Talk:Bewdley

Bewdley, an anomalous outlying part of Wales

?I live close to Bewdley and have never heard about this; I can also find no sources substantiating it. Could somebody provide a source for this information? --Shastrix 22:58, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I live in Bewdley, and I can assure you that we are most definitely English! It sounds like one of those laws like the one supposedly allowing people in Chester to shoot Welshmen with longbows (or whatever it is), and I can see no value at all in leaving it in. So I've hacked it out. Loganberry 16:16, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Going back over 1,000 years, the border between England and Wales was the River Severn. This put the small community that later became known as Bewdley, firmly on the Welsh side. Now it's at least 25 miles to the east of the Welsh border. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.18.239.61 (talk • contribs)

I'm not really sure how much of a community there was here a thousand years ago. A little bit of vaguely relevant trivia, though: Wribbenhall (the part of the town on the eastern, ie English, side of the river) was at one time slightly derogatively known as "the Christian shore". I have no proper sources for this, so it can't go in the article, but I have heard it more than once. Loganberry (Talk) 15:58, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

In Wribbenhall ( The Christian East shore of the river) There used to be a hangmans post at Catchems End and as the name suggests that was where they used to catch them alright!! But there is also a street called Westbourne st. ( formerly Whispering st.) This is where the criminals used to whisper for the ferry man to take them accross the river into the safe welsh side. As to the confusion above, basically Bewdley developed as an English town crossing point of the river and so has always been an English stronghold and it just so happened to build up a lot on that side of the river and there used to be a gate to Wales up the street called Welsh Gate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.132.181.244 (talk • contribs)

Have you got some sources for any of that? Some of it might fit quite well in the article if so - the Whispering Street stuff would be nice to have - but it shouldn't go in without those references. Regarding Catchems End, my copy of Bewdley in its Golden Age mentions (p6) several examples of Bewdley being used as a sanctuary town. Loganberry (Talk) 01:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation question

The article needs a pronunciation note, at least for us poor Yanks who don't know how to pronounce your bizarre city names.  ;) Is it "boo-dlee", or "boh-dlee", or "bow-dlee" or what? Kasreyn 05:40, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I suppose your "boo-dlee" might be the nearest. "Bew" is pronouced similarly to "pew" as used in churches, so you end up with "bew-d-lee" DonBarton 12:15, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Slur "Bee-oo" into one syllable, followed by a simple "dlee". —Cuiviénen (talk•contribs), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 @ 23:44 UTC

Hannon le, mellon! Now all we need is an IPA pronunciation note on the article. How do I add that? Kasreyn 00:11, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Going by the article IPA chart for English, the IPA pronunciation is probably bjuːd.liː, but I'm not really sure how the stressor symbols work. —Cuiviénen (talk•contribs), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 @ 16:36 UTC

I've recorded myself saying the word, and added it to the beginning. I'm not sure of IPA, so if someone else could handle that I'd be very grateful. I'm not actually a native of Bewdley, but have lived here since I was eight (I'm now 31), so I think I've got the hang of how the town is pronounced by now! Loganberry (Talk) 16:15, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Although it's now a WP policy to include the IPA, most people can't read it. I come from nearby Malvern and we always pronounce it Byood'lee with a slight stress on the first syllable.--Kudpung (talk) 08:04, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Pictures on this site

Hello! I think the picture of the street is a bit boring. Could someone near Bewdley or from Bewdley take a new Picture and put it here. This can be this famous bridge from the side or the townhall from the front or the whole city from birdview. That would be great. StefanvH 09:49, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry you think it's a boring picture. I'm biased since I took it, but I rather like it, as Load Street (what you can see in the photo) is the main street of Bewdley, and both its relative width and the style of the buildings on either side are very characteristic of the town. Having said that, I'd be happy to add more photos, although there is a limit to how many can sensibly be added to a relatively short article. Loganberry (Talk) 16:19, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

To the pronunciationproblem : Someone from bewdley can record a pronounciation and save it to Wikicommons. I have seen that on the wikisite of bretange. StefanvH 23:00, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I've now done that; see the section above. Loganberry (Talk) 16:19, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Although it's now a WP policy to include the IPA, most people can't read it. I come from nearby Malvern and we always pronounce it Byood'lee with a slight stress on the first syllable.--Kudpung (talk)

Thank you Loganberry! I agree with you about the number of photos, but the famous telford bridge would be a nice addition in my opinion.I don´t wanted to insult you. I am sorry. I just ment there is very much grey in the picture(from the street). Someone like me, who doesent know Bewdley can get the impression Bewdley is just a long street with some houses. It is proberbly better to make that picture again from "dogperspective" (some inches above the ground with a strong tilt upwards (with houses, cars, people, the church?, and some sheepclouds with polarisation-filter)). Interesting for me would be the (church?) and some houses. What do you think about that? StefanvH 13:11, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Don't worry; I'm not offended at all, and actually a picture of the bridge would be a good addition to the article. About the Load Street photo: the grey is less noticeable on the full-size picture, but you still have a point. Maybe the best thing for me to do would be to upload several pictures to the Commons, and pick out a couple, and then if this article becomes longer in the future, I or another editor can add more pictures from there. Loganberry (Talk) 02:30, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

If I may join in this discussion. All photos can be improved upon, especially with such comments as made by Stefan. However, I can confirm from personal knowledge that Load Street is very difficult to photograph. Both sides of the road have buildings ranging from Georgian gentleman's houses, hotels, banks, civic buildings and Victorian shops and houses and finally the church as an building in the middle of the road. The photograph, in its large format, is quite good at giving the overall impression as to what the street looks like from the river bridge. DonBarton 12:23, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

