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Some little villages can have odd vibes, yes. I was born in a village, but then every other village thought the next village along was ‘odd’ o_O

There are some that do have a strange atmosphere though. One about 5 miles away, which is off the main road, so I’d never gone there before, does feel peculiar, although it’s pretty enough. (Bourton, near Shrivenham, Wiltshire)

Apparently, there is a monolith in the middle of the village supposedly erected by the Danes to commemorate a battle they won against the Saxons. Maybe that accounts for the strange, rather oppressive atmosphere.
 
One odd little village I would like to find again- about seven years ago I was out with my partner in the grounds of a historic house selling books at a fair (her trade in those days), I was really only along to help carry books! anyway at lunch time I said I would go and see if there was a shop in one of the local villages where I could buy some food, so I set off in the car down the local lanes and almost opposite the entrance to the hall was a lane which I followed that lead to a small village, right from the start I felt there was something odd about the place, it was a very hot sunny day and I stopped to have a look round. There was no shop but a very rustic looking ( almost fairy tale looking) pub called 'The Green Dragon' I tried the door but it was shut so I wandered around the village which was totally silent with lots of thatched, half-timbered buildings it was all very pleasant on the surface but after a few minutes I started to find the silence and lack of people increasingly eerie and disturbing so I left the village rather hurriedly -I remember I discovered it was a dead end so I had to turn round and drive back the same way I had come in. I found a shop in another village got something to eat and returned to my partner, who I told about it and said how odd and disturbing it had seemed to me and she said lets go for a drink at the pub after we finish tonight so we did except I was completely unable to find the village which was not on the lane I thought it was - which was also not a dead end! Been back to the area several times never been able to find it!
 
...a very rustic looking ( almost fairy tale looking) pub called 'The Green Dragon'

...I was completely unable to find the village which was not on the lane I thought it was - which was also not a dead end! Been back to the area several times never been able to find it!

There are only 49 pubs called “The Green Dragon in the UK. It shouldn’t be that hard to find, as you can narrow down the search area considerably.

maximus otter
 
I’m too scared to go there, I could end up in a wicker man:oops:

Tempest, like you I was born and raised in London, and moved out to Essex some years ago (to Braintree).

What I have noticed about Essex, is that people from Chelmsford, have said to me that the people who live in Braintree are all thick inbreeds, and in turn the people of Braintree have told me that anyone living in the surrounding villages of Braintree, are all thick inbreeds.

In the village I live in now, the locals think that anyone living in the smaller surrounding villages are thick inbreeds.

This makes me wonder if this is an Essex thing, or does this mind set apply to all counties of the UK.

A few years back I was on a late night train bound for Colchester, and a very drunk young woman was being openly hostile to any commuter living further afield than Shenfield. She even asked one guy (who said he lived in Marks Tey) if he’s ever fuc*ed his grandmother up the @rse :wide: (seriously) sorry - her words not mine, who even thinks like that for Christ’s sake ..?

A bit off topic I know, but has anyone else from other parts of the UK noticed this mentality ????
 
Tried that, there isn't one anywhere in the area, which means either I misread the name or?!

What part of the world is this? Have you considered it could be a definct pub converted to a Chinese restaurant? There’s an Indian Restaurant around here in an old thatched building. Also... pubs are closing daily. Could be gone for good.
 
What part of the world is this? Have you considered it could be a definct pub converted to a Chinese restaurant? There’s an Indian Restaurant around here in an old thatched building. Also... pubs are closing daily. Could be gone for good.
Not that far from Tamworth (is that Staffordshire or West Midlands?) You could be right many pubs have disappeared in this area especially in villages - including my favourite drinking hole 'The Moores Arms' in a little village called Norton
 
It’s not this one is it?

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A bit off topic I know, but has anyone else from other parts of the UK noticed this mentality ????

Not so much the being hostile and rude bit, but a definite sort of ‘My village is better than your village’ mentality. My family were incomers in Oxon, (from Wales) but one of my uncles‘ married a local woman and she did have a lot of tales about the surrounding villages and the rivalry: The people from X are unfriendly, the people down at Y will rob you, etc. And of course those other villages had the exact same things to say about others.
 
