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TRIVIA: Places in the UK with a namesake (or similar sounding place name) in mainland Europe

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AY1975

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How many places in the UK can you think of that have either an exact namesake or a place with a similar sounding name in mainland Europe?

Here are a few to start you off:

Brigg, Lincolnshire and Brig, Switzerland
Cluny, Edinburgh and Cluny, Burgundy, France
Ifield, West Sussex (between Crawley and Horsham), Ilford, east London and Ilfeld, Germany (near Nordhausen on the Harz narrow gauge network)
Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and Mansfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

I wonder how many of these are just coincidental and how many of them actually have historic links with their continental namesake or near namesake? In the case of Cluny, I would guess that it reflects the close historic links between Scotland and France.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Hope (Kreis Hannover) and the two in the UK, one in England and one in Wales.

Sadly the station in the former closed in about 2000 so you can't go from Hope to Hope to Hope any more :)
 

AY1975

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Waterloo?
Yes, there is a Waterloo in Belgium, which is close to the site of the Battle of Waterloo (and there are several Waterloos in the UK but obviously the one in London is the best known one).
 

RichT54

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There is a village called Normandy in Surrey, about halfway between Aldershot and Guildford.
 

Calthrop

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Three pronounced the same, or all-but; spelt differently, though. Ash in Surrey; Asch in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany; and As (a little v-shaped accent, which I can't do, over the 's') at the extreme west end of the Czech Republic.

And two spelt the same but pronounced differently. Lepe in Hampshire, just across the Solent from Cowes; and Lepe in Spain -- in the far south, near the coast and the Portuguese border. (More or less every country has a long-standing joke, concerning a region or a town in it where all the inhabitants are allegedly stupid; I gather that Lepe is Spain's "stupid" place of this sort.)
 

Old Yard Dog

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Burscough and Brčko in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The pronunciation is almost identical.

I went to Brčko, which is now on a freight-only line on a Railway Touring Company tour "Steam in the former Yugoslavia" a few years ago. It is on the south bank of the Sava river which forms the border with Croatia. Borders between the various Yugoslav states are very serious affairs, unlike the Slovenia - Italy border which runs through the forecourt of Nova Gorica station where you can just stroll unimpeded from one EU country to another.
 

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Calthrop

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A bit of a "stretch" re the thread's proper theme; but a curiosity which I've always liked -- Cayeux-sur-Mer, one of the termini of the metre-gauge heritage Baie de Somme system: has a mini-suburb called Brighton-Plage -- after our Brighton, not so hugely far away on the other side of the Channel. "Over there" this district is -- depending on source -- sometimes spelt correctly "Brighton"; sometimes "Brigthon". I envisage the French having trouble pronouncing it, either way...
 

PeterC

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Sebastopol near Pontypool and Sebastopol / Sevastopol in Crimea.
 

Ianno87

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Montpelier in Bristol and Montpelier, France.

Lisburn, Northern Ireland and Lisbon, Portugal.

The etymology of Dublin, Ireland is Dubhlinn in Irish, meaning "Black pool"

Warsaw, Poland and Walsall.
 

RichT54

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Câlnic is a commune in Alba County, Romania, composed of two villages, Câlnic and Deal.
 

Calthrop

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Russian-named places in Britain --

There is a Moscow in Ayrshire.

According to Wikipedia, this hamlet's name was originally close in sound, to "Moscow", but was derived from local geographical / natural features -- maybe in English, maybe in a Celtic tongue. Per Wiki: "[the] spelling was amended in 1812 to mark Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. A stream called the Volga Burn flows through the village. Locally, the land and forest...to the north-west is referred to as 'Little Russia'. The hamlet also shares the same latitude (55 degrees North) as Moscow, Russia."

Sebastopol near Pontypool and Sebastopol / Sevastopol in Crimea.

I would think it a certainty, that the name of the former was taken directly from that of the latter: the capture in the Crimean War, 1853 -- 56 by the allies against Russia, of Sebastopol, Russia's chief naval base in the Black Sea, being reckoned a big achievement by "our side"; one envisages the new mining community in South Wales, founded about that time, receiving the Crimean place's name. A little later on, a prominent encampment of navvies engaged in building the Settle & Carlisle line, was also dubbed Sebastopol by its dwellers.
 

AM9

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Holland is the name of the southern part of Lincolnshire, too.
There's also Holland on Sea just east of Clacton on Sea, both of which ironically face the Netherlands, (the 'on sea' bits at least). :)
 

Calthrop

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Holland is the name of the southern part of Lincolnshire, too.

A World War II story with a bearing on this, which I love. An RAF bomber sustained considerable damage in a raid on Germany, and was limping back homeward. There was thick fog over the southern part of the North Sea and adjoining land; the crew, in the midst of this, were unable to have much idea where they were. The plane's condition worsened -- an emergency landing soon, would be the only way to avoid disaster. A break in the fog allowed them to see, to their relief, that they were over land. They managed a landing in open country, and hastily got out of the plane. A farm worker, intent on doing his own stuff, happened to approach them on foot. The pilot addressed him, "I say, old chap, please could you let us know where we are?" The farm worker -- clearly not a chatty or inquisitive soul -- grunted " 'Olland," and went on about his business. The airmen interpreted this, reasonably enough, as meaning that they had come down in the German-occupied Netherlands -- from what they could see of the surrounding terrain, it was very flat. They set the plane on fire, destroyed all incriminating or strategically sensitive stuff, and prepared to try to evade capture by the occupying forces.

After an hour or so, it became clear to them that in fact they'd got back to their own country -- landing in the fenlands of south Lincolnshire.
 

TheSeeker

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After an hour or so, it became clear to them that in fact they'd got back to their own country -- landing in the fenlands of south Lincolnshire.

Jonathan Meades has an excellent series "Abroad in Britain" which covers the fenlands in one episode. As I remember that episode opens with him in a field of tulips standing next to a windmill.
 

Calthrop

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Jonathan Meades has an excellent series "Abroad in Britain" which covers the fenlands in one episode. As I remember that episode opens with him in a field of tulips standing next to a windmill.

Thoughts tempted, of "more like Holland, than Holland itself :smile: ..."
 

RichT54

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Continuing the subject of Holland which has The Hook of Holland (Dutch: Hoek van Holland), there are several villages in England and Wales call Hook.
 

AY1975

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There's also Holland on Sea just east of Clacton on Sea, both of which ironically face the Netherlands, (the 'on sea' bits at least). :)
And New Holland on the Humber estuary, across the Humber from Hull, and Holland Park in London!
 

Jamesrob637

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Hainault London and Hainaut Belgium, though the latter is more a province than a town/city.
 

Typhoon

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Dunkerque (France) and Dunkirk (Kent). Not surprising, a person who liked in the former came to live in the latter and named his (rather large) house accordingly.
 

AM9

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Hainault London and Hainaut Belgium, though the latter is more a province than a town/city.
I was going to mention that as I grew up near Hainault and my mother always mentioned a link with the Belgian Hainaut family, (and presumably the province as well). However as Wikipedia now says, (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainault,_London
"The name Hainault was recorded as 'Henehout' in 1221 and 'Hyneholt' in 1239. It is Old English and means 'wood belonging to a religious community', referring to the ownership of Hainault Forest, part of the larger Epping Forest, by Barking Abbey. The spelling was altered from the 17th century because of a false connection to Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III."
So now it seems it isn't really clear.
 
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