What is your village famous for?

[oneshot]

I live in a little village just outside Lichfield in Staffordshire. We have 2 main claims to fame:

1. Something you have all probably used - Armitage Shanks bathroom furniture

2. The birthplace of Westfield Sports cars. The first Westfield was a replica of the 1956 Lotus XI Le Mans car. The founder, Chris Smith, built it in his garage at Westfield House in the village.

[100th_Idiot]

Tiny village without even a shop but 5 pubs

[C8RKH]

I live in a tiny village (35 houses, 1 primary school, 1 telephone box, 1 post box, no shop, no pub, middle of nowhere really but get 60 mbps broadband!  )

The local "estate", home to the Kinnaird family, has the second oldest Cricket Club in its grounds in Scotland and Lord Arthur Kinnaird, an accomplished football player, played in 9 FA cup finals (a record to this day). He went on to be President of the Football Association and was gifted the FA cup that had been used between 1896 and 1910, as a new cup was commissioned for the 1911 season on.

"The cup had been specially prepared for the presentation with two silver shields attached to the plinth, one of which read: 'Presented by The Football Association To The Right Hon Lord Kinnaird in appreciation of long and very valuable services rendered to the game, 6th February 1911'; the other was inscribed 'The Right Hon Lord Kinnaird. International 1873. Final Cup Competition, 1873. 7. 8. 9 & 1882. Member of Council since 1868. President Of The Football Association Since 1890'."

To this day the family receive complimentary tickets to the FA Cup finals Directors area which they donate to local charities to auction and raise funds.

We also have one of the cold war nuclear observation posts, set up by the ROC, to provide post nuclear monitoring. It is "open", has not been vandalised even though it is open, and is a fascinating little excursion when in the area, just be sure to have some spare batteries!

We do have our own brewery, Abernyte Brewery, making some wonderful ales.

Apart from that, it's just a beautiful place to live! The picture below is looking east to the village, the Tay in the background and beyond that over the low hills is the east coast of Fife and St. Andrews.

 

[march]

Our little village doesn't have much, not even a phone box any more (it's now a mini library). But we do have one of the finest Rood screens in the country:

Lightly vandalised by those pesky Cromwellians (faces knocked off the carvings)

Oh - we do have pub as well.

[exeterjeep]

Not a lot, had the most expensive petrol station for a while during the shortage many years ago and Tedburn St Mary won the Calor Village of the Year competition in 2001. No mains gas around here.

[Chillidoggy]

[MPx]

The local big claim to fame was that Cricket St Thomas manor house was the home of the DeVere's in To The Manor Born and more embarassingly Noel Edmunds Crickley Bottom in the Blobby era.  There used to be a wildlife park but that long since closed.  Its also where Lubborn Cheese is based (excellent Somerset Brie and others).  Oddly there are very few houses.  Up the hill on the A30 from Chard there's the Cricket St Thomas roadsign and then two miles of open country road to the similar name sign facing the other way.  Between the two signs is the entrance to the Estate, a golf club, a pub, and 4 houses of which we are one, although technically the entrance to our place is beyond the named area. 

Its a wonderful place to live...

[Bibs]

We've got a 506 year old pub. Used to be well known for Ryarsh bricks, the factory was at the end of my road but is a new estate now.

Local town of West Malling was the site of the first ever cricket match and The Beatles started their magical mystery tour from the High St. 

[eeyoreish]

Bosham is probably most famous for two Kings...

King Harold 'Is that arrow coming this way?'

King Canute 'Is the tide still coming in?'

 

More recently for this kind of thing because people park on the quay and apparently can't read the big sign that says the road floods at every tide...

[Barrykearley]

Bromyard is famous for developing the chassis bonding technology as used in the glued lotus chassis.

It’s also a town where you cannot buy a sex toy - but no problem buying an artificial vagina for a cow.

[pete]

Nozstock?

[Barrykearley]

Nozzies a top chap 👍 - offered Danny a job last week at the festival if he fancies it

[TAR]

Aylesbury has a 15th Century coaching inn dating back to 1455, it's one of the best preserved in the country. Henry the VIII is said to have wooed Anne Boleyn there.

Its first marketplace was established in the 13th Century.

It was home to the Aylesbury Duck.

Aylesbury played an important role in the Civil war with local man John Hampden partially responsible for starting it!

The Cubit car was built in Aylesbury in the 1920's

Aylesbury was the home to the Friars music venue which was where David Bowie first brought Ziggy Stardust to life. It hosted some of the biggest bands of the 70's and 80's and still survives today.

The band Marillion were based in Aylesbury and wrote the song Market Square Heroes, referencing to the towns market place.

Still on a musical note... John Ottway and Wild Willy Barrett were born in Aylesbury.

Keith Richards appeared in Aylesbury Crown Court in 1973 on drugs charges.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital (located on the edge of Aylesbury) was the birthplace of the Paralympic games. Dr Ludwig Guttmann was a pioneer in the treatment of disabled people and founded the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville

Somewhat more obscure is that Rhoda Abbott was the only woman to fall into the freezing-cold water to survive the Titanic sinking. She was born in 1873 in Aylesbury.

Finally, the England football squad played a warm up game ahead of Euro 88 against non-league Aylesbury United. We lost 7-0

 

EDIT: I just realised that technically, Aylesbury isn't a village...

[ChrisJ]

44 minutes ago, TAR said:

I just realised that technically, Aylesbury isn't a village...

It's the county town of Buckinghamshire - whereas Buckingham isn't - which I found strange when I found it out.

[TAR]

9 minutes ago, ChrisJ said:

It's the county town of Buckinghamshire - whereas Buckingham isn't - which I found strange when I found it out.

Yes, Henry VIII decreed it in 1529.  

[Sparky]

Watford: The Horns, Friday night.

[Cdm2018]

Crow pie ! Yummy 

[Black Forest Power]

[calvan]

White Rock, where I live, is not a village. But I can think of a few local residents who, by continuing to live here, are depriving some real village of a perfectly serviceable idiot.

[2GOOD]

Hmmm, a girl called Rose use to live in the village I’m from & was a few years ahead of me at the senior school.

She use to bunk off school & hang around with an older guy called Fred, I remember the posters up looking for a girl that had gone missing locally (in the mid seventies) that were everywhere you went but that wasn’t Rose. Nobody knew much about her until the news broke in 1994 & the Wests were arrested on the suspicion of multiple murders…

[duncx]

Eyam, in the Peak District, famous for the whole village going into self enforced quarantine in 1665-66 after the plague arrived with some cloth delivered from London. About half of Eyam residents died but the plague didn't get to the surrounding villages. It's a poignant story....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyam

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Prior to the 1832 Reform Act, our village was classed as a “Rotten Borough”, whereby the election of the local MP was always a forgone conclusion.

190 years later, it still is! 😄

 

[Sparky]

A robber button?

[red vtec]

Rettendon Range Rover Murders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettendon_murders

 

[Bibs]

2 hours ago, duncx said:

Eyam, in the Peak District, famous for the whole village going into self enforced quarantine in 1665-66 after the plague arrived with some cloth delivered from London. About half of Eyam residents died but the plague didn't get to the surrounding villages. It's a poignant story....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyam

We have the Lost Village of Dode up the road from us. Everyone died of the plague and the village disappeared. Just a church left now and that's haunted!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dode,_Kent