Not so much the being hostile and rude bit, but a definite sort of ‘My village is better than your village’ mentality. My family were incomers in Oxon, (from Wales) but one of my uncles‘ married a local woman and she did have a lot of tales about the surrounding villages and the rivalry: The people from X are unfriendly, the people down at Y will rob you, etc. And of course those other villages had the exact same things to say about others.

Maybe it’s a countryside thing then. Growing up in central London, I never experienced or heard any jokes about people living in the more outer suburbs.

When I told my old neighbours about us moving to this village, they made jokes about my grandchildren being born with webbed feet etc.:)

Anyway back on topic.

There is a tiny little village near me, that has a cool village name, (which I won’t post obviously) but it does not have a through road, it just backs onto fields, so there is only one way in and out of the village.

During the recent 75th VE day celebrations, an expat mate of mine (who is massively home sick), asked me to send him as many pictures as I could of Union flags, and bunting that people had put up outside their homes.

I took many of my village, then thought I’d go into the little village mentioned above and take some snaps there. Unfortunately the place was deathly quiet. No flags, no bunting, no one outside their homes enjoying the sunshine and I swear I was being watched from behind lace curtains of every house.

Talk about straw dogs. They obviously don’t get many visitors
 
Sambourne, Redditch. The Green Dragon Inn.

There’s a Green Man pub near Tamworth.
 
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Maybe it’s a countryside thing then. Growing up in central London, I never experienced or heard any jokes about people living in the more outer suburbs.

Probably; my aunt’s people had been there about 400 years, according to records, and it’s a kind of tribalism maybe.

Her village was tiny (a hamlet really) with a no-through road as well. Going to the next village along to watch a film in the village hall was THE big night out, she said.
Some villages seem to have pretty good communities and others can feel almost like graveyards. People live there but you never see anyone.
 
Probably; my aunt’s people had been there about 400 years, according to records, and it’s a kind of tribalism maybe.

Her village was tiny (a hamlet really) with a no-through road as well. Going to the next village along to watch a film in the village hall was THE big night out, she said.
Some villages seem to have pretty good communities and others can feel almost like graveyards. People live there but you never see anyone.

Yes we had a few of those places with odd village halls up north. The main form of local currency seemed to be Doilies and Jam Spoons.
 
Tried that, there isn't one anywhere in the area, which means either I misread the name or?!

The Green Dragon in Flaunden is rustic enough (currently closed and under new ownership) - used to have an aviary in the beer garden and beloved by bikers, as the road was too narrow for parked cars.

http://www.flaunden.com/flaunden-pubs
 
Tempest, like you I was born and raised in London, and moved out to Essex some years ago (to Braintree).

What I have noticed about Essex, is that people from Chelmsford, have said to me that the people who live in Braintree are all thick inbreeds, and in turn the people of Braintree have told me that anyone living in the surrounding villages of Braintree, are all thick inbreeds.

In the village I live in now, the locals think that anyone living in the smaller surrounding villages are thick inbreeds.

This makes me wonder if this is an Essex thing, or does this mind set apply to all counties of the UK.

A few years back I was on a late night train bound for Colchester, and a very drunk young woman was being openly hostile to any commuter living further afield than Shenfield. She even asked one guy (who said he lived in Marks Tey) if he’s ever fuc*ed his grandmother up the @rse :wide: (seriously) sorry - her words not mine, who even thinks like that for Christ’s sake ..?

A bit off topic I know, but has anyone else from other parts of the UK noticed this mentality ????
My wife and I were in Braintree a few years back when we saw, and heard, a couple of women communicating in clicks. They were clicking to one another as if in some obscure extra terrestrial language. Either that or were having a complete wind up.

I have to put concerns of the Braintree Wicker Man to one side as the town has the best ethnic food outlet in the Asian Cookshop. Saves me spending too many lunch breaks walking to Brick Lane when I’m in the City.
 
