Thank you for this.
I am sorry to report I not only haven’t lived with or had access to a TV for decades so my watching is patchy, but I am definitely underinformed in the British shows as well. Having read the IMDb snippet, I am wondering now if 1990 is yet another trendline like Handmaid’s Tale and Idiocracy that we must all brace ourselves for.
I’ll have to see what bits are available on the YooToob…
Have you ever been to Avonmouth? It makes Middlesbrough look like Kensington.
It’s findable on the internets. I’ve got a copy on an HDD somewhere.
I like how on Street View, on the road from Shirehampton, there’s a driver making a desperate illegal U-turn because he’s realized he’s entered the tunnel that goes to Avonmouth
I think they are hamlets if they don’t have a church.
In case anyone wants the British definitions:
A village has at least one church
A town has a regular market
A city has a royal decree saying it is a city (having a cathedral helps, but it is not essential anymore)
None of these have any connection to the population of the area.
“Nobody goes to Avonmouth anymore…”
Thanks! I’m unreasonable fascinated by these sorts of historical and geographical minutia.
Obligatory:
Checks WP…yup, at the mouth of the Avon river. You Brits are nothing if not practical. 
But we only used Land’s End once!
Obviously because we worked East to West…
And Avon is a Celtic word meaning “river”, so it’s a very practical name for a town that’s more or less a port, industrial estate and power station, with a few houses attached.
Interesting. So the River Avon is the River River?
Legally, these days, a town is any civil parish (the lowest level of local government) whose council has declared itself to be a town council. There are plenty of towns without markets.
Although I do have a friend who comes from a very large village (population about 5,600) that refuses to call itself a town because they’re still annoyed that a neighbouring town “stole” their market in the 15th century.
‘Ouse’ is also derived from a Celtic word meaning ‘river’, so the River Ouse is also the River River.
‘Burn’ is another word for ‘river’ or ‘stream’, so the Ouseburn River could be the RiverRiver River. (Disappointingly, it seems more likely to have come from ‘Ewes Burn’).
There are towns and villages in the north of Cumbria that are very insistent that they are not part of Carlisle (a city), and it doesn’t matter what the government thinks.
Carlisle may be an anomaly though, as the council area is larger than some counties.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
