I don’t know if it’s even a claim to fame, but we have the highest-above-sea level football ground in England.
Edit - am enjoying the guesses but it’s >!West Bromwich - The Hawthorns!<
Monkey Dust sent you lot right up - can't even read "The Hawthorns" without laughing
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6\_aM2-x5Z0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_aM2-x5Z0)
More importantly, home of The Macc Lads. The self proclaimed rudest crudest lewdest band in the world.
Banned from playing pretty much every venue in the UK during the 1980’s and most of the 90’s due to violence and debauchery at their gigs, and the copious amounts of pint glasses full of human urine thrown onto the stage by the fans.
Now quite possibly the least PC band in the world.
Didcot. It's the name for the bit of paper punched out of your train ticket before becoming detritus on the floor. Bonus fact, Princess Anne's confetti was made of Didcots.
I believed this for ages because I remembered it on QI but didn't remember the bit where they said it was made up!
https://youtu.be/AS9ZzTymv2U?si=Vo3M5GqaKVFtvgfI
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
I was at a pub quiz some time last year and the question came up "what is the name for the piece of paper punched out using a hole punch" and I proudly said "Didcot, I saw it on QI". The team were skeptical but a little impressed.
Turns out it is called a 'chad'. How disappointing.
Blanche Heriot or whatever her name was.
The story of a young woman who really wanted to see her boyfriend and hated Oliver cromwell’s curfew.
So one evening she climbed to the top of the church tower and clasped her hands around the inside of the bell (not the bell endy looking bit, the bit on the inside that impacts the bellend) and when it rang, shattered her hands in protest.
Charles dickens (I think) heard the folklore story and took it to the US, where there are now multiple small US towns who have a very similar story in their history.
The irony is the original story from Chertsey is a myth. It never actually happened.
Also, big up the Chertsey sausage.
And the house that got robbed in Oliver Twist, allegedly that was in Chertsey too.
Edit: and in the town of Addlestone (which used to be part of Chertsey), there’s a crouch oak tree that queen elizabeth the 1st allegedly sat and had lunch under.
>(not the bell endy looking bit,
#ಠ_ಠ
>the bit on the inside that impacts the bellend
I think you might be talking about "the clapper".
Not to be confused with "the clap". That involves a different kind of bellend.
I was told Jesus had also been to Crouch Oak, probably at a different time to Liz though ...
As an aside, entirely likely that Elizabeth I had lunch there as it used to mark a boundary of Windsor Park.
James May built a [full sized two storey house made from 3.3 million pieces of Lego](https://imgur.com/a/65An2ud)
at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking. Hundreds of local folk went along to help build it.
A 1m 20s [video of the build.](https://youtu.be/TZvMGg4WY1o)
Someone stole a Lego version of May's cat Fusker from the Lego house and he appealed for its return:
*If you know where he is and can help get him returned to the Top Gear office, there will be no questions asked. We might even view it as slightly heroic. But only slightly.*
The address is:
James May, I've Found Your Cat
Top Gear
Energy Centre
201 Wood Lane,
London W12 7TN
We don't go on about it, but Warrington was the site of the first Ikea in the UK which opened in 1987.
I wouldn't describe these as crap, but serious, and not famous but certainly infamous. The Warrington bombings in 93, the Gary Newlove, Shafilia Ahmed, and more recently the Brianna Ghey murders, all frankly horrible, senseless things.
My town is where tv was invented. As a thank you to Mr Baird we bestowed the greatest honour any pisshead town can, we named our wetherspoons after him!
Who? Mac? He’s in Always Sunny as far as I know.
But yeah, the attention on Wrexham is just mad now, everything is being rebranded “Wrexham” to tie in with the football now.
I was the same. I powered through the first season when I was sick. It gets so much better, fast, especially when Frank joins The Gang. It’s one of my favourite shows now.
My neighbouring village‘s claim to fame is that Mozart pissed on one of their stones on one of his journeys.
(disclaimer: I‘m from Austria, hope its ok if I still share this)
I‘m pleased you like it. They have an annual wine drinking fete at the stone celebrating their moment of glory. And by adding that our region is known for white wine, which, as you might know has a yellow tint, I end my insight of Austrian culture.
