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Christopher
Columbus, the famous explorer, once said that by persevering "over
all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his
chosen goal or destination."
Nicely
put Chris. That sums up what I'm doing perfectly.
I should
explain. Last November, in a Bridgnorth pub, a friend of mine bet
me (admittedly over a few pints) that I couldn't visit every single
place in my home county of Shropshire within one year.
That is to say, every town, village and hamlet located within the
county's borders. There are no cities after all. And as proof, he
also stipulated that I take one photograph in each location next
to the place name sign... those without a sign would have one created
with the aid of a marker and a whiteboard.
Easy,
I said. No problem, I said.
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£20
buys a few of these...
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We
shook on it and decided the prize. Not mere cash, no. The prize
was glory and honour. Although looking back on it 20 quid would
have bought me a pint or ten.
Before
you start thinking that this all sounds like a walk in the park,
some information for you. Visiting every place in the biggest inland
county in England isn't just a case of getting in the car and leisurely
driving around, it requires research; lots of research.
For instance, how do you find out how many places there are in Shropshire?
I'll tell you. You buy the official Ordnance Survey Gazetteer*
of Great Britain... For £120.
The
book is a comprehensive list of every place or feature on the Ordnance
Survey maps and was therefore vital to my quest. Contained within
its 800 pages are over 250,000 entries. So as you can imagine my
research was going to take a while.
2
months later…
…and
I had my total. Ladies and Gentlemen there are (officially) one
thousand one hundred and seventy five places* in the county
of Shropshire - towns, villages and hamlets.
Or
are there?
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Dawley
c.1902 - real or not?
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For
reasons known only to the experts at Ordnance Survey, the town of
Dawley and the village of Titterstone, near the Clee Hill were not
present in the Gazetteer. In other words,
they didn't exist.
For
several days I took great delight in annoying almost everyone in
the BBC Radio Shropshire offices, telling them that Titterstone
and Dawley weren't real. They were figments of their imaginations,
I said... mirages, I said... Shut up they said.
One
of my colleagues, Tabetha Painten, herself a resident of Dawley,
even had the cheek to suggest that I "prove it." Oh foolish
Tabetha, had she not learned that betting against me would end in
tears?!
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A
glaring omission?
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I immediately
sprang into action and rang Ordnance Survey, where I spoke to spokeswoman
Paula Goode.
What she told me was amazing.
"It's just the online search engine. If you search for Dawley,
Dawley Bank comes up, but the map still shows both places.
"Titterstone definitely appears on the Landranger mapping but
only Titterstone Clee Hill appears on the gazetteer.
"In the gazetteers you find in libraries, Dawley and Titterstone
have just been left off a list of names but they've not been left
off the maps themselves."
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Dawley
- real yet?
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So
in a nutshell what Paula was saying was that according to the Gazetteer,
Dawley and Titterstone were not officially 'places' and, therefore,
didn't exist as such. 1-0 to me I think.
That revelation pushed the total number of places in Shropshire
up to 1177. It was time for a photo.
We arrived in Dawley to be greeted not by a cheering throng but
by Gladys, an elderly lady sporting a snazzy headscarf. She very
willingly posed for our photo and I thanked her for taking the time
to be a part of my bet.
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| Gladys
(left), Adam, and Tabetha visit Shropshire's 'newest' town |
So
far on my quest I have visited 116 places in Shropshire. The greatest
number of people (person) appearing on any one photo is…1.
The kind people (person) of Pedlar's Rest, Upper Aston and now Dawley
have done their county proud.
And now I turn to the rest of you. I urge you to gather together
as many people as you can to represent your town, village or hamlet
in this most purposeless of exercises.
Your
photos will appear on the BBC Shropshire website and you will be
the envy of your friends. I have until 21st November to complete
this challenge. So please, do something amazing, and be in a photo.
You
can email me for any information on adam.green@bbc.co.uk
I'll
finish as any good letter should: I look forward to meeting you.
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Click
to see our panoramic image of Dawley
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*
The problem with bets made in pubs is that they're not alway easy
to break down the next morning! Determining the exact definition
of a 'place' is also tough.
Ordnance Survey are officially responsible for the surveying and
mapping of Great Britain. They are also one of the best respected
agencies of their type in the world.
Ordnance Survey's Gazetteer of Great Britain lists every name which
appears on the 'flagship' 1:50,000 Landranger map series. As such
the Gazetteer is as official as it gets and it's as close to an
ultimate list of 'places' as I'm going to get.
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