In the village I live in now, the locals think that anyone living in the smaller surrounding villages are thick inbreeds.

This makes me wonder if this is an Essex thing, or does this mind set apply to all counties of the UK.

My sister and family live in Suffolk and have taken me several times on holiday in Norfolk - brilliant when the kids were small because the journey was only about 90 mins. People in Norfolk take holidays in Suffolk for the same reason - Suffolk folk view Northfolk folk as country bumpkins, Northfolk folk view Suffolk folk as country yokels.
 
A bit off topic I know, but has anyone else from other parts of the UK noticed this mentality ????

I think it's a worldwide phenomenon. When I grew up in Lincolnshire, we used to mutter that Norfolk folk were all web-footed and inbred. Down here in Devon, the local medical code for "not quite right" was allegedly NFT - Normal For Tiverton - and the medics had to be told not to put that on notes any more. (This may well be an UL, I'm just repeating what I was told). However, I'm sure I read that the old story of country bumpkins trying to fish the moon out of a pond has versions from the north of England and the continent, hence my assertion that this is an international thing.
 
They have this legend where I live, in Wilts, there’s a pub called the Moonrakers, and it was apparently because smuggled barrels of brandy were hid in the village pond (any vlllage) and when the excise men came across a bunch of ‘local yokels’ with long rakes dragging the pond one moonlit night, they stopped and asked what they were doing, so these yokels said they were trying to rake the moon from the pond. Upon which, the excise men laughed their socks off at the stupidity, and rode away.

I have a feeling Wilts is a bit far inland for this, but the Old Town does have many old tunnels that cause road subsidence quite regularly and block the streets off. They’ve never been fully explored and some people think ‘run cargoes’ of brandy were hidden there.

Tunnels in Old Town
 
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I remember the moonrakers story when I was a kid. I consider myself both a moonraker and a Hampshire hog as I was born and raised on the county line.
I think the rhyme we learnt as kids went,
'Ampshire born n 'ampshire bred,
Strang in the arm but thick in thee 'ead (mush).
One of the local pubs had the county line running through it so in one bar you were in Hampshire t'other bar you were in Wiltshire!
There's also a Green Dragon near Salisbury which I remember being a lovely old pub, would be on the old Southampton to Salisbury road I think...
Nowt creepy round 'ere mush.
 
They have this legend where I live, in Wilts, there’s a pub called the Moonrakers, and it was apparently because smuggled barrels of brandy were hid in the village pond (any vlllage) and when the excise men came across a bunch of ‘local yokels’ with long rakes dragging the pond one moonlit night, they stopped and asked what they were doing, so these yokels said they were trying to rake the moon from the pond. Upon which, the excise men laughed their socks off at the stupidity, and rode away.

I have a feeling Wilts is a bit far inland for this, but the Old Town does have many old tunnels that cause road subsidence quite regularly and block the streets off. They’ve never been fully explored and some people think ‘run cargoes’ of brandy were hidden there.

Tunnels in Old Town
My stepfather born and bred in Bath, used to tell me this same story... That they would "play" the act of someone who was feeble minded (for want of a better description) by raking the pond in the expectation that anyone in authority would dismiss them and not think to look for any contraband...

Still on the subject of creepy/weird/odd villages... Has anyone ever visited Parkend or Whitecroft in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire? It has a very odd and insular feel about it.. the latter of the two places has an antique/junk shop with a really creepy mannequin stood outside which only exacerbates this.
 
Never explored it much.

Lots of secret places. (Like in Devon and Cornwall).

its an ex industrial area so will have a certain feel, which may seem at odds with the idea of forest.
 
I find the Forest of Dean quite eerie and uncomfortable and I’ve never known why, as it’s a beautiful place but I just...don’t like it.
For sure... I can't put my finger on it either and this will probably make no sense but I feel like I'm never completely in control there or at ease. Like I could quite easily get lost, even on a road I know well. ‍♂️
 
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