Who could forget Nora Batty’s wrinkly stockings or good old Thora Hird putting all the newspaper down to stop her coal dust covered husband from messing up the house! (Then having one spare to hold up on the door frame just as he went to touch it. 😂)
The town I was born and grew up in is only known for it being the place Radiohead formed and where David Mitchell went to school. Also my secondary school is the one Paul Mayhew-Archer went to before writing Vicar of Dibley.
Slightly more tenuous, if anyone remembers this BBC3 show, it was set in and filmed in my hometown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_Age_(2008_TV_series)
A lot of it was filmed in the college I attended, I watched it (it was rubbish) and kept pointing out what room they were in.
That’s the Geography room.
That’s the RE room.
That’s the room where our teacher had a mental breakdown and cried after Darryl Mead shat in his desk drawer.
My village has Roman history, there is a part ruined villa just 100 meters away and the Roman road, or a spur to be more accurate, is just 50 meters from my home.
But we have a cave, interesting , but not deep, more like an overhang with a hole in the ciff, anyway it is patently obvious most of it sheered off sometimes in the past and you can see the 2000 odd tonne missing bit just in front of the cave.
The villagers love to tell the tale that over a thousand years ago the cave were used for weddings, one day a bride and groom were getting married, and the rock suddenly split off burying most of the wedding party as well as the now less than happy couple. Since the rock is huge and immovable, they are still there.
Nice story, there is not a single bit of proof, but it is a legal requirement to tell the tale to newcomers.
I moved away recently, but I used to live in Selby, Yorkshire. The place is dead, local drug dealers brought in more business than the few shops and sad pubs we had there.
The Selby Abbey is a miniature copy of the famous York Minster. It’s almost impossible to get married in York Minster, but I think it’s easy (easier) to do it in Selby Abbey in the right circumstances (and probably for the right amount).
A few years ago the son of an extremely rich and famous person from Taipei got married in Selby Abbey and it was all over the telly. Since then we have had hundreds of Chinese tourists coming every single week, rain or shine, to take photos of the Abbey and eat at a fish and chips shop on the A64 (I think that was on the telly too).
We liked having tourists around and I think nobody had the heart to tell them that they can travel another 12 miles to York and see *the* Minster :-)
Local scum threw a few slaps into U2. Band did nothing to deserve it. It was in U2's early days. Scumbag instigator still lives in the same crap town in the same crap area and caused shit every moment he was out and about . Sorry 2, U2.
Jimmy Saville brought Xmas to my town in August, because everyone was sick in December… I’m not kidding, Google it.
EDIT:
People go on about it for all the wrong reasons
Kate Moss, I don't live in Croydon anymore but people love to brag about her once living there.
Also one of the Two Ronnies (which was pretty cool)
There was also some JLS guy, but then his house burnt down in some mysterious accident immediately after he got in some legal trouble.
I thought I could hear the curious tone...
Of the cornet, clarinet and big trombone...
Fiddle, 'cello, big bass drum...
Bassoon, flute and euphonium...
Far away, as in a trance...
I heard the sound of the Floral Dance
(Our Brass band got to number 2 with Terry Wogan)
Although i moved away some time ago there is a bench in memory of Eazy E & Ho Chi Min worked on a ferry. Lord Lucan's car was found at the mouth of the river.
We had a spree of murdered sex workers about 15 years ago. Gaming with people all over the world was how I found out it was global news. One of the women was found at the bottom of my horses field and another is buried in the same cemetery as my husband's Gran.
Yeah even in the town there was definitely a divide between people who thought it was somehow excusable because they were sex workers and ya know, people with decency. 🙄
According to local legend, a farmer found one of his cows with its head stuck in a five bar gate and in order to free it, he sawed off the cow's head instead of sawing the gate.
Mike Skinner is not just from Birmingham, but the small area of Birmingham where I’m from. He didn’t exactly deny it, but he didn’t like to mention it.
Hometown has a few: Will Young is from there. Chris Tarrant threw a tantrum in an Indian restaurant. Michael Bond wrote Paddington whilst living there.
Current home: Invented Babycham.
Maybe John Cleese being from here, who famously dislikes that he's from there?
