Talk:Twenty, Lincolnshire

Is there any connection between Twenty and Twente? Brunnian (talk) 12:20, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I doubt it because there isn't a mention on her already. Google it and see what turns up.95jb14 (talk) 13:03, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Origin of name
I've stuck an idea onto Talk:Twenty railway station rather than here, mainly because it's railway books that I read and so that's where I must have come across it before. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:24, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
 * This is currently being discussed in the Bourne Forum & the idea of crossing 20 watercourses has been proposed. Is there any evidence for the existence of this 20 foot river? --Brunnian (talk) 22:44, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Twentieth of a series, yes. See Twenty railway station article. -- Red rose64 (talk) 14:08, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Snag is, not everyone agrees with that theory. The other two stations between Bourne and Spalding were Counter Drain and North Drove: both named after existing landscape features, something done for nearly  every railway station in the UK.  It would be truly astonishing if they had chosen to invent a name from thin air for this one.  Mr Penhey has done a lot of work on this, and there is no doubt that there was a '20 foot drain' along the alignment of twenty drove : it can be followed on the modern OS map up to a small curve on dowsby fen.  This is the only drain in the whole fen on that alignment, and it aligns perfectly with twenty drove.  You also have to ask why there is a bend in the road at that point unless there was some historic bridge over some historic feature.


 * A J Wrottesley's history of the M&GN came up with the '20 drainage ditches' before the end of the 19th century, but I have walked the line and found 23. A look at a map of 1910 in the library in Lincoln it looks like 16. The book was a history of a railway company that succeeded the builders, not the builders themselves.  But There is a real lack of reference to the name 'twenty' before the railway.  Have a look at  - a strip map of the turnpike.  This mentions no bridge over any 20 foot river, nor a turnpike gate at twenty.  But it also omits the turnpike gate at Friar Bar, nearer to Bourne, so it cannot be regarded as reliable anyway.


 * We don;t even know when Guthram Cote became Guthram Gowt - or even that Guthram Cote was in the same place as Guthram Gowt. One act of parliament for the repair of rivers in the 14th century implies it was up near Pinchbeck, about 3 miles north of where it is now.


 * I'm afraid your resolution is just as speculative as any of the others. There is no documentary evidence of the origin of the name.  Not even the Parish records can help - there was never a church or chapel at Twenty. The origin of the name can never be anything but an opinion.  Some people find one theory convincing and others another, I'm afraid.  I'm in the '20 foot river' camp, because North Drove and counter drain are pre-existing names.  --Brunnian (talk) 21:13, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Old Map
This Web Page is interesting.

First series OS sheets on line. It shows Twenty corner, and the road sometimes called Twenty Drove, but it doesn't call either of them 'Twenty'. It does have some very familiar odd names, like Iron Bar. Other interesting thing is the number of Decoys.--Brunnian (talk) 06:04, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
 * This map appears to show Ullswater? -- Red rose64 (talk) 13:25, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, so they no longer save the navigation results. Instead you need  the bottom of this one and perhaps the top right of this one --Brunnian (talk) 08:34, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, no mention of "Twenty", but the position is identifiable on Bourn Drove - but with no actual place names other than "Bourn Fen". I suspect that "Decoy" isn't a place name, but the common noun for a feature or structure. Tongue End is in a different position than nowadays. -- Red rose64 (talk) 12:04, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, a decoy is an industrial scale wildfowl trap. Brunnian (talk) 18:32, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
 * See Duck_decoy_(structure)--Robert EA Harvey (talk) 11:07, 14 November 2010 (UTC)