towns and county borders

[Yellow Fang]

Are there any towns that straddle two counties? I know there are towns that straddle borough councils. In Reading, for example, Wokingham Borough Council controls a large part of south east of the town, while Newbury Borough council controls a part in the west. However, Caversham, which is north of the river, is controlled by Reading Borough Council. Caversham used to be a different town until the early 20th century, and feels somewhat different. By rights it should be in Oxfordshire, because it is the other side of The Thames, but it is in Berkshire with the county border drawn around it. This makes me wonder if this is the case with all towns.

 

[Bromptonaut]

'Greater Manchester' straddled Lancashire & Cheshire and there's something called Bath and North East Somerset but they're both metropolitan districts constructed by or after the 1974 LG reorganisation. Before, and in most cases since, town and county boundaries tended to coincide.

 

[Glow worm]

Bures, is a village in both Suffolk and Essex. I seem to remember they have two Parish Council's, one for each county.

Hundreds of years ago, I walked a long distance path called the Offa's Dyke path. I remember a village on the route called LLanymynych (spelling may be a bit out!) which has the English/ Welsh border down the High Street. I stopped at a pub which is right on the border and the pool table straddled the two countries, so you could pot a ball in Wales from England. When that part of Wales was dry on a Sunday, they'd just rope off the Welsh half and all the locals would shuffle along the bar to the English side to get served.

Slightly grander- the Arbetz hotel is half in Switzerland and half in France. During the war it was an important location for escaping POWs- I found this that explains a bit more:

“When the Germans occupied this part of France in 1940, the hotel became a strategic location,” he says. “The bottom of the staircase is in France but by the time you reach the top, you’re in Switzerland.

So my grandfather was able to hide many British and American soldiers upstairs, where the German troops were not allowed to go.”

Peyron’s grandfather, Max Arbez, also helped many Jewish families to escape Nazi persecution in France by allowing them to flee into neutral Switzerland via the hotel.

 

[HLaB]

A bit OT, I remember seeing a program about a bloke who had a shed positioned on the Irish Republic/ NI border. He'd buy petrol and stuff down south and drive into the shed and a while later drive out to the north and sold the stuff. The customs knew what he was doing but were powerless to do anything.