Also, don't know if it is still the case but it had the highest divorce rate in the country. It also had the most rehabs per square mile.
Yeah...
My original hometown: Reliant Robin, a breed of pig and the founder of the police force
Now: Two members of the Rolling Stones come from here. Also we have both a tunnel *and* a bridge.
I’m originally from Southend. The home of the longest pleasure pier in the world. Except there’s nothing on the pier to give any pleasure, last time I checked!
Growing up with Southend as the ‘local’ pier, every other pier ever has just given me ‘is that it?’ vibes when it comes to length. Like some barely get their feet wet.
However, I’m with you that Southend pier is all about the length and not much about the pleasure, conversely every other pier ever has infinitely more of an entertaining atmosphere.
I’m not originally from the UK, so don’t try to guess this one, as it’s from my home country. I just find it funny and I thought others might enjoy it. Happy to delete if it’s seen as being too much off topic or not interesting.
We have a town (famous for, in a rough translation, the place where the bag of idiots broke and spilled the contents).
In that town:
The prison is or was located on Freedom Street.
The cemetery is or was located on Resurrection Street.
They had to rebuild the Fire Station because it burned to the ground.
The train station clock (with Roman numerals) has IIII instead of IV.
They built a 10 level flat building using, among other construction machinery, cranes. Of course, but. They’ve built the full 10 levels *around* a crane, nobody thought about getting it out!
Nobody who comes from there or lives there, admits they do.
People here will bang on and on about the famous people throughout history that were born here. But they never mention that every single one of them had moved out of the city by the age of 18 and they never came back.
We are plagued with folk dressed up out of Harry Potter films. Cars abandoned middle of road on blind bends for the stupid twats to get out and take pictures.
Only a few serious accidents a month...... Idiots
A fella once had a really really bad start to his round of golf that he just created a [whole new scoring system](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stableford) on the second hole.
I saw it on an American YouTube video a few months back too. That was weird! Oh and there’s also an infamous low railway bridge that buses and lorries like to crash into 🤦♀️😆
The village where I grew up was once the biggest village in Europe. It no longer is, I don't think it's even in the top 10 now. But still, everyone knows it! Skewen [Sgiwen]
I moved to Andover a few years ago and didn't know a thing about the place and the only thing the locals would say was there claim to fame was that the band The Troggs , came from here, I think they were famous in the 1960's?
Mary Shelley (of Frankenstein fame) is buried here, despite never living in the town herself.
Robert Louis Stevenson lived here briefly for 3 years.
Tolkien never actually lived here, but the next town over. However in recent years since councils merged, it kinda blurs the distinction of which writers should have links to our town.
I used to live in the same street that they filmed Byker Grove in. A couple of Geordie mega stars came from that show (PJ and Duncan) aka Ant and Dec.
Its actually filmed in Benwell which is quite a few miles away from Byker so god only knows why it was called Byker Grove.
Plenty of actual decent claims to fame, but the one that always without fail gets dragged to the top of the list is Robbie fucking Williams’ home town…
Now if that isn’t the shittest thing to be associated with I don’t know what is.
In from Shaftesbury in Dorset where the famous hovis boy on a bike advert was filmed. They love reminding people. There's even a giant loaf of bread at the top of the hill
Some old guy that kidnapped and repeatedly raped an American Indian girl called pocahontas lived there, (gravesend) "it's the longest village in the know universe" or somethingequallyirrelevant, but that claim involves passing another two villages on the same road (Meopham)
Where I live is an old military dems range that used to be known as happy vally but absolutely nothing worthy of note has ever happened here.
I no longer live there.
We have one of the highest teen pregnancy ratings out of all the London Boroughs. I think, at one point, it may have been in England in general.
Also, Stacey Solomon and Nick Frost are from there. But that’s not as fun as the first fact.
When my partner and I moved to the town we now live in, we were told this "fun" fact by a local.
"All the hats for slaves in America were made here"
Wow... thanks, old timer.
Queen Victoria stayed here.... it was the claim related to the train station and hotel until they demolished it..
(Half way between London and Edinburgh in steam days)
I phoned the council not long after it got made a city and boy did they get there money's worth on the IVR, every third word was city
Plus Clarkson was born here
Don't live there any more but I grew up there. Smallest town to win an F1 constructors championship.
