Settlement Association

[John Griffiths]

Havant was known in the tenth century as Hamanfunta, 'the spring of Hama'. Another place with a springy place name origin is Bedfont, on the south west fringes of Greater London, Bedefunde in Domesday (1086). The funde bit is the spring, the Bede bit is more obscure.

 

[Calthrop]

Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, lived in Bedfont for the last three years of his life, 1880 -- 83; in the latter year, he died attempting to swim the rapids below Niagara Falls. Webb was born in Dawley, Shropshire, in 1848 (his Dawley origin, is the subject of a whimsical poem by John Betjeman).

 

[341o2]

Dawley had the largest ironworks in Shropshire, at Old Park and was the second largest in GB. The largest British ironworks, also the world's largest, was at Dowlais

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

St Austell in Cornwall also has a church that is dedicated to St John.

 

[Calthrop]

Facetiousness-time; a goodly number of decades ago, myself and a couple of fellow-rail-enthusiasts were exploring Cornwall's rail lines; amusing selves incidentally with the county's many "Saint"-prefixed place names, thinking up who or what these might be the patron saints of. St Austell was, I recall, the patron saint of hikers and budget travellers; nearby St. Blazey, of firemen; and if memory serves -- St. Veep, of deputy national leaders, and St. Kew, of gardeners ... one could go on in this vein, all day.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tywardreath in Cornwall was also once administered by the Hundred of Powder.

 

[Calthrop]

The shoemaker John Lobb (1829 -- 95) -- founder of the company John Lobb Bootmaker -- was born in Tywardreath. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery (London Boroughs of Camden, Islington and Haringey).

 

[Tetragon213]

Bushley (Worcestershire) was also the site of an unsolved murder in 1988.

 

[High Dyke]

Pull Court in Bushley was the family home of Richard Seaman, a prominent pre-war racing driver, who lived there until his death in a crash in the 1939 Belgian Grand Prix.

However, Richard was born in Aldingbourne House near Chichester, Sussex.

Pull Court is now Bredon School

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Exeter also has a ship canal.

 

[High Dyke]

Oystermouth near Swansea, Wales also had horse drawn trams.

 

[D6130]

Chepstow in Monmouthshire also has a ruined castle.

 

[Calthrop]

Chepstow has a morris-dance team (or "side", as I gather is the proper term in that fraternity); a rather unusual one -- titled the Widders Border Morris Men: they choose, deliberately, to be rather sinister-looking, and are described by their leader as "the punk rockers of the morris world". Another slightly alarming-sounding morris side is the Bunnies From Hell: based in Halesworth, Suffolk.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ubbeston Green in Suffolk was also once administered by the ancient Hundred of Blything.

 

[High Dyke]

Stradbroke, Suffolk is also on the B1117 road.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Culgaith in Cumbria also has a church that is dedicated to All Saints.

 

[John Griffiths]

Masham in North Yorkshire also has a pub called the Black Swan Inn.

 

[D6130]

Keighley in West Yorkshire Is also home to two different breweries.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Stockport in Greater Manchester also has a Buddhist centre.

 

[D6130]

Luton in Bedfordshire also has a hat museum.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pulloxhill in Bedfordshire was also once administered by the Hundred of Flitt.

 

[High Dyke]

Dornoch in Sutherland was the location where Janet Horne (died 1727) was the last person to be executed legally for witchcraft in the British Isles.

Elizabeth Ocle of Pulloxhill was hanged in Bedford in 1596 for practising witchcraft.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Queensferry in West Lothian was also created a Royal Burgh in the 17th century.

 

[Calthrop]

At Queensferry's Ferry Fair, held each August, there is -- a custom dating "way back" -- a procession involving the central figure of the Burry Man: a chap in a costume covered with the sticky, hooked burrs of the burdock plant. This business is elaborate and interestingly weird -- I could recommend looking it up (Wiki's "Queensferry, West Lothian" item). Little light shed on why the burdock burrs; except for suggestion of possible corruption of "Burgh Man", with the town being traditionally, a royal burgh.

Given the name: one might be excused for thinking that this stuff ought to take place in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire ; re which, and name derivations --the "Burry" bit reckoned either from the Old English byrig = fort; or referring to the local plentiful sand dunes / rabbit warrens / burrows ...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Treorchy in Rhondda Cynon Taf also has a male voice choir.

 

[D6130]

Ferryhill in Co Durham also once had a colliery.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Topcliffe in North Yorkshire also lies on the route of the A167 road.

 

[Tetragon213]

John Topcliffe was born in Topcliffe, and served as Chief Justice of Ireland. He is buried at Woodkirk

 

[Calthrop]

Diss, Norfolk, also has a church dedicated to St. Mary.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kettering in Northamptonshire also has a Corn Market.