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Settlement Association

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Calthrop

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In the sad but slightly Monty-Pythonishly surreal ballad of Sir Patrick Spens, Dunfermline is where, in the first verse, the king sits "drinking the blude-red wine". Dundee, a fair distance to the north-east, also has verse-related associations; but of a different kind: as the home of William McGonagall, notorious as one of the most dreadful "poets" ever, probably in any language -- his material being often to do with his native city.
 

Calthrop

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I gather that Perry Barr's name is nothing to do with dispensing pear-cider; in fact it means "small hill" -- the "Perry" (small) part, coming from the Latin parva = small. A certain number of English villages are also called " **** Parva" (the actual Latin word, un-corrupted; often paired with a neighbouring village, [ditto] Magna. Not all that far from Perry Barr are, south of Leicester: Ashby Parva; and its companion Ashby Magna.
 

Calthrop

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Brascote is too small a place to feature in the Michelin 1:220,594 road atlas of Great Britain. The same applies to the wonderfully-named hamlet of Wigwig in Shropshire (near Much Wenlock).
 

Calthrop

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St. Helens, Lancashire, has a very different counterpart in a very different part of England: St. Helens, Isle of Wight.
 

Springs Branch

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The Seaside Museum at Herne Bay exhibits an example of one of Sir Barnes Wallis's dam-busting bouncing bombs, which the RAF had tested off the coast nearby during World War 2.

Another historic bouncing bomb, recovered from a test site in a Scottish loch, is on display at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum at London Colney, Hertfordshire.
 

Nick_C

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German spy Karel Richter was caught in London Colney in 1941. He was sent to a prison camp in Latchmere House, which lies in Ham, South London
 

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