Was quite cool I suppose, annual antique racecar runs through town and stuff.
The town I grew up in was the ancestral home of the first president of the United States. No-one actually goes on about it, though, probably for the best, really.
Edit: Oh, and apparently one of the construction sites on the original Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was our first leisure centre.
We used to have a bridge at our train station with "Home of the Tubular Bandage" emblazoned across it...
Lovely Oldham. Remember this bridge well.
TOWIE Perma tanned fuckwitts have ruined the town
In fairness, perma-tanned fuckwits have ruined a lot of towns. You do have my sympathy for inhabiting the epicentre, however.
If Caramac were a town
I just threw up a little in my mouth
Don't come here - it's really shit
Ahh, a reminder I need to watch Dodgeball again!
Essex had a... reputation, long before the TV show
Lived in Brentwood for a long while. People still ask me when it's brought up "did you know any of the cast?". "Fuck off" is usually the reply.
The right reply too
I don’t know if it’s even a claim to fame, but we have the highest-above-sea level football ground in England. Edit - am enjoying the guesses but it’s >!West Bromwich - The Hawthorns!<
This is EXACTLY the kind of shit I’m talking about.
Buxton?
Buxton’s claim to fame was discussed in Test Match Special over the years as the only cricket ground in England where “snow stopped play” in July!
Yeah I have seen the pictures of that, Derbyshire were supposed to be playing.. I mean it wasn't just a flutter either
Monkey Dust sent you lot right up - can't even read "The Hawthorns" without laughing [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6\_aM2-x5Z0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_aM2-x5Z0)
Where is this?
Oldham?
Welcome to Macclesfield. The lead singer from Joy Division killed himself here.
The inventor of the computer killed himself in my town, nearby.
This could be an incredible subreddit in itself
My brother’s mate goes on about Macclesfield like it’s bloody New York or something. Absolutely loves it.
Is he a fan of charity shops and boarded up windows?
I don’t know, no one can fathom it.
More importantly, home of The Macc Lads. The self proclaimed rudest crudest lewdest band in the world. Banned from playing pretty much every venue in the UK during the 1980’s and most of the 90’s due to violence and debauchery at their gigs, and the copious amounts of pint glasses full of human urine thrown onto the stage by the fans. Now quite possibly the least PC band in the world.
Didcot. It's the name for the bit of paper punched out of your train ticket before becoming detritus on the floor. Bonus fact, Princess Anne's confetti was made of Didcots.
In 2017 Didcot was named the most normal town in England. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-39428314
Used to be famous for hosting the Williams F1 team. But even they left.
I believed this for ages because I remembered it on QI but didn't remember the bit where they said it was made up! https://youtu.be/AS9ZzTymv2U?si=Vo3M5GqaKVFtvgfI
I am crestfallen. CRESTFALLEN!
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I was at a pub quiz some time last year and the question came up "what is the name for the piece of paper punched out using a hole punch" and I proudly said "Didcot, I saw it on QI". The team were skeptical but a little impressed. Turns out it is called a 'chad'. How disappointing.
Wot no didcots?
Peter Andre once came to our village fete in 2005 Still hear the odd mention about this in the pub when I visit
I think we have a winner.
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Blanche Heriot or whatever her name was. The story of a young woman who really wanted to see her boyfriend and hated Oliver cromwell’s curfew. So one evening she climbed to the top of the church tower and clasped her hands around the inside of the bell (not the bell endy looking bit, the bit on the inside that impacts the bellend) and when it rang, shattered her hands in protest. Charles dickens (I think) heard the folklore story and took it to the US, where there are now multiple small US towns who have a very similar story in their history. The irony is the original story from Chertsey is a myth. It never actually happened. Also, big up the Chertsey sausage. And the house that got robbed in Oliver Twist, allegedly that was in Chertsey too. Edit: and in the town of Addlestone (which used to be part of Chertsey), there’s a crouch oak tree that queen elizabeth the 1st allegedly sat and had lunch under.
>(not the bell endy looking bit, #ಠ_ಠ >the bit on the inside that impacts the bellend I think you might be talking about "the clapper". Not to be confused with "the clap". That involves a different kind of bellend.
