July 2026. Dodington. Whitchurch.
“Ain’t that just lil ‘ol England” is a line said to me by (wait for it) an American tourist in Haddenham (Oxon) a few years back as she stared at a street of coloured timber.
Several Haddenhams, and many Whitchurches.
Our Shropshire one has all the usual features of a Borders town; moat, mere, locks, castle, micropub…
More antique shops than ale houses,
but with my micro opening at 4pm I had time to walk every street, with the “township” of Dodington the tourist highlight. “Township” isn’t a word you hear much in the UK.
I think the tourist info boards may actually be older than some of the houses.
Chat GPT told me I must go to Powell’s Pork Pies;
Chat GPT needs to be more up-to-date, it’s closed ahead of the agricultural show, but of course AI only knows what’s on the internet, no what’s written in felt tip on a sign sellotaped to the door.
Obviously, if this was an official CAMRA curated survey of licensed premises™ I wouldn’t have been able to veer from the approved route to look for pork pies or admire timber, as that sort of culture detracts from drinking time.
Dodington is really just a gorgeous long street that takes you out of town,
and there’s nothing to actually DO,
although I’m sure fans of antique plastic guns and adult bunny sets will find much to enjoy.
retiredmartin 
Those Disney cruise boats surely count as townships.
Do they have a Wetherspoons and Betfred though?
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Wetherspoons have infiltrated Haven holiday parks, Student unions and Premier Inns, so cruise boats must be next. Get the Carribean cruise boast Spoons in the GBG and scupper BRAPA.
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*Haddenham, Bucks. To be fair to you, it is on the border with Oxon.
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Most things are on the border with Oxon, in some way.
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Not sure this applies to Wrexham. Mind you, before 1974 there were bits of counties enclosed in other counties, so it’s possible that Rhostyllen was part of Oxfordshire. Much to the surprise of the inhabitants of Rhostyllen.
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I was intrigued by “townships” so I checked it out. In England it refers to subdivisions of civil/ecclesiastical areas. Or something. I glazed over at this point. However, in That Scotland, it’s a small crofting area of a number of crofts sharing a piece of common grazing. Given that I live on one of five crofts, one of which Mrs B and I own and technically rent out, I live in a township. Who knew?
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It pops up in a 19th century document about Dodington, which interestingly doesn’t even appear as a separate area on modern maps of Whitchurch.
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