http://www.thepenn.co.uk


I had a dream about my parents the other night.  (Dad died in 1974 and Mum in 2001.  They often return to me in dreams.)  'Tis probably also true about your parents.

 In my dream Dad and Mum were speaking of their plans to open a one pump petrol and service station in or near the south Gloucestershire village of  Cold Ashton.  Dad would repair the cars, Mum would pump the petrol.  Oh go figure, I can't!

 But why Cold Ashton?  Why should this unexceptional village push its way into my dreams forty or more years since I last drove through it? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Ashton


As I read about Cold Ashton I was reminded of the nearby Gloucestershire hamlet of