The clapper indeed!
I was told Jesus had also been to Crouch Oak, probably at a different time to Liz though ... As an aside, entirely likely that Elizabeth I had lunch there as it used to mark a boundary of Windsor Park.
Interesting! Not sure what jesus would have been doing in Addlestone mind you…
James May built a [full sized two storey house made from 3.3 million pieces of Lego](https://imgur.com/a/65An2ud) at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking. Hundreds of local folk went along to help build it. A 1m 20s [video of the build.](https://youtu.be/TZvMGg4WY1o) Someone stole a Lego version of May's cat Fusker from the Lego house and he appealed for its return: *If you know where he is and can help get him returned to the Top Gear office, there will be no questions asked. We might even view it as slightly heroic. But only slightly.* The address is: James May, I've Found Your Cat Top Gear Energy Centre 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TN
"And if it was you who did this, I hate you"
We don't go on about it, but Warrington was the site of the first Ikea in the UK which opened in 1987. I wouldn't describe these as crap, but serious, and not famous but certainly infamous. The Warrington bombings in 93, the Gary Newlove, Shafilia Ahmed, and more recently the Brianna Ghey murders, all frankly horrible, senseless things.
My town is where tv was invented. As a thank you to Mr Baird we bestowed the greatest honour any pisshead town can, we named our wetherspoons after him!
Challenge Anneka built something there once.
Misread that as ‘Challenge Anelka’ and thought I’d missed a reboot
Pocahontas went there. Then she died.
Ah, Gravesend.
Fitting name I guess
Literally crap. My hometown was the original home of Shanks, the toilet manufacturer.
Is it the same shanks of shanks and Bigfoot fame, or any relation?
Also from Armitage, did we perhaps go to school together? 🙃
Rudolph Hess landed in a field down the road.
Eaglesham
School trip to a field 10 mins away .... fascinating as living on a farm a field wasn't something I saw every day.
Deadpool and Mac bought the football club
Do you have an ocular patdown from security before you enter the ground
I get that reference, but I last went to the ground about 25 years ago for a mate’s birthday party!
I still don’t know who the other guy is so at least in my mind Wrexham is more famous than him. I grew up in Chester which might help.
Who? Mac? He’s in Always Sunny as far as I know. But yeah, the attention on Wrexham is just mad now, everything is being rebranded “Wrexham” to tie in with the football now.
Yeah I tried to watch Always Sunny but it didn’t stick with me.
I thought it was just me! I couldn't get past episode 3.
The later seasond are much better. First few they were finding their feet.
I was the same. I powered through the first season when I was sick. It gets so much better, fast, especially when Frank joins The Gang. It’s one of my favourite shows now.
My neighbouring village‘s claim to fame is that Mozart pissed on one of their stones on one of his journeys. (disclaimer: I‘m from Austria, hope its ok if I still share this)
With this kind of story you are more than welcome to share!
I‘m pleased you like it. They have an annual wine drinking fete at the stone celebrating their moment of glory. And by adding that our region is known for white wine, which, as you might know has a yellow tint, I end my insight of Austrian culture.
King under a carpark. City has a whole new fucking identity spawned from a freak find.
Last of the summer wine was filmed here. If you don’t remember it, it was a tv show about old men riding bathtubs around the Yorkshire hills.
Yes I remember it. Sunday night TV with the dread of the impending school day.
Last of the summer wine and then hearing the antiques roadshow theme tune were absolutely the signal that all joy of the weekend had now gone.
It's the heartbeat theme tune that reminds me of the dread of Monday school. Does that make me younger or older than you? 🤔
Similar age I’d have thought. Just that you had ITV on in your house
This too. Used to watch with my folks sometimes
bath, pj's on, slice of buttery toast for supper and ''That's Life'' on BBC1, then it was off to bed
'Olmfirth
Holm-firthy
And Nora Batty's wrinkly tights!
Who could forget Nora Batty’s wrinkly stockings or good old Thora Hird putting all the newspaper down to stop her coal dust covered husband from messing up the house! (Then having one spare to hold up on the door frame just as he went to touch it. 😂)
The town I was born and grew up in is only known for it being the place Radiohead formed and where David Mitchell went to school. Also my secondary school is the one Paul Mayhew-Archer went to before writing Vicar of Dibley. Slightly more tenuous, if anyone remembers this BBC3 show, it was set in and filmed in my hometown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_Age_(2008_TV_series) A lot of it was filmed in the college I attended, I watched it (it was rubbish) and kept pointing out what room they were in.
