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Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#61

Post by rbanffy »

mstade wrote: post #59
bluGill wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know why this construct is uncommon in the USA. In the US we use a comma. Buffalo, NY - as opposed to Buffalo in any other state. (MN, TX, and WI each have a city of buffalo - perhaps more, that is where I stopped searching). States in the US tend to be very careful about not allowing duplication of names so this is enough for the most part.

Hollywood, FL, gets me every time. :o)

Once I got lost and ended up in Melbourne.

I found it quite amusing.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#63

Post by quesera »

dfxm12 wrote: post #36
gumby wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). These are common in many languages. Even in England: Weston-super-Mare is just latin for "Weston by (literally "over") the sea". And constructs like "Stratford-upon-Avon" (to disambiguate from other Stratfords) are pretty common in most places; consider " Frankfurt am Main " and " Frankfurt an der Oder " all of which specify that their town is th…

There's Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. There's also a lot of "New" versions of older European locations as a way to distinguish them from other similarly named places when there aren't any rivers nearby, I guess, like New Jersey. Don't forget, a lot of places in the US were also already named before European settlers arrived. It might also simply not be needed as a matter of practicality. There are many Springfields, but…

It's worth noting, though, that Manchester MA was renamed 30 years ago to sound quaintly affluent -- in pointed contrast to the working-class mill town of Manchester NH, just over the border.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#65

Post by totetsu »

dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

Early systems of postal delivery were people trying to figure out where the bloody place was and saying it's the one on the Avon river.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#67

Post by lovemenot »

dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

The Meaning of Liff - co-writen by Douglas Adams - does a very funny job of making up definitions to English place-names

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01qjjgw

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#68

Post by DavidAdams »

hcrisp wrote: post #56
grumblepeet wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I used to drop my son up to Hereford from Bristol and often took this scenic route. It’s an absolutely beautiful road with great scenery. When you come around the corner and get hit by the sight and sheer size of the ruined church especially when there’s a bit of mist with the sun streaming through it it’s almost a mystical experience. Favourite place name near here? Nempnett Thrubwell. Or Chew Magna. Great n…

Nice to learn I wasn't the only one to be suddenly surprised by the appearance of the Abbey out of the gloomy mist. See my comment elsewhere about my trip to Oxford where I came across it quite by accident. The other impression that stuck with me is how rural the area is which contrasts quite sharply with the size, intricacy and complexity of the Abbey's construction.

That was by design: From the wikipedia page: The monks that built it were "considered the strictest of the monastic orders, they laid down requirements for the construction of their abbeys, stipulating that "none of our houses is to be built in cities, in castles or villages; but in places remote from the conversation of men."

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#69

Post by toyg »

gumby wrote: post #31
dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

> There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). These are common in many languages. Even in England: Weston-super-Mare is just latin for "Weston by (literally "over") the sea". And constructs like "Stratford-upon-Avon" (to disambiguate from other Stratfords) are pretty common in most places; consider " Frankfurt am Main " and " Frankfurt an der Oder " all of which specify that their town is th…

> These are common in many languages.

Yup. There are plenty of them in Italy, we don't use dashes but there are various towns with generic prefixes and suffixes. Reggio Emilia and Reggio Calabria were just "regium", Latin for region or town, and at some point they gained the extra name (which refers to the wider area) to differentiate them. Near my hometown we have Casalecchio di Reno, which means "bunch of houses over the river Reno"; there are loads of river-denominated towns all over Italy. And there are loads of "Castello Something", since castello means castle or castrum - as you might imagine, there are quite a few of those across the country.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#70

Post by gumby »

quesera wrote: post #63
dfxm12 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. There's also a lot of "New" versions of older European locations as a way to distinguish them from other similarly named places when there aren't any rivers nearby, I guess, like New Jersey. Don't forget, a lot of places in the US were also already named before European settlers arrived. It might also simply not be needed as a matter of practicality. There are many Springfields, but…

It's worth noting, though, that Manchester MA was renamed 30 years ago to sound quaintly affluent -- in pointed contrast to the working-class mill town of Manchester NH, just over the border.

Ah, that explains why I’d never heard of the Massachusetts town before the film came out (and was surprised to see it on the map) — it didn’t exist (by that name) when I was in school there.
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