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Settlement Association

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Calthrop

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Whittington, Staffordshire -- near Lichfield -- also has a church dedicated to St. Giles.
 
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Yoxall Lodge, near the village -- residence of local clergyman Thomas Gisborne (1758 -- 1846) -- was the focus of much activity on the part of late-18th-century / early-19th-century campaigners against slavery, including Gisborne himself. Another acclaimed participant in this struggle, was John Newton (1725 -- 1807), converted former slave-ship captain and author of the words of the hymn Amazing Grace; who was for long, the curate of Olney (Buckinghamshire): at the parish church whereof, he is buried.
 
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A curiosity of Godmanchester is its Chinese Bridge -- pedestrian bridge crossing a mill stream: originally constructed in 1827; fallen into poor condition, has been replaced in more recent times by two successive replicas. It was supposedly originally built in the Chinese style, without the use of nails or similar Western contrivances. It would appear, though, that this is not true; but a tale inspired by the original nails having, as Wiki says, "corroded away, masking their presence". Cambridge has a counterpart to all this, in the shape of the Mathematical Bridge over the River Cam within Queens' College -- subject to essentially the same urban legend concerning its rumoured "no-nails" construction.
 
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Downe has one of England's innumerable pubs called the George and Dragon. Wereham, Norfolk -- near Downham Market -- has another.
 
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Churches (as opposed to pubs) again -- but including some material of possible interest. Tottenhill has a church dedicated to St. Botolph; who would seem to be a speciality of the more easterly parts of England. Shepshed, Leicestershire, also has a church dedicated to St. B. -- according to Wiki, Shepshed's is England's westernmost parish church to bear that name.
 
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Pub stuff yet again -- the only other thing I can find about Osgathorpe ! Said village has a pub called the Storey Arms. There was an inn of the same name, a very long time ago, in Powys: in what is now the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park, located on the A470 road some way south of the village of Libanus, which is in turn five miles south-west of Brecon. The name "Storey Arms" still obtains, referring to the spot; name given nowadays, to an outdoor-pursuits centre situated there.
 
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Ganllwyd is surrounded by woodland -- conifer and deciduous -- which is rich in wildlife; including being one of the few locations in Wales where the native British red squirrel -- largely ousted by the American grey kind -- is still found. Red squirrels also hang on in parts of Cumbria; in which areas there are here and there, road signs reading "Caution -- red squirrels". I recall such a sign near Kirkby Stephen; the sight of which had me whimsically speculating on drivers not au fait with squirrel matters, misinterpreting it as a warning that the creatures can be vicious little brutes, possibly dangerous to humans ...
 
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The town of Ulverstone in Tasmania is named after Ulverston, Cumbria -- despite the slight discrepancy in spelling; and both towns are situated at the mouth of a River Leven. Bridgwater, Somerset, also has a Tasmanian "almost-namesake": the Hobart outer suburb of Bridgewater (regrettably, a "bad neighbourhood" by local standards).
 
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Rather wonderfully -- two miles north of Mosterton, is Misterton (just south of Crewkerne) -- with the county boundary, intermediate between the two M-villages: the former, as above, in Dorset; the latter in Somerset.
 
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Todmorden in West Yorkshire is also an 'Incredible Edible' town....in which volunteer-tended public fruit and vegetable beds are scattered around the town, from which people in need are welcome to help themselves to free produce at the appropriate time of year for the plant concerned.
 
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There was once in Cornholme -- but no more -- a cinema called the Gem Cinema. Coxhoe, County Durham (some five miles south of Durham city) also had a cinema which through the 1930s / 40s / 50s, until closure, was called the Gem -- the building is now the Gem Cafe.
 
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One of my -- maybe tedious -- staples: namesake communities in other countries. Taunton in the US State of Massachusetts is named after -- and, in fact, twinned with -- Taunton, Somerset. Also in Massachusetts, just down the road from Taunton, is a town named after Attleborough, Norfolk. The American settlement originally had the same spelling as the Norfolk one; but in 1914, those ignorant Yanks officially changed it to "Attleboro" <D .
 
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