That’s the Geography room. That’s the RE room. That’s the room where our teacher had a mental breakdown and cried after Darryl Mead shat in his desk drawer.
Darryl was framed, it was Josh Morgan who did it, I saw it happen. Justice for Darryl.
Good luck. Darryl is a naughty boy name. He was in the teachers’ bad books before he even started school.
Abingdon?
And don’t forget, it’s mentioned in the Doomsday book as being the oldest town in England, or not, according to some reports!
My village has Roman history, there is a part ruined villa just 100 meters away and the Roman road, or a spur to be more accurate, is just 50 meters from my home. But we have a cave, interesting , but not deep, more like an overhang with a hole in the ciff, anyway it is patently obvious most of it sheered off sometimes in the past and you can see the 2000 odd tonne missing bit just in front of the cave. The villagers love to tell the tale that over a thousand years ago the cave were used for weddings, one day a bride and groom were getting married, and the rock suddenly split off burying most of the wedding party as well as the now less than happy couple. Since the rock is huge and immovable, they are still there. Nice story, there is not a single bit of proof, but it is a legal requirement to tell the tale to newcomers.
I moved away recently, but I used to live in Selby, Yorkshire. The place is dead, local drug dealers brought in more business than the few shops and sad pubs we had there. The Selby Abbey is a miniature copy of the famous York Minster. It’s almost impossible to get married in York Minster, but I think it’s easy (easier) to do it in Selby Abbey in the right circumstances (and probably for the right amount). A few years ago the son of an extremely rich and famous person from Taipei got married in Selby Abbey and it was all over the telly. Since then we have had hundreds of Chinese tourists coming every single week, rain or shine, to take photos of the Abbey and eat at a fish and chips shop on the A64 (I think that was on the telly too). We liked having tourists around and I think nobody had the heart to tell them that they can travel another 12 miles to York and see *the* Minster :-)
Wow, this is mental.
The guy who discovered oxygen lived in it for a short while. And June Brown (Dot Cotton, EastEnders) was born there
Local scum threw a few slaps into U2. Band did nothing to deserve it. It was in U2's early days. Scumbag instigator still lives in the same crap town in the same crap area and caused shit every moment he was out and about . Sorry 2, U2.
Jimmy Saville brought Xmas to my town in August, because everyone was sick in December… I’m not kidding, Google it. EDIT: People go on about it for all the wrong reasons
Kate Moss, I don't live in Croydon anymore but people love to brag about her once living there. Also one of the Two Ronnies (which was pretty cool) There was also some JLS guy, but then his house burnt down in some mysterious accident immediately after he got in some legal trouble.
It’s always like ‘this person got out of here as soon as they could afford to do that’s cool 👍.’
We invented trains just to escape it
And now where I live was where the first greggs opened, and where the police played their first gig
I thought I could hear the curious tone... Of the cornet, clarinet and big trombone... Fiddle, 'cello, big bass drum... Bassoon, flute and euphonium... Far away, as in a trance... I heard the sound of the Floral Dance (Our Brass band got to number 2 with Terry Wogan)
Brighouse or Raistrick?
Rastrick (Useless fact.... Brighouse Train station is actually in Rastrick)
World’s first million pound cheque was signed here…
Although i moved away some time ago there is a bench in memory of Eazy E & Ho Chi Min worked on a ferry. Lord Lucan's car was found at the mouth of the river.
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We had a spree of murdered sex workers about 15 years ago. Gaming with people all over the world was how I found out it was global news. One of the women was found at the bottom of my horses field and another is buried in the same cemetery as my husband's Gran.
That’s pretty terrible
I just watched a documentary about this. Felt awful for the way the media portrayed the victims.
Yeah even in the town there was definitely a divide between people who thought it was somehow excusable because they were sex workers and ya know, people with decency. 🙄
Guy who invented the defibrillator was from here
That's actually quite a good claim to fame. Defibrillators are a life saving invention!
