Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Swainswick was also once administered by the Hundred of Bath Forum.

 

[Calthrop]

Swainswick's name is thought possibly to be derived from England's Scandinavian king Sweyn Forkbeard, who conducted military operations in the area. A settlement with a likely name-derivation from another such personage of that era, is Knutsford: after King Canute (he of the tide), who was briefly active in that part of England.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Appleton Thorn also has a church that is dedicated to St Cross.

 

[John Griffiths]

Uxbridge is, like Bath, home to a university accorded a royal charter in 1966.

 

[John Griffiths]

Each June, the children of Appleton Thorn bawm the thorn - decorate and sing and dance around a Hawthorn tree, grown from a cutting of the sacred Glastonbury Thorn.*


* Or so tis said.

 

[Calthrop]

There is a supposed thing -- believed by some to exist, but doubted by more -- called a "landscape zodiac": a map of the stars on a gigantic scale, set out by such features as roads, streams, and field boundaries. Those who set store by such matters claim that there is one of these near Glastonbury; and another close to Nuthampstead (near Royston, Hertfordshire).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Quendon and Rickling in Essex is also one of the East of England areas that form the grouping known as The Hundred Parishes.

 

[John Griffiths]

Whistling songster Roger Whittaker lived in Rickling for a while; he is perhaps best known for his 1969 hit 'Durham Town (The Leavin')', in which he places the city (not town) on the banks of the Tyne, to general north-eastern annoyance.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Edinburgh also has botanical gardens.

 

[Calthrop]

Two small and rather exotic islands -- British Overseas Territories, non-self-governing -- each of which have, or have had, capitals named after UK cities (in one case, with modifications): are Tristan da Cunha (capital Edinburgh of the Seven Seas); and Montserrat (capital was Plymouth until 1995, when the town and much of the island were devastated by a volcanic eruption -- the capital now Brades, in the unaffected part of the island).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ellesmere Port also has a noted aquarium.

 

[John Griffiths]

Goole was also deliberately planned as a canal port.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Altrincham also has a clock tower.

 

[Springs Branch]

Bury is another location where the Greater Manchester PTE built a new bus interchange adjacent to a rail station in the 1970/80s.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Bury-born Sir Robert Peel was Prime Minister and founded the Metropolitan Police. The Peel Memorial stands outside Bury parish church and the Peel Monument is on Holcombe Hill, Ramsbottom.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aspull was also once administered by the Hundred of Salford.

 

[John Griffiths]

Aspull has a passive water treatment scheme to deal with contaminated minewater, as does Quaking Houses in County Durham (described in this excellent, well-written book, a snip at £10.08 including p&p - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quaking-Ho...keywords=Quaking+houses&qid=1618563085&sr=8-1 )

 

[Calthrop]

We learn re Quaking House that "a colloquial name for the village was 'banana goat island', perhaps reflecting the livestock kept in the extensive allotments and grazing area around the village". Another Northern allusion to culinary slight exotica, is the street in Kingston upon Hull called The Land of Green Ginger.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Harwich also has commercial North Sea ferry services.

 

[Calthrop]

Harwich gets a mention in a song in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta; so does Portsmouth (different song and operetta).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The waterfront and Portsmouth Harbour are dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, which is one of the UK's tallest structures at 560 ft. It was previously known as the Emirates Spinnaker Tower, but the sponsorship deal has now ended. The same cannot be said of the Emirates Stadium, the home of Arsenal FC in Highbury, London.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Herne Bay also has a noted clock tower.

 

[johnnychips]

Hector Garcia Ribeyro was the mayor of Lima in Peru in the 50s and lived in Herne Bay once. Another famous person (?) who came from Peru was Paddington, a fictional character named after the station situated in that part of London.

 

[DerekC]

From Paddington Basin on the Grand Union Canal you could once have travelled to the basin at Buckingham.

 

[johnnychips]

The previous Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, was MP for Buckingham. The present Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, is MP for Chorley.

 

[Springs Branch]

In the past Chorley was blessed with a Yates's Wine Lodge.
Another settlement which had a now defunct Yates's Wine Lodge is the Cheshire village* of Bosley.

* Bosley, a rural village, was a unique location for a Wine Lodge - these large-scale boozing establishments being associated with large industrial towns and cities. This is due to the nouveau riche Yates family having bought a country estate in the vicinity.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Peterborough was also the scene of an explosion in industrial premises, that caused fatality.

At Bosley, four employees died and at Peterborough, a fire fighter died after being hit by shrapnel from the blast.

 

[John Griffiths]

Holme Fen, near Peterborough, is the lowest point in Great Britain (-9ft); Ben Nevis, near Fort William, is the highest (4,413ft)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ayr is also a settlement that was chosen to site a military fort in past times.

 

[Calthrop]

Awful hackneyed riddle, for which apologies:

Q: Who are the lightest men in the British Isles?

A: The men of Cork are light;

The men of Ayr (air) are lighter --

But there are lighter men (lightermen = those who operate the cargo-carrying boats called "lighters") yet, on the River Thames.