Settlement Association

[Calthrop]

Congleton in Cheshire East also lies on the line of the River Dane.

One gathers that Congleton has a dramatic story, involving considerable altruism on the part of the inhabitants, from when bubonic plague arrived there in the 17th century. Similarly, from the same era, with Eyam -- not all that far away, in Derbyshire -- whose people voluntarily quarantined the village while the situation obtained.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wirksworth in Derbyshire is another settlement where lead mining was carried out in the time of the Roman occupation of England.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

St Mary the Virgin, Wirksworth contains an Anglo-Saxon carving of a lead miner, "T'owd Man", the oldest representation of a miner anywhere in the world. It was moved here in 1863 from St James the Apostle's Church, Bonsall for safe-keeping and has never been returned. The parishioners of Bonsall have had a replica carved for their church.

 

[Calthrop]

There is a very long-standing, established Christian youth camp at Bonsall. Per Wiki: the famed and respected Christian writer and minister Selwyn Hughes (1928 -- 2006) mentions in his autobiography, that as a lad, he was sent home from this camp for bad behaviour (I initially read this, as his being sent to the camp for bad behaviour -- too much Solzhenitsyn maybe?). Hughes was born in Fochriw, Caerphilly County Borough.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bedwas also in Caerphilly County Borough had long connections with coal mining.

 

[Calthrop]

Bedwas is mentioned in the work Wild Wales by George Borrow (whom we've had in this game in recent days): while Borrow was a "whiz" at languages, he wasn't infallible -- in the above reference, he calls the settlement Bettws, meaning "prayer house"; its actual meaning is "grove, bank, or place, of birch trees". With his father being a serving officer in the army, Borrow lived and attended school in his childhood and youth, in quite a wide variety of places; one of those being Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.

 

[Springs Branch]

In 2015 Clonmel was the location of Ireland's first marriage between two men.
The first same-sex marriage in England occurred the previous year, according to BBC archives, in the London district of Islington.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) used to have its head office in CAA House, Islington. It is now located in Aviation House, Gatwick Airport, Crawley, Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Withyham in East Sussex was also once under the jurisdiction of the East Grinstead Poor Law Union.

 

[John Griffiths]

Withyham churchyard is the burial place of the ashes of Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (nicknamed Dai Bananas), Solicitor General, Attorney General and Home Secretary, who served on the UK legal team at the Nuremberg Trial of the main Nazi leaders; the UK team was led by Sir Hartley Shawcross (known as Sir Shortly Floorcross for his supposed disillusionment with the Attlee government he served), who is buried at Jevington, also East Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Alfriston in East Sussex also has a church that is dedicated to St Andrew.

 

[Calthrop]

In 1931, the author and poet Eleanor Farjeon wrote her single most-acclaimed work -- the hymn, and later pop number, Morning Has Broken -- in Alfriston; it being reckoned inspired by the beauty of local scenes. Farjeon had a number of years' (platonic) friendship with the poet Edward Thomas, who is probably most renowned for the poem -- beloved by the likes of us, but here on the "literary", not the "gricing", track -- Adlestrop.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows
And traffic all night north
..
And now and then a harsh-named halt that shields
Workmen at dawn
..
Gathers to the surprise of a large town
..
One of my favourite railway poems by Philip Larkin, describing the journey to KINGSTON UPON HULL

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Penmaenpool in Gwynedd is also an estuarine settlement.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

BRYNCIR may also be reached by cycling along an old railway formation.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Bryncir is within the community of Dolbenmaen, Gwynedd, as is the village of Llanfihangel-y-Pennant.

 

[Calthrop]

A celebrated heroine of Welsh religious devotion, Mary Jones of Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, walked in 1800 twenty-six miles to Bala to buy a Bible in Welsh. This feat is reckoned to have made a big contribution to the founding of the British & Foreign Bible Society.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

ABER is another place in Wales with a four-letter name. Unlike Bala/Y Bala it has a long version, Abergwyngregyn.
..
I got quite confused. There are at least two villages named Llanfihangel-y-pennant. Mary Jones walked from the one near Tywyn.

 

[Calthrop]

I got quite confused. There are at least two villages named Llanfihangel-y-pennant. Mary Jones walked from the one near Tywyn.

Sorry ! The confusion is initially mine, and instigated by me: I had heard long ago, the Mary Jones story; Googled L-y-p, and got -- re present purposes -- the wrong one, indeed near Tywyn: failed to make the necessary mental connection.

@LSWR Cavalier: I'm ready, if you wish, for the last two posts to be scrapped; and for me to go back and make a relevant response to your post #21,916.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

@Calthrop
No problem, I found them on my OS one-inch maps, learned something new, very good. I had a feeling there was another in the Berwyns, but that is Pennant Melangell.
Edit: association between the two villages of the same name: Michaelchurch Escley (Fihangel = Michael)

ABER is the last..

 

[Calthrop]

@Calthrop
No problem, I found them on my OS one-inch maps, learned something new, very good. I had a feeling there was another in the Berwyns, but that is Pennant Melangell.

Right, thanks. Have been aware of a fair number of places in Wales called "Pennant"... this, that or the other. Find that the word in Welsh means "head stream" -- nothing to do with flags !

ABER is the last...

Aber -- Abergwyngregyn in full ! -- plays host according to Wiki, to assorted wildlife delights; but alas, not red squirrels -- not seen there since 1978, though I understand that they're still around at a few locations in Wales. A very small, but significant, red-squirrel enclave -- one of the last in the south of England -- is Brownsea Island (with a tiny resident human population) in Poole Harbour: has a couple of hundred red squirrels in residence (the grey ones can't get across the water).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

From 1 August until 8 August 1907, Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp on Brownsea Island, to test out his Scouting ideas. He gathered 21 boys of mixed social backgrounds (from boys' schools in the London area and a section of boys from the Poole, Parkstone, Hamworthy, Bournemouth, and Winton Boys' Brigade units) and held a week-long camp.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Blackburn also has a church that is dedicated to St Gabriel.

 

[Calthrop]

Alfred Wainwright -- walker, climber and great lover of particularly the Lake District; and author of walking / climbing guide-books -- was born in Blackburn; and lived and worked there, till in his thirties, he moved -- to be closer to the Lakes -- to Kendal, where he spent the rest of his long life.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Launton in Oxfordshire also has a church with a Sanctus Bell.

 

[DerekC]

The ring of six bells at Launton parish church was cast by Gillet & Johnston of Croydon. The same company cast a ring of ten bells for Coventry Cathedral in 1927. They survived the bombing in 1940 and were finally re-hung properly so that a peal could be rung in 1987.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Perth is another settlement that was chosen to be the site of a Carthusian religious house.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir GCMG GCVO CH PC DL (1875 – 1940), the Scottish novelist, historian, and politician who served as Governor General of Canada was born in Perth. He was brought up in Kirkaldy, Fife, and spent many summer holidays with his maternal grandparents in Broughton in the Scottish Borders.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stobo in the Scottish Borders also lies on the route of the John Buchan Way walking route.

 

[Calthrop]

Stobo's main feature would seem to be its Castle, built in the early 19th century, and now a health spa. The Castle was owned between 1905 and his death in 1935, by the English cricketer Hylton Philipson; who was born in Tynemouth, Northumberland.