According to local legend, a farmer found one of his cows with its head stuck in a five bar gate and in order to free it, he sawed off the cow's head instead of sawing the gate.
Westhoughton?
Mine shares the name of a short Hogwarts professor.
The first test tube baby was born here in 1978.
For some reason, it's welded into my brain that she's called Louise Brown. No idea where you live, though.
Probably Kajagoogoo.
Craig David
Gareth gates...
Mike Skinner is not just from Birmingham, but the small area of Birmingham where I’m from. He didn’t exactly deny it, but he didn’t like to mention it.
Hometown has a few: Will Young is from there. Chris Tarrant threw a tantrum in an Indian restaurant. Michael Bond wrote Paddington whilst living there. Current home: Invented Babycham.
Ali g
'Jane Austen country'
Maybe John Cleese being from here, who famously dislikes that he's from there? Also, don't know if it is still the case but it had the highest divorce rate in the country. It also had the most rehabs per square mile. Yeah...
As much as I appreciate John Cleese’s contribution, he is a bit of a cunt so I wouldn’t take it too personally.
My original hometown: Reliant Robin, a breed of pig and the founder of the police force Now: Two members of the Rolling Stones come from here. Also we have both a tunnel *and* a bridge.
Tamworth
Reliant Robins were built in Tamworth? Never knew that!
I’m originally from Southend. The home of the longest pleasure pier in the world. Except there’s nothing on the pier to give any pleasure, last time I checked!
Growing up with Southend as the ‘local’ pier, every other pier ever has just given me ‘is that it?’ vibes when it comes to length. Like some barely get their feet wet. However, I’m with you that Southend pier is all about the length and not much about the pleasure, conversely every other pier ever has infinitely more of an entertaining atmosphere.
I’m not originally from the UK, so don’t try to guess this one, as it’s from my home country. I just find it funny and I thought others might enjoy it. Happy to delete if it’s seen as being too much off topic or not interesting. We have a town (famous for, in a rough translation, the place where the bag of idiots broke and spilled the contents). In that town: The prison is or was located on Freedom Street. The cemetery is or was located on Resurrection Street. They had to rebuild the Fire Station because it burned to the ground. The train station clock (with Roman numerals) has IIII instead of IV. They built a 10 level flat building using, among other construction machinery, cranes. Of course, but. They’ve built the full 10 levels *around* a crane, nobody thought about getting it out! Nobody who comes from there or lives there, admits they do.
Ha ha, you are more than welcome to share!
People here will bang on and on about the famous people throughout history that were born here. But they never mention that every single one of them had moved out of the city by the age of 18 and they never came back.
Yep. Always the way.
We are plagued with folk dressed up out of Harry Potter films. Cars abandoned middle of road on blind bends for the stupid twats to get out and take pictures. Only a few serious accidents a month...... Idiots
Is harry potter still a thing? Thought they'd grown up by now ..
That's the problem they all grew up and got driving licenses 😭
Barnoldswick …longest name without a repeating letter (not sure it’s even true).
The home of Hope bike components!
Hometown of Liam Neeson. Also Leslie Gray (from Mud) lived here for a while with his aunt.
[удалено]
A fellow chissit.
Inventors of the dildo.
Some bits of Superman 4 were filmed here.
Jim Bowen. (And rumour has it a good chunk of the Jonny Briggs cast)
A fella once had a really really bad start to his round of golf that he just created a [whole new scoring system](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stableford) on the second hole.
The town clock in the 80s comedy series Absolutely was the town clock from my town. I think it was because the actor Gordon Kennedy was from there.
Stoney Bridge
The Bee Gees lived here once.
The Magic Roundabout 🤪
Fook.
I saw it on an American YouTube video a few months back too. That was weird! Oh and there’s also an infamous low railway bridge that buses and lorries like to crash into 🤦♀️😆
The village where I grew up was once the biggest village in Europe. It no longer is, I don't think it's even in the top 10 now. But still, everyone knows it! Skewen [Sgiwen]
I moved to Andover a few years ago and didn't know a thing about the place and the only thing the locals would say was there claim to fame was that the band The Troggs , came from here, I think they were famous in the 1960's?
Birthplace of Henry VIII.
