It occurred to me while I was sitting on the sunny terrace outside the
Betjeman Arms at St. Pancras International station last Friday waiting to catch the Eurostar to Brussels (and quaffing an excellent pint of their
Betjeman Ale, brewed exclusively for them by
Sharp's) that despite the name being dulled by over-familiarity there must actually at one time have been a bloke called St. Pancras. Not a stunningly perspicacious insight, I'll grant you, but it (plus yesterday's
Scottish football team list) set me to thinking about other things (places, mainly) that are so familiar you might almost forget they are named after actual people (or, in a lot of cases, actual mythical people). Here's a few:
- St. Pancras, in addition to being a district of London and the new Eurostar terminus, was a Roman martyr killed in the 4th century.
- St. Ivel, in addition to being the name of a producer of low-fat dairy-based foods, is also the patron saint of Sweden (though I can't find any corroborating evidence for this other than the Wikipedia page).
- St. Johnstone never existed, the name of the football club being a corruption of "St. John's Town" which is an old name for Perth.
- St. Mirren is apparently more correctly spelt St. Mirin, and in addition to being a Scottish football club was also an Irish monk of the 6th and 7th centuries, and patron saint of Paisley.
- St. Austell is apparently more correctly spelt St. Austol, and in addition to being the largest town in Cornwall was a 6th century Cornish bloke who did deeds of a missionarial nature in Brittany.
- St. Erth is a Cornishisation of St. Erc, and in addition to being a Cornish town and railway interchange was an Irish bishop of the 5th century and apparently a good mate of yer man St. Patrick.
- St. Werburgh, in addition to giving her name to a district of Bristol, was a seventh century nun and patron saint of Chester.
Just working through the
villages in Cornwall named after saints could keep you occupied for days. I think it's a Celtic thing. Maybe there's a travelogue-stylee TV series in it?
It occurred to me while I was sitting on the sunny terrace outside the Betjeman Arms at St. Pancras International station last Friday waiting to catch the Eurostar to Brussels (and quaffing an excellent pint of their Betjeman Ale, brewed exclusively for them by Sharp's) that despite the name being dulled by over-familiarity there must actually at one time have been a bloke called St. Pancras. Not a stunningly perspicacious insight, I'll grant you, but it (plus yesterday's Scottish football team list) set me to thinking about other things (places, mainly) that are so familiar you might almost forget they are named after actual people (or, in a lot of cases, actual mythical people). Here's a few:
1 comment:
great post. thank you.
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