Incidentally Sheen was the former
name of what is now Richmond in south west London, so named after the Yorkshire castle town by Henry VII.

 

[Calthrop]

St Ives - initially called Slepe - changed its name after a Huntingdonshire peasant digging in a field came across the remains of St Ivo, abbot of the abbey at Ramsey, also in Hunts.

We learn that Ramsey, Hunts. / Cambs. / whatever: celebrates Shrove Tuesday by the ringing of a Pancake Bell. Other settlements mark said day a bit more excitingly, with "pancake races" -- competitors running while tossing pancakes; Olney (Buckinghamshire?) most famous for same -- to make a change, there is a similar ceremony in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

Incidentally Sheen was the former
name of what is now Richmond in south west London, so named after the Yorkshire castle town by Henry VII.

Worse luck -- if only that obnoxious miser / tyrant / sourpuss had lost at Bosworth, and Richard III had won ...

 

[John Griffiths]

Ripon still maintains the office of a wakeman, who blows a horn every day in the marketplace at 9pm. The nearby town hall bears the inscription Except ye Lord keep ye cittie ye wakeman waketh in vain.

Another wakeman is associated with
The Stawbs and Yes - popular beat music combos, m'Lud, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the genre - and that is Rick Wakeman, born in 1949 in Perivale, west London.

 

[Calthrop]

Janet Street-Porter -- journalist and TV personality, generally reckoned as espousing a non-liberal view of things: lived in Perivale early-ish in her life. We learn that at that time, she and her family stayed during the school holidays, in her mother's home town of Llanfairfechan, Conwy County Borough.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Dwygyfylchi in Conway County Borough was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Uchaf.

 

[Calthrop]

Dwygyfylchi (name guaranteed to give the horrors to "Saxons" unaccustomed to anything Welsh-language) has a church dedicated to St. Gwynin. Another Welsh settlement with church dedicated in part, to this fairly little-known saint: is Llanwnnen, Ceredigion -- near Lampeter -- with its church of St. Lucia and St. Gwynin.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Llanfihangel Ystrad in Ceredigion was also once administered by the Hundred of Moythen.

 

[Calthrop]

Also on the A482 road -- at its convergence with the A487 -- is Aberaeron, Ceredigion.

 

[High Dyke]

Llanon, Ceredigion is at the opposite end of the Dylan Thomas Trail from Aberaeron.The Dylan Thomas Trail (Welsh: Llwybr Dylan Thomas) runs through places associated with the poet Dylan Thomas in Ceredigion, west Wales.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Llanddona in Anglesey is also a settlement with a raised beach.

 

[Calthrop]

Llanon, Ceredigion is at the opposite end of the Dylan Thomas Trail from Aberaeron.The Dylan Thomas Trail (Welsh: Llwybr Dylan Thomas) runs through places associated with the poet Dylan Thomas in Ceredigion, west Wales.

Is Llareggub on its route ?

Llanddona in Anglesey is also a settlement with a raised beach.

We are informed that Llanddona is said to have once been home to a family of witches, whose power descended from mother to daughter. Canewdon, Essex -- a little way north-east of Rochford -- has also reputedly been the site of much in the way of witch-type doings over the centuries.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hellesdon in Norfolk also has a post-mounted illustrated village sign.

 

[Calthrop]

Hellesdon has a pub with the unusual name of the Whiffler. (From reading of historical fiction: I gather that a "whiffler" was, centuries ago, a variety of army officer.) The Whiffler at Hellesdon is a Wetherspoons establishment; random research on the Net, fetched up an article giving "ratings" for various Wetherspoons in Norfolk -- at risk of getting into "libel" realms: rated the county's worst, was the unfortunate pub in Norwich called the Glasshouse.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Chilbolton in Hampshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Mary the Less.

 

[Calthrop]

Back to pubs, I'm afraid (limited amount of "gen" findable about Chilbolton). Chilbolton has a pub with the, possibly unique in Britain, name of the Abbot's Mitre. Pubs called the just plain "Mitre" are more numerous; one being in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

 

[John Griffiths]

Like Knaresborough, the district of Belle Vue in Manchester used to have a zoo.

 

[Calthrop]

The National Basketball Performance Centre, headquarters of Basketball England, is located in Bellevue. It is the home arena of, among other teams, the women's basketball team the Manchester Mystics. Another colourfully-named basketball team is the Caledonia Gladiators, based in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.

 

[Tetragon213]

Derby also had a major Rolls Royce plant

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Duffield in Derbyshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Alkmund.

 

[Calthrop]

"Casting around", and fetching up a rather tenuous association with someone who featured in the game a very few months ago: John Bradshaw (1602 -- 59), one of the signatories of King Charles I's death-warrant. J.B. was born in High Lane, Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester. His connection with Duffield, is his distant kinship with Anthony Bradshaw who lived in the Duffield area a little earlier in history; and who had erected in Duffield church, a monument to himself and his large family.

 

[High Dyke]

Is Llareggub on its route ?

Maybe. "Where the old wizards made themselves a wife out of flowers." Rev. Eli Jenkins

"Casting around", and fetching up a rather tenuous association with someone who featured in the game a very few months ago: John Bradshaw (1602 -- 59), one of the signatories of King Charles I's death-warrant. J.B. was born in High Lane, Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester. His connection with Duffield, is his distant kinship with Anthony Bradshaw who lived in the Duffield area a little earlier in history; and who had erected in Duffield church, a monument to himself and his large family.

Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire is also on the route of the A6, though the village has now been bypassed.

 

[Calthrop]

Bathampton, Somerset, also has a church dedicated to St. Nicholas.

 

[John Griffiths]

Aldwark in North Yorkshire is also served by a toll bridge.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Blackburn in Lancashire also has a church that is dedicated to St Stephen.