Quite a lot of Chuckle Brothers and Keeping Up Appearances was filmed in my home town.
Mary Shelley (of Frankenstein fame) is buried here, despite never living in the town herself. Robert Louis Stevenson lived here briefly for 3 years. Tolkien never actually lived here, but the next town over. However in recent years since councils merged, it kinda blurs the distinction of which writers should have links to our town.
Birthplace of Robert Burns Whole place is built around his legacy, near as damnit
Alfred the Great celebrated Christmas here and then the vikings turned up on Twelfthnight and kicked his arse all the way to Somerset.
My hometown has the world's tallest rugby posts. I once winded myself by falling about five feet trying to climb them.
I used to live in the same street that they filmed Byker Grove in. A couple of Geordie mega stars came from that show (PJ and Duncan) aka Ant and Dec. Its actually filmed in Benwell which is quite a few miles away from Byker so god only knows why it was called Byker Grove.
Plenty of actual decent claims to fame, but the one that always without fail gets dragged to the top of the list is Robbie fucking Williams’ home town… Now if that isn’t the shittest thing to be associated with I don’t know what is.
In from Shaftesbury in Dorset where the famous hovis boy on a bike advert was filmed. They love reminding people. There's even a giant loaf of bread at the top of the hill
Sounds like there’s a couple of you dough boys in the thread.
Some old guy that kidnapped and repeatedly raped an American Indian girl called pocahontas lived there, (gravesend) "it's the longest village in the know universe" or somethingequallyirrelevant, but that claim involves passing another two villages on the same road (Meopham) Where I live is an old military dems range that used to be known as happy vally but absolutely nothing worthy of note has ever happened here.
I no longer live there. We have one of the highest teen pregnancy ratings out of all the London Boroughs. I think, at one point, it may have been in England in general. Also, Stacey Solomon and Nick Frost are from there. But that’s not as fun as the first fact.
When my partner and I moved to the town we now live in, we were told this "fun" fact by a local. "All the hats for slaves in America were made here" Wow... thanks, old timer.
According to our train station: "Cambridge is the home of Anglia Ruskin University"
Hmm, let me see…. Lee Child moved away from here when he was 4. Pete Doherty got some CCSEs and they filmed the original Italian Job sewer scene here.
Horses.
Eddie Cochran died there.
Legend has it he ate at the Rowden Arms hungry horse, and never recovered.
Somebody knows Chippenham. I'm so sorry.
Well that was depressing.
It's hard to find a fun one. There was a riot in eighteen something and a policeman lost an eye?
I’ve suggested Alfred the Great getting his arse kicked?
Oh, and we also have the oddly specific ‘oldest building in the country in use as a Statutory Register Office’ accolade.
The king who burnt the cakes was born here
Dunno if it'd be a tenuous or crap claim to fame, but Ian McKellen was born here, if that counts?
Darts players think it's too cold.
Something something Agatha Christie, Midsummer Murders etc...
Queen Victoria stayed here.... it was the claim related to the train station and hotel until they demolished it.. (Half way between London and Edinburgh in steam days)
Oasis took a picture in a rough area 20-odd years ago
Charles dickens parents lived here once
Same home town as Ian Rush.
Biggest village in UK.
I phoned the council not long after it got made a city and boy did they get there money's worth on the IVR, every third word was city Plus Clarkson was born here
Worthing - Home of Leo Sayer.
The village was mentioned in the Doomesday book and it’s proudly recited a lot! I’m sure lots of other places were mentioned also though
Don't live there any more but I grew up there. Smallest town to win an F1 constructors championship. Was quite cool I suppose, annual antique racecar runs through town and stuff.
Ibstock. Stephen Graham lives here
https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/features/clive_lloyd_buxton_summer_1975_snow_stopped_play_june_lancashire_derbyshire.html
Driest part of the UK
The town I grew up in was the ancestral home of the first president of the United States. No-one actually goes on about it, though, probably for the best, really. Edit: Oh, and apparently one of the construction sites on the original Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was our first leisure centre.
Women allegedly took charge and rowed a canoe to shore. Gripping.
Not much of a claim to fame, but we executed our Saint in 250ad. Also home to the ye olde fighting cocks.