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What’s significant about your home town/region?

Matt N

Matt N

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Hi guys. Often, we forget about the significance of the places we live in the wider picture; we live there, so we just kind of take it for granted. So today, inspired by a similar thread on another forum, my question to you is; what’s significant about your home town or region? What did it bring to the world?

As for my answer; I live in a small village on the outskirts of the UK’s Forest of Dean region with less than 1,000 residents, so the impact of my current “hometown” on the world at large is quite small. Although I guess we did have the one claim to fame of having reported “paranormal activity” in 2009, according to Wikipedia:
The village has been at the centre of a number of paranormal claims in recent years. In 2009, local resident David Crook claimed to have spotted bright lights in the sky above the playing fields. The lights burned brightly in the sky to such an extent that David rushed into the village, knocking on doors, to warn local residents. The lights turned out to be a child up a tree with a torch. But David to this day still claims it was aliens.
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(News article: https://www.theforestreview.co.uk/article.cfm?id=838&headline=Seven seduced by bright lights of Alvington&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2009)

But talking about my region more generally; I could talk about the Forest of Dean and Gloucestershire more widely, if you like!
  • The Forest of Dean is home to a common filming location in Coleford’s Puzzlewood. Many shows and movies have been filmed here before, including scenes from Doctor Who, Merlin and Atlantis, as well as even parts of Star Wars and Harry Potter films!
  • Continuing on the tangent of TV production, I live very near to many of the primary filming locations for popular Netflix series Sex Education, with the series having previously been filmed both in the Forest of Dean and the nearby Wye Valley.
  • Gloucestershire is widely known as the county where Harry Potter author JK Rowling grew up, and I even went to the same secondary school that she did.
  • Gloucester itself also inspired the Beatrix Potter story The Tailor of Gloucester; there’s a little attraction within Gloucester city centre dedicated to the story.
  • Cheltenham is home to the Cheltenham Festival/Cheltenham Gold Cup (I’m not sure which to call it), which is apparently one of the most significant horse races in Britain behind only the Grand National. I go to university in Cheltenham, and I’ve been advised to see if I can work from home that week, as it apparently attracts huge crowds…
  • Cheltenham is also home to the UK headquarters for GCHQ, widely known as “The Doughnut”.
  • Despite being one of the most theme park-sparse regions of the country, Gloucestershire does have two theme park links I can think of. Firstly, Interlink (manufacturer of rides like Tayto Park’s recent log flume) are based in Stroud, and also, the National Diving Centre near Chepstow (but on the English side of the border, so technically in Gloucestershire), less than 10 minutes from where I live, apparently has some old Thorpe Park Rangers statues from Thorpe Park submerged within its reservoir as part of one of the diving experiences.
I could probably find more if I searched, but that’s some stuff off the top off my head, as well as with a little searching.

But what’s significant about your home town or region?
 
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One of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. The anchor for the Titanic was made here. Most of the glass and ironwork for the Crystal Palace was produced here. The first successful steam engine was built in the area. The young Queen Victoria whilst passing through the area said:

"The country is very desolate everywhere… the men, women, children, country and houses are all black... but I cannot by any description give an idea of its strange and extraordinary appearance".

An account from 1868 suggested that the area "black by day and red by night, cannot be matched for vast and varied production by any other space of equal radius on the surface of the globe”.

Our accents make us sound really really stupid. In my particular town we have a castle.
 
My city's nickname is "The Steel City", which self-describes what it's famous for. :p
Oh and we're home to the UK's only paternoster lift and tram-train system. :)
 
Oh, now this'll be fun, given the number of places I've lived in... :p

Birmingham (November 1992 to August 1993)
Well, it's got more canals than Venice. It's probably also got infinitely more shopping trolleys in them than Venice. :p It was the scene for many things in the Industrial Revolution, and has had a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. Oh, and it also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998.

Cinderford (August 1993 to August 1999)
Cinderford has had a long history of coal mining, though that industry declined in the 50s and 60s. Matt N's already mentioned quite a few things about the Forest of Dean in general, so I don't feel the need to expand on that too much. It's also where the band EMF was formed. Additional fun fact is that it's where I first went to school, and said school no longer exists. It was located on Station Street until November 1998, where we moved to merge with the junior school on Latimer Road - the merger was necessary due to the infant school being built on old mine workings, and it was deemed unsafe, though for the record, the move was planned. They've since made it safe and built houses on the site now. One nice bonus was that we got three days off school to make the move easier...though I still had to go in as Mum was working in the early years' group sorting stuff out for the move. Wasn't all bad, though - got to spend time doing no work whatsoever! :p

St Ives (August 1999 to August 2004)
Located down in West Cornwall, St Ives was historically known for its fishing industry, but that has now considerably declined. It's also incredibly renowned for its art scene, with people like Bernard Leach, Barbara Hepworth, and Alfred Wallace spending a lot of time there. It's also home to an RNLI lifeboat station, which is well-supported by the town. When I lived there, we'd often go down to the harbour whenever there was a practice launch (usually every couple of weeks, though always at varying times due to the need to practice launching at different tide levels). They had a disaster in 1939 when all but one of the lifeboatmen perished, and I went to church with his grandson.

St Dennis (August 2004 to August 2013)
There's not really much to St Dennis, other than it's in the middle of Cornwall's china clay mining area. The parish church is noteworthy for being built inside a hill fort. It was burned down in 1985, but was rebuilt, with the beams having to be hoisted in by a Sea King helicopter! It's also home to a huge incinerator, which was the subject of a huge amount of opposition while I was living there.

Penryn (September 2011 to June 2013)
I lived in Penryn for two years while I was at uni. It's more overshadowed by its neighbour Falmouth, but was known in the medieval period as a place where granite and tin (two things Cornwall's well-known for) to be shipped off to other parts of the world. Falmouth itself is home to Pendennis Castle, constructed in 1540 by Henry VIII. It's also where you can find the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. It played quite a significant part in World War Two, being the launching point for the famous Operation Chariot. When staying in Falmouth in 1907, Kenneth Grahame wrote a series of letters to his son, and it's through these that The Wind in the Willows was born. The town's harbour is the third-deepest in the world, and the deepest in Western Europe.

Biddulph (August 2013 to July 2016)
To be honest, there's not all that much to Biddulph. It's the home of Biddulph Grange Garden, though. It's close to Mow Cop as well, which is an old hill fort, and the birthplace of Primitive Methodism.

Congleton (July 2016 to present)
Congleton holds somewhat legendary status from the 1620s as a town that apparently used money they were planning on spending on a new Bible to instead go towards a new bear - it's due to this that Congleton is also known as 'Beartown'. During the 1640s, the town's mayor - John Bradshaw - became President of the Court that sentenced Charles I to death. John Bradshaw's signature was the first on the death warrant, owing to him being the Attorney General at the time. A few miles away is Little Moreton Hall, a Tudor manor house now owned by the National Trust.
 
Oswestry, an odd place. With a second name Croesoswallt, its welsh name.

Wilfred Owen the poet soldier from WW1 lived here.

It was the headquarters for the cambrian railways company before it was taken over by GWR.

Jesse armstrong comedy writer was born here.

Icelands food stores was started in oswestry by sir malcolm walker.

Per Linstrand lives here and produced 3 world record breaking hot air balloons.



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JAperson said:
Oh I must visit Stratford again soon. It's been a good few years since I've been. Always find the place really lovely.
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depends what your after really…

some lovely places to eat, a few nice bars. Great place to look at but nightmare to live. Overpriced and always busy.
Also NO night life
 
Jonathan said:
Cinderford (August 1993 to August 1999)
Cinderford has had a long history of coal mining, though that industry declined in the 50s and 60s. Matt N's already mentioned quite a few things about the Forest of Dean in general, so I don't feel the need to expand on that too much. It's also where the band EMF was formed. Additional fun fact is that it's where I first went to school, and said school no longer exists. It was located on Station Street until November 1998, where we moved to merge with the junior school on Latimer Road - the merger was necessary due to the infant school being built on old mine workings, and it was deemed unsafe, though for the record, the move was planned. They've since made it safe and built houses on the site now. One nice bonus was that we got three days off school to make the move easier...though I still had to go in as Mum was working in the early years' group sorting stuff out for the move. Wasn't all bad, though - got to spend time doing no work whatsoever! :p
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But who killed the bears?!
 
My town has the UKs longest bench at 1000ft (just over 300m).

longbench-promo.jpg


It's thought the name "Littlehampton" came about as a way to distinguish it from the other 'hampton (Southampton), about 37 miles further west.
 
The Inbetweeners was filmed there. Used to regularly drink in the pub featured in the first series. The school is 10 mins from my old house and I know people who were cast as extras.

Once home to Katie Price and naff indie band Scouting For Girls.
 
More grade 2 listed buildings than anywhere other than London in the UK.

The first ever passenger train departed from the city.

The White Star Line offices were located here (hence the cities name being on the stern of the Titanic).

The birthplace of Ken Dodd.

The ficticous pre-fab four The Rutles were from the city.

The Beatles!
 
John_P said:
More grade 2 listed buildings than anywhere other than London in the UK.

The first ever passenger train departed from the city.

The White Star Line offices were located here (hence the cities name being on the stern of the Titanic).

The birthplace of Ken Dodd.

The ficticous pre-fab four The Rutles were from the city.

The Beatles!
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let’s not forget the football clubs
 
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