New photos

I've uploaded a picture of Bewdley Bridge that I took a few weeks ago. There is currently repair work going on to fix part of the balustrade, so some other possible views of it aren't possible at the moment without showing a lot of unsightly temporary barriers - you can actually see them in this picture (near the centre of the bridge), but from this angle I don't think they're too intrusive. As for the possibility of more photos, I don't see why not, but I think we'd need a longer and more detailed article first to stop it looking overbalanced with so many pictures. Loganberry (Talk) 23:51, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Also, I've added someone else's picture of the station. I'd have no complaints if anyone had strong views for substituting another, but I think three photos in total is about the maximum sensible for an article as long as this one currently is. Loganberry (Talk) 02:41, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

The old sailors were saying:" If you´r going to the see, take one clock with you or three." :-) --StefanvH 09:25, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the article can bear four photos now, so as suggested above I've added one of the Guildhall. That seems to fit best in the History and Government section, and the Load Street picture in the Town Geography section, so I've moved them to fit. Loganberry (Talk) 13:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to Loganberry I think the site has improved enormously during May. Well done! DonBarton 13:45, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I think that too! Thank you Loganberry. [Joke] Please do not write much more, because i have to integrate all into the german version.[/joke] --StefanvH 20:11, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you as well; I'm very pleased with our progress over the last few weeks. Plenty more to do of course (sorry Stefan!), but we're getting there. Loganberry (Talk) 22:05, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Table

Please fill it with sane data. I have borrowed the table from the Worcester site. --StefanvH 18:27, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

It's a shame there isn't an infobox that doesn't make pages look so ugly... Loganberry (Talk) 00:25, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the table at least for now, because it doesn't seem suitable for a town within a two-tier authority (district and county), as Worcestershire is. The population thingy shows the figures for Wyre Forest as a whole (just under 100,000), which is so misleading that we're better off without it. I'm also not happy with the idea that we should simply mention the town council under "Politics", seeing as both the district and the county council have far more power. The infobox on the Worcester page is there because Worcester is in itself a local government district; the format is not suitable for a town such as Bewdley which is not itself a district. Loganberry (Talk) 00:36, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Ok, i can accept that. Hi, again Loganberry! --StefanvH 11:37, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Hello to you too! I'd better make clear that I don't have any problem with an infobox per se except for the minor complaint about the way they tend to overwhelm pages' appearances. If there is an infobox around which would be suitable for this page, then by all means go ahead and add it. Loganberry (Talk) 11:52, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Keep an eye out, please

This page has been vandalised twice this year by anon editors (possibly the same one, as both IP addresses were 172.x.x.x) to include references to a "Thomas McNeil". These can (and should) be reverted on sight. Loganberry (Talk) 23:02, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

It happened again recently, along with another silly edit about the bridge. Now reverted. Loganberry (Talk) 00:23, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Post town

The infobox incorrectly listed the post town as Kidderminster for some while. It isn't - Bewdley is a post town, as List of post towns in the United Kingdom will make clear (look under DY). Loganberry (Talk) 00:20, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Education

I've cut this section back to the bare facts. I can certainly accept that there may well be more suitable material to put there, but please remember that it needs to be referenced. We as editors also need to remember that we should not include our own value judgements. For example, a previous version of the section included the following:

The Bewdley school is very well known to be a place of excellence and is under leadership by a Practical and Inspirational head teacher

That's no good for a Wikipedia article. We must only use other people's opinions, not our own, per the WP:NPOV policy. If someone has made such a quote in a local newspaper or other reliable, verifiable source then we can use it, but it needs to be specifically cited as such. Loganberry (Talk) 23:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Market to close?

I noticed a piece of paper stuck up in town today saying that the Saturday market would end "for good" after the 9 May. I have no way of telling whether this is accurate, and so far there seems to be nothing in the local media, but since the weekly market was granted in 1472 I think it will be notable if it does go. Loganberry (Talk) 17:37, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

A very notable thing if it does go. where was the paper and who wrote it Loganberry? Dribblingscribe (talk) 17:39, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Just a handwritten piece of paper stuck to a post about where the passage to the market comes off Load Street. I can't remember the precise wording, I'm afraid. Loganberry (Talk) 18:09, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

There was a front-page story about it in the Kidderminster Chronicle yesterday, talking about the possibility of a revival. I've added a brief mention. Loganberry (Talk) 21:31, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism

While checking some Worcestershire articles, I came across some vandalism here that I have edited out. I've also made a couple more clean ups on the fly.--Kudpung (talk) 08:04, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Town map added

Thanks to the new OS OpenData licence, I have been able to add a map to the "Town geography" section. I won't pretend that I'm any sort of genius here: I just took out a rectangle from the appropriate National Grid square, did the minor editing mentioned on its File: page and plunked it here. I think it adds to the article, even so. Loganberry (Talk) 23:36, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Stanley Baldwin

In the history section I have deleted the citation need put against Stanley Baldwin being MP for Bewdley, having corrected to 1908 the year he was first elected after his Wikipedia biography and constituency article. That he ceased to be in 1937 is indisputable as he waited until after Edward VIII's abdication and George VI's coronation before resigning as PM and MP and accepting peerage.Cloptonson (talk) 20:40, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

The Bewdley School and Sixth Form Centre

and its staff and pupils are notorious for years for spamming not only this article but articles on other UK schools. Please help to keep Wikipedia articles on topic.--Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 13:58, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

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