Settlement Association

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Virginia Water in Surrey also has a noted golf course.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Holloway Sanitorium, Virginia Water, is one of three buildings designed by the 19th Century architect William Henry Crossland (W H Crossland) (1835 - 1908) to be listed as Grade 1. One of the other two is the former Royal Holloway College, now part of the University of London at Egham, Surrey.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pyrford in SSurrey was also once administered by the Hundred of Godley.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary John Donne (1571 or 1572 – 1631) lived in a small house in Pyford, Surrey, owned by his wife Anne's cousin, Sir Francis Wooley, from about 1603 to the end of 1604. In spring 1605 they moved to another small house in Mitcham, Surrey, where he scraped a meagre living as a lawyer.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Abercanaid in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough also has a church that is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Taff Trail between Cardiff and Brecon runs through Abercanaid, and also through Cefn-coed-y-cymmer.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hirwaun in Rhondda Cynon Taf also lies on the route of the A465 road.

 

[Calthrop]

Hirwaun's church would appear to be the only one in the UK, dedicated to Saint Lleurwg. A similarly UK-uniquely-dedicated church, is that of Little Plumstead, Norfolk (about six miles north-east of Norwich): dedicatees, Saints Gervase and Protase (twins, victims of Nero).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Strumpshaw in Norfolk was also once under the jurisdiction of the Blofield Poor Law Union.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Strumpshaw Hall is the home of the Strumpshaw Hall Steam Museum, which has a collection of traction engines and steam rollers. A similar collection can be seen at the Bolton Steam Museum in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Darcy Lever in Greater Manchester also lies on te line of the River Croal.

 

[Calthrop]

Great Somerford, Wiltshire, also has a pub called the Volunteer. (Darcy Lever's hostelry formerly bore the longer name of the Artillery and Volunteer.)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sherston in Wiltshire also lies on the line of the River Avon.

 

[Calthrop]

Cricklade, Wiltshire, also lies on the B4040 road. Cricklade is at the road's eastern extremity, where it joins the A419.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Marston Meysey in Wiltshire was also once administer by the Hundred of Highworth, Cricklade and Staple.

 

[Calthrop]

Marston Meysey lies within a "promontory" of Wiltshire, sticking out into Gloucestershire. A couple to miles to the north, and (just) in Gloucestershire, is located the "sister" village of Meysey Hampton. Re matters ecclesiastical: the parishes of the two, are nowadays in the same Church of England benefice.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bristol is another settlement in which there is a church whose construction costs were financed by the Knights Templar.

 

[D6130]

Glasgow is another city whose prosperity in the eighteenth century was founded largely on the tobacco and slave trades.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire also lies on the line of the River Clyde.

 

[Calthrop]

In the sphere of tongue-twisters: a local saying of that variety -- drawing on the Scottish tradition that a "reeking" (= smoking) "lum" (= chimney) is, industrially / economics-wise and also domestically, a good thing -- runs, Ru'glen's wee roond red lums reek briskly. A tongue-twister in a different vein, is associated with a settlement on the other side of Scotland's central belt: Leith, City of Edinburgh. A favourite device of the police in times gone by, to judge whether a person might be intoxicated and thus in whatever way, prejudicial to the public peace: was to get them to say The Leith police dismisseth us. If the bod could correctly enunciate that one, at first go -- they were reckoned sober or the next thing to it; so not a problem.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire is another settlement in which a Mongolian restaurant was opened.

 

[Calthrop]

Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire is another settlement in which a Mongolian restaurant was opened.

Concerning which: wonder whether the locals say: "Y'ert (yurt] the weirdest and finest thing that's oppened up 'ere since who-knows-when" ...

Late-Victorian fiction -- the earnest-and-gritty novelist of that era, George Gissing, has as the protagonist of his work The Emancipated: a native of Sowerby Bridge. Same time-frame but in a considerably lighter vein: The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith -- about Mr. and Mrs. Pooter, residents of Holloway, now in the London Borough of Islington, then a London outer suburb.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Styal in Cheshire East also has a prison for women.

 

[Calthrop]

Re incarcerated ladies: the "folk" scene rears its head again -- there comes to mind the Irish song The Old Triangle -- a propos Mountjoy prison in Dublin, much-mentioned in song in a variety of contexts. In this particular ditty, the singer -- a decidedly bad lad, "banged up" in Mountjoy for whatever reason -- is musing; In the female prison / There are seventy-five women / And among them, I wish I did dwell ...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Yet another one from my repertoire..."The Old Triangle went jingle- jingle-jangle, all along the banks of the Royal Canal"......Best sung by Luke Kelly RIP who died at an early age.

Morecambe in Lancashire is another settlement that is noted for its shrimps and prawns as a delicacy not to be missed.

 

[Calthrop]

I like the one about Mountjoy, where inmate likens it to a luxury hotel (tune, "The Mountains of Mourne"): "I dwelt there myself, for nearly four years; On the day that I left it, the staff were in tears -- "I wish you could stay here", the manager said, "for the rest of your life, in the Mountjoy Hotel".

Dame Thora Hird (1911 -- 2003) -- actress / comedian / presenter / writer -- was born in Morecambe; her ashes are buried in Chichester, West Sussex.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Exeter also has both an Anglican cathedral and a ship canal.

 

[Calthrop]

Thomas Hardy's novels, set in as it were the "mid-south-west" of England -- which he terms for the purpose, "Wessex": feature the "real" regions and places, thinly disguised -- including such thin-disguising of settlement names. Thus, Hardy's city of "Exonbury" is clearly Exeter; while further east, "Casterbridge" is Dorchester.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wareham in Dorset also lies on the line of the River Frome.

 

[Calthrop]

Wareham features in one of the "Scary Bones the Skeleton" series of children's books by Ron Dawson -- Scary Bones Meets The Wacky Witches of Wareham. Perhaps better-known material on the kid-spooky-witchy-fiction scene: J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books. Most settlements in HP are fictional ones, with names invented by the author; one of the rather few "real" places featured in the books, is Hampstead Garden Suburb, London Borough of Camden: parental home of Hermione.