Settlement Association

[Calthrop]

In Oxford also, the settlement's former prison has been re-purposed. The Co. Londonderry location's former town jail or "Bridewell", is now the town's library and tourist centre; Oxford's prison is now the Malmaison Hotel.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Taylor family of Loughborough had a bell-foundry in Oxford between 1786 and 1854.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Croft in Leicestershire also lies on the line of the River Soar.

 

[Calthrop]

Croft in Leicestershire also lies on the line of the River Soar.

...and is regarded by some as located at, or almost at, the physical centre of England. The same claim is also made for Meriden (West Midlands), about 20 miles to the south-west.

 

[John Griffiths]

Meriden gave its name to the 'Meriden Gap' in the West Midlands green belt. Another 'Gap' name is the former 'Cumberland Gap', a former 5.4 mile stretch of the A74 between the M6 north of Carlisle and the A74(M) near Gretna.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Lockerbie also lies on the route of the A74(M) road.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Mid-Annandale FC, nicknamed The Mids, play in the South of Scotland Football League at New King Edward Park, Lockerbie. Abbey Vale FC are also members of the same League, and are based in the village of New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sawley in Lancashire was also chosen as a settlement in which a Cistercian Abbey was erected.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

All Saints’ Church, Sawley contains a pipe organ which dates from 1906 when it was installed by Harrison and Harrison, then based in Durham. The firm was established by Thomas Harrison in Rochdale in 1861, and moved to Durham in 1872.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bridport in Dorset also has a Grade I listed town hall.

 

[Calthrop]

Long Marston, Warwickshire, is another location where King Charles II briefly spent time during his escape from England after the Battle of Worcester.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Long Marston is known as one of the "Shakespeare villages", from the 17th Century story that William Shakespeare is said to have joined a party of Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at Bidford-on-Avon. As a result of his labours in that regard, he is said to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeare's tree.

 

[Calthrop]

Post deleted: think I was making an association not remote enough to be acceptable as an immediate follow-on.

 

[Calthrop]

Long Marston is known as one of the "Shakespeare villages", from the 17th Century story that William Shakespeare is said to have joined a party of Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at Bidford-on-Avon. As a result of his labours in that regard, he is said to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeare's tree.

Littleover in the western suburbs of Derby, is also on the route of the old Roman road called Icknield or Ryknild Street.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Judith Hann, who presented Tomorrow's World on BBC1 between 1974 and 1994 was born in Littleover on 8th September 1942. The original presenter of the programme, Raymond Baxter OBE, died in Ilford, Essex, on 15th September 2006.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Northleach also has a church that is dedicated to SS Peter and Paul.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Northleach is in the valley of the River Leach in the Coswolds; the source of the Leach is in the village of Hampnett, Gloucestershire

 

[Calthrop]

...the village of Hampnett, Gloucestershire

...where, around 1870, the -- vicar? rector? -- to quote Wiki's rather charmingly daffy wording, "had the interior walls stencilled in a colourful medieval style. This was not appreciated by the parishioners, who attempted to raise money to have it whitewashed, but failed to raise the necessary money". In this, they were seemingly "on the same page" as the Puritan-inclined people of Cirencester, also not far away, who had -- some two and a quarter centuries earlier -- carried out much iconoclastic destruction in the town's churches.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Duxford in Cambridgeshire also holds an Advent Market.

 

[Calthrop]

Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, also has an aviation-related museum.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Southend also has a pier that was damaged by fire.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

In fiction, Southend is the seaside vacation place chosen by the John Knightley family in Emma by Jane Austen. The family strongly preferred it to the choice of the Perry family, Cromer, which was 100 miles from London, compared to the easier distance of 40 miles from London.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Birkdale also has a noted golf club with the prefix "Royal" to its name.

 

[Calthrop]

Aberfeldy (Perth & Kinross) also has "Birk" (old word for birch tree -- as such, part of name of the Merseyside settlement) associations. Near Aberfeldy is the "Birks of Aberfeldy": a gorge and scenic walk, and site of scientific interest, which includes a birch wood.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kenmore also lies on the line of the River Tay.

 

[Calthrop]

Kenmore also lies on the line of the River Tay.

The Kenmore Hotel there, is reputedly Scotland's oldest inn; whereas the Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham, is reputedly England's oldest ditto.

 

[Springs Branch]

Nottingham's main urban bus operator, Nottingham City Transport, won the UK Bus Operator of the Year Award in 2019.
The previous year's award (and 2017's too) went to Go South Coast, whose HQ is in Poole.

 

[Calthrop]

Edgbaston, Birmingham, is another location where J.R.R. Tolkien dwelt for a period of his life.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Edgbaston contains the only Grade I Listed domestic building in Birmingham, Number 21 Yateley Road, which is one of the Arts & Crafts houses designed by and built for his own use by Herbert Tudor Buckland. He was also responsible for the design of the Royal Hospital School Holbrook, Suffolk in 1933 and listed Grade II*.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Woodhead of Fyvie in Aberdeenshire also has a church that is dedicated to All Saints.