h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK - A654419
Author: Freddy, Keeper Of The Word "fnar!", Zaphodista - U164010

What does everyone think?



Anna

What on earth inspired someone to call a town Maidenhead ? Was it to attract tourists ? I've always assumed there must be a river Maiden, but it seems not.

Anyway;

Extremely detailed, but very date dependant, so perhaps the entry should be Maidenhead 2002, or maybe thats just me.

In the first para the bit about the High St should read "stores are housed in what used to be inns..." as it reads a bit like Woolworths used to be a coaching inn.

Reading the article I've been left with an impression of a fairly characterless place, is that accurate ? I feel it needs something to enliven it.

I just posted this in another thread, but the name 'Maidenhead' is said to comemorate an ancient slaughter of some Christian women (a convent, I think) on the site of the current town.

Isn't Maidenhead the place they moved the h2g2 servers to recently?

I went there once, a long time ago, and it seemed pretty featureless.

I have a dictionary of place-names, and all the 'Maid' places such as Maidenwell, Maidford, Maidstone, Maidwell etc do refer literally to maidens. It probably means there would have been a convent there or thereabouts at some stage. Maidenhead in 1202 was Maidenhee, 'Landing-place of the maidens'. So there you have it: some nuns came down the Thames and landed there and built a convent.

It's probably the kebab shop now - possibly the only cloistered kebab shop in the whole of Kent. While waiting for your shashlik or shawarma, instead of sitting down you have to kneel.

Good job it wasn't a silent order. It'd be a beggar trying to mime ssh - ass- lick

Please nobody do the nun on a spit joke.

Good content. It could do with a few paragraph breaks to sort out the longer blocks of text.

I agree about the specifics dating it, and it's quite long anyway. I'd recommend splitting it into two entries - one on Maidenhead that would be timeless, and another on current things to do in Maidenhead.

How about that?

Hey there, Anna -- any plans on responding to the commenters here in PR?

Hi Mikey,

Sorry I must've unsubscribed from this one - I put it in PR at the request of one of the Scouts (I think) who thought it was good enough as is... I don't know anything about Maidenhead, so I'm not sure I can contribute anything!



Anna

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