Rudeboy - be a good chap & go get your ladders of the church 😉
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India Mill chimney in Darwen is based on the Campanille in Venice.
footstomper - you a Darrener too, then?
Corby doesn't have a train station. I thought that was the biggest town without one???
Darwen Tower is actually thunderbird 3.
footstomper - nix that, I know who you are now! lol!
Looks like you're right Tim, if the 2001 census is anything to go by.
Alright, I'll replace that with....
The spinning Jenny was invented in Leigh.
Our most famous resident has just fathered a child by his nanny. His wife's not too pleased as she had headphones on when he announced it was an open marriage (allegedly).
Elgin used to be on the coast and Lossiemouth was an island.
The moor where I live has been used as a hiding place for the remains of murdered children. And you can get some people proper angry by informing them correctly that it's not in Yorkshire.
swingers capital of the country in the 70's due to high influx of IT workers!
thanks IBM!
nothing happend since.
We're riding on the moor where AndyP lives tonight. And we will ensure it remains in Lancashire
We have the world's longest continuous parliment though those suffering under Gordon Brown may feel they have.
Snowslave...are you local?
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Manchester. Home of Vimto.
Biggleswade is where the first proper bike was made.........Apparently!
Vimto. Anagram of vomit.
[i]Vimto. Anagram of vomit. [/i]
One of only 2 words in the English language which feature an invisible 'P' too. (Hamster being the other)
AndyP, local to Manchester
Edinburgh is home to the office of "the Association of Master Bakers".
No joke.
As far as I know, Glasgow has the highest murder rate in Europe 🙁
Who says Vimpto?
Anyway, I used to live in the town where they filmed the League of Gentlemen. That documentary series popular a few years ago, widely mistaken for a comedy series.
It's near Glossop in Derbyshire which had (at the time) the highest crime rate per head of population in the UK.
Who says Vimpto?
People who say it properly
Who says 'Hampster'?
Proof, if ever it was needed, that 8.76 out of 10 facts are made up on the spot.
Sheffield, home of Basset's Allsorts.
Top of the Pops was originally broadcast by Jimmy Savile from a deconsecrated church on Dickenson Road, Rusholme, Manchester.
Jimmy Savile was a racing cyclist in his day, having competed in 300 races (including the 1951 Tour of Britain).
Salford is an older city than Manchester, in spite of many people believing it is just another 'burb of the great Manc sprawl.
Oldham, home of the tubular bandage
AndyP - you saying Saddleworth's not in Yorkshire... oooh! fighting talk! 😀
Chesterfield is famous for it's crooked spire, Jo Guest and not much else
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[i]
It is important to distinguish two elements in the spire’s ‘crookedness’ : The inclination and the twist. It is unfortunate that most people use the word ‘crooked’ unhelpfully, combining the above two features.
The inclination (lean) is due to a number of factors: the use of unseasoned (green) timber, the absence of skilled craftsmen (Black Death) and the neglect of cross-bracing.
The spiral twist is considered to be by design.[/i]
That last sentence I've only just found out, despite having grown up there!
If Cardinal Wolesey hadn't annoyed Henry VIII the new university would have been built in Ipswich not Cambridge.
At the turn of the 19/20 centuries at least 1 in 3 Ipswich males had been around both Capes (Horn and Good Hope).
It's not as flat around here as people think as most of my local rides have 400m of ascent in them.
OK some more facts -
I was originally from Saddleworth, so.....
The Wrigleys family were from Saddleworth, one of their sons went to America to make his fortune and made Wrigleys chewing gum.
Platt Brothers in Oldham, were the manufacturers of Spinning machines. They sold the rights to make/sell their machines to a Mr Toyoda in Japan. He then formed the Toyota Motor Company from the proceeds.
Bernard Cribbins is from Oldham
Eric Sykes was from Oldham
Phil Larder, the former England Rubgy coach, used to be the PE teacher at Saddleworth School (when my older brother went there).
(OK I admit it they're not obvious at all!)
More Dickens-related facts: Frederick Dickens - Charles Dickens' beloved scapegrace brother is buried in the West Cemetery in Darlington.
L**ds is the largest town in England to have no interesting facts about it whatsoever.
The University of Cambridge was established well before Henry VIII was born, although he did alter their focus.
Where I live has a 1940's War Weekend every year and it grinds the town to a halt. All thanks to a poxy steam railway. 👿
The Wrigleys family were from Saddleworth, one of their sons went to America to make his fortune and made Wrigleys chewing gum.
Along with Nuclear Submarines, Wrigleys is now one of Plymouth's most famous products. When the wind blows the right way my local cheeky trails smell of juicy fruit.
Also Plymouth was the location of quite surely the most boring and depressing stage ever of the TDF: to celebrate the new cross channel ferry link with Roscoff via Brittany Ferries (originally set up by a conglomerate of Breton farmers as a means of getting there wares over here), they shipped the whole 'caravan' over here in 1974 and went up and down the newly-finished A38 Plympton bypass three times. Yes, a straight (and at the plymouth end there is nearly a cat 1 climb: woo!) three lane dual carriageway up and down for a bit. I am so proud to live here.
Far better though is Newnham park being here too, and that back in the day Tinker Juarez could be seen 'loosening up' riding past my house (2 miles away!) before races.
[i]AndyP - you saying Saddleworth's not in Yorkshire... oooh! fighting talk! [:-D] [/i]
I most certainly am. Have at ye
(dusts off Wars of the Roses reenactment gear ready to give another yorkie a good kicking) 😉
[i]Who says 'Hampster'?
Proof, if ever it was needed, that 8.76 out of 10 facts are made up on the spot. [/i]
8.76 out of 10 people do. The correct 8.76 out of 10, natch.
Essex. It's sh*t. 'tis a fact 🙂
Thornton, birthplace of the Brontes. To cycle out to the moor I have to go through Egypt, the Walls of Jericho, Jerusalem and Moscow
Blackpool has more hotel beds than Portugal.
Back in 1879, Blackpool holidaymakers stood in awe of EIGHT arc lamps, an experimental display described as artificial sunshine. The first street lighting in the whole world.
Coronation Street weddings are held at the church in Prestwich, next door to the Church Inn, where the great Hit the North plot was hatched.
St.Ives whilst it does not have as many facts as nearby Cambridge, is the home of the rhyme
As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives
Each wife had seven sacks
Each sack had seven cats
Each cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St Ives?
It also has a chapel on the bridge with purple neon lights inside but is generally a bit average.
[i]As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives[/i]
seven [b]knives[/b], you fool.
As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wivesseven knives, you fool.
And how do you propose these knives carry seven sacks?
Michigan is the Hockey capital of the USA,
Home to 1/3 of the worlds fresh water,
You are never more than 5 miles from a lake or large body of water,
Has more coastline than the rest of the country,
And today I saw sunshine, rain, hail, and snow all in the same day...