Settlement Association

[Calthrop]

Stalybridge -- Tameside / Greater Manchester -- is also twinned with a settlement in the French departement of Nord. Chatham's "twin" is Valenciennes; Stalybridge's is Armentieres (home of the renowned Mademoiselle).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Stalybridge lies on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which is an inland waterway running for just under 20 miles from near Aspley Basin in Huddersfield to the junction with the Ashton Canal at Whitelands Basin in Ashton-under-Lyne.

 

[Calthrop]

Ashton-under-Lyne was, for a short spell -- approx. the 1820s -- the headquarters of a very strange "Judaeo-Christian" sect: the Christian Israelite Church, brainchild of an evangelist called John Roe; who saw himself with a mission to turn Ashton into "the new Jerusalem" (!) He planned thus, to build a wall around the town, with four gateways -- work actually went ahead on this project to a certain extent. Another highly eccentric sect -- but much longer-lived, and very different in character: being strongly materialist, intellectual, and in some ways quite permissive -- was the Muggletonian one (founder one Lodovick Muggleton), which came into being mid-17th-century. The reckoned last-ever Muggletonian was Philip Noakes, deceased 1979 -- a resident of Matfield, Kent (five miles east of Tunbridge Wells).

 

[EbbwJunction1]

St Luke's Church, Matfield, is a Grade II listed building dedicated to Luke the Evangelist. It was designed by the English architect and author Basil Champneys (1842 – 1935). Another "St Luke's Church" designed by him is his father's parish church, St Luke's, Kentish Town, between 1867 and 1870.

 

[Calthrop]

Good old John Betjeman quite often comes to the rescue in this game -- a couple of poems of his, both with at least slight "religious-type overtones": Parliament Hill Fields -- mentioning "the Anglo-, Anglo-Norman, red-brick church of Kentish Town"; and An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield: featuring thereby, Broomhill and Sharrow Vale, City of Sheffield (suburb just to west of city).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Laughton-en-le-Morthen in West Yorkshire was also once administered by the Strafforth and Tickhill Wapentake.

 

[Calthrop]

Department of fairly modest feats of visibility in the eastern half of England -- the tall and distinctive spire of All Saints Church, Laughton-en-le-Morthen: is said to be, on a clear day, visible from Lincolnshire (nearest point in Lincolnshire is, after all, just a bit under thirty miles away). Further to things re the L-county: the impressive tower of St. Botolph's Church, Boston, Lincolnshire (familiarly known as Boston Stump) -- is reputedly visible on a clear day, from Norfolk; Norfolk stretches a good way west -- one would feel, not hugely hard to achieve.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Butterwick in Lincolnshire was also once under the jurisdiction of the Boston Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

Butterwick is also the name of a firm self-described as a "favourite sweet treat bakery and occasional cake maker" in the central Midlands; with outlets in several places in that area, one being in Rugby, Warwickshire.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Banbury in Oxfordshire also lies on the line of the Oxford Canal.

 

[DerekC]

A Banbury cake is, according to Wikipedia, a spiced, oval pastry filled with currants, mixed peel, rum and nutmeg, somewhat similar to an Eccles cake. (Eccles, of course, being a town in Greater Manchester)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stalybridge in Greater Manchester also has an archery club.

 

[John Griffiths]

Stalybridge - until the Local Government Act 1888 - consisted of areas in both Lancashire and Cheshire. The town of Todmorden likewise stood athwart Lancashire's county boundary, this time with Yorkshire. Lancs lost out with the 1888 Act - Stalybridge being awarded to Cheshire and Todmorden to Yorkshire.

 

[Calthrop]

Todmorden has a pub named -- very imaginatively -- the Pub. Belper, Derbyshire has, in rather similar vein, a hostelry called the Tavern.

 

[John Griffiths]

Belper was represented in Parliament from 1945 to 1970 by that most entertaining of politicians, George Brown, who was born in Lambeth in south London.

 

[Calthrop]

Settlements with names suggestive of -- and actually referring to -- youthful sheep: Lambeth -- from the Old English words for "lamb", and "hythe", signifying a harbour from and/or to which lambs were shipped. And at the other end of England -- Lambley (per "old tongues", "pasture of lambs") -- in Northumberland, south of Haltwhistle.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thorngrafton in Northumberland was also once under the jurisdiction of the Haltwhistle Poor Law Union.

 

[Calthrop]

There is on the Net, referencing Thorngrafton, one of those " x number of things to do in ***** near me" features: said features often tending to "push the envelope" more than just a little. That for Thorngrafton seems to play relatively fair in that respect. One attraction included, is the Mines Heritage Centre at Nenthead, Cumbria -- some dozen miles south of Thorngrafton.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hilderston in West Lothian also has connections to silver mining.

 

[Calthrop]

A little over four centuries ago, there came about a high degree of conflict and "skulduggery" concerning the ownership and management of Hilderston's silver mines -- involving some of the highest in the land, up to King James I himself. There was performed in London at that time, very briefly, a topical and satirical play about these goings-on: the King was offended, and this thing was speedily "knocked on the head" -- the text has not survived. Around the same time -- first decade of 17th century -- a bunch of plays were written (by different authors) and performed in London: once again, near-the-knuckle satire about the doings of the great; much dissension and "bother" ensued, with some of the perpetrators getting into serious trouble involving perceived disrespect-verging-on-treason. Three of these dramas were titled Eastward Ho ! ; Northward Ho ! ; and Westward Ho ! (all set in London, nothing to do with transatlantic exploration; and it seems that regrettably, there was no Southward Ho ! ). A good deal later in history, Charles Kingsley wrote the novel (historical, but on a different theme from the aforementioned), Westward Ho ! -- which name was of course taken and applied to a new North Devon seaside settlement.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Clovelly in Devon also lies on the route of the long-distance footpath known as the South West Coast Path.

 

[DerekC]

Chettle in Dorset is another privately owned village, in that all the property belongs to the same family.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tarrant Monkton in Dorset was also once administered by the Hundred of Monkton-up-Wimborne.

 

[Calthrop]

Fovant, Wiltshire -- nine miles west of Salisbury -- is also located in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Poynton in Cheshire East also has a church that is dedicated to St George.

 

[Calthrop]

Bundoran, Co. Donegal, is also twinned with a settlement in Hungary. Poynton's "twin" is Erd; Bundoran's is Koszeg.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Newquay in Cornwall is also a noted surfing resort.

 

[Calthrop]

Newquay in Cornwall has a Welsh semi-namesake: New Quay, Ceredigion.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tresaith in Ceredigion also lies on the route of the long-distance footpath known as the Ceredigion Coast Path.

 

[Calthrop]

In the late 19th century, Tresaith had for a while, some prominence as a seaside resort: local newspapers called it rather hyperbolically, a "second Brighton". Reminiscent of, in that era, Aberystwyth -- also in Ceredigion -- being dubbed "the Biarritz of Wales". (The thought appeals, of the French returning the compliment and describing Biarritz as " l'Aberystwyth du Pays Basque" -- one thinks, probably not ...)