Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wrotham in Kent also lies on the route of the medieval pilgrimage way known as The Pilgrims' Way.

 

[Calthrop]

Meopham, Kent: lies as well on the A227 road, a few miles north of Wrotham.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Harbledown in Kent is also a settlement where a hospital was established by a religious order in the early medieval period.

 

[Calthrop]

Harbledown in Kent is also a settlement where a hospital was established by a religious order in the early medieval period.

Highly dubious settlement-name derivations; there is a local tale that the above-bolded got its name, from King Henry II having walked through it in the final and painful stages of a barefoot pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral; per Wiki, "in repentance for his mistaken involvement in the murder of Thomas Becket" -- hence "hobble down", which became "Harbledown". ("mistaken" -- yeah, right; mutter about "turbulent priests" within the hearing of your knights, and what do you think is likely to happen ...) A somewhat similar phenomenon in Cornwall, concerning the hamlet of Come-to-Good, south-west of Truro: comprising, we hear, seven houses and a Quaker meeting-house dating from 1710. Some attribute the name, to the Society of Friends connection; others see it as derived from the Cornish Cwm-ty-coit = "coombe by dwelling in wood".

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Because two named possibilities for association were named above, I shall feel in order to make an association with one of those, but hundreds of miles away to the north......

Lerwick in Shetland also has a Friends Meeting House

 

[Calthrop]

My motto: if in doubt, go for "twinnings" -- Lerwick has a relationship of the kind, with Maloy in Norway. Trondheim, in the same country, is twinned with Dunfermline, Fife. (A certain P. Spens, possibly involved here.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Elgin in Morayshire was also created a Royal Burgh in the 12th century.

 

[Springs Branch]

Dumfries was another unsuccessful contender to be granted city status as part of the Queen's 2022 Jubilee celebrations.

As a bonus, I've also just found out where the Queen of the South football club is located - you learn something every day in this quiz.

 

[Calthrop]

Dumfries was another unsuccessful contender to be granted city status as part of the Queen's 2022 Jubilee celebrations.

More Norway-related material: during World War II, the bulk of the Norwegian Army during their exile in Britain consisted of a brigade in Dumfries. During that same conflict, Free Dutch troops were stationed at Porthmadog, Gwynedd.

As a bonus, I've also just found out where the Queen of the South football club is located - you learn something every day in this quiz.

Some Scottish football clubs do have marvellous and fanciful names -- my favourite has got to be Hamilton Academicals.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Llandybie in Carmarthenshire has also hosted the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

 

[Calthrop]

Llandybie has some fame in the scientific world: as the place where the mineral brammallite (named after the geologist and mineralogist Alfred Brammall) was discovered in 1943. Strontian (Highland) has similar renown -- site of discovery in 1790 of the chemical element strontium, and the mineral strontianite, containing it -- in this case, the material was named after the settlement where it was first found and identified.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ardnastang in Highland is another settlement on the line of Loch Sunart.

 

[John Griffiths]

Ardnastang means 'the headland of the ditch'. This description could well apply to the Flamborough Head headland in Yorkshire, its landward side bounded by the Danes Dyke earthwork, and containing the village of Flamborough.

 

[Calthrop]

Flamborough used to have a pub called the Board Inn. This would seem to be a Yorkshire thing -- there are a number of hostelries by that name, "alive and well" in that part of England: including one in Hawes, North Yorkshire.

 

[Springs Branch]

Thornton-in-Craven, North Yorks. is also on the route of the Pennine Way.

 

[John Griffiths]

Bellingham in Northumberland also boasts a holy well close to the parish church (in Bellingham's case both church and well are dedicated to the popular NE saint Cuthbert).

 

[Calthrop]

The historian David Keir (1895 -- 1973) -- Master of Balliol College, Oxford, 1949 -- 65 -- was born in Bellingham. He died at the hamlet of Boar's Hill, near Oxford, to which he had retired.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Londonderry also has a Carmelite retreat centre.

 

[Calthrop]

Shipquay Street in Londonderry, is reckoned the steepest main street of any city in the UK. I'm lousy at figures / percentages; but get the picture that it has a close rival for steepness, in Vale Street, Bristol.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Blackpool also has a zoo.

 

[Calthrop]

A kids'-comic anagram which I came upon long ago, and rather liked: Blackpool anagrammatises as "Lackbloop". Another such, which I have a fondness for: Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire) can be recast as "Drazzub Nothgiel" -- shades of a Godzilla- or Grendel-like monster ...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Houghton Regis also lies on the line of the River Ouzel.

 

[John Griffiths]

Jabez Inwards (1817-1880) was a well known Victorian temperance lecturer, born in Houghton Regis. In later life he lived in Kentish Town, north London.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Camden in London also lies on the line of the River Fleet.

 

[Calthrop]

Andover, Hampshire; also has a namesake settlement in the US State of New Jersey.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Fyfield in Hampshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Andover.

 

[Calthrop]

As well as Fyfield, Hampshire: there appear to be another four Fyfields, all in the more southerly parts of England. Like the kid's essay about the owl and the cow: I find very little to say about Fyfield, Hants. Might we go on to Fyfield, Wiltshire -- near Marlborough -- which seems a lot more interesting?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Lanark in South Lanarkshire also has a church that is dedicated to St Nicholas.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Lanark lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with (the splendidly named) Mouse Water. Mousemill Bridge is a crossing of Mouse Water on Mousemill Road, just north of the village and parish of Kirkfieldbank. There are two bridges at the site, the present day road bridge and the old Mousemill Bridge which previously formed part of the road between Lanark and Hamilton but is today solely used by pedestrians.

 

[Calthrop]

Kirkfieldbank's "child of note, literary-type" is Robert McLellan (1907 -- 1985): author and dramatist, writing in Scots. His Linmill Stories are set in the Kirkfieldbank area. He died at Corrie, Isle of Arran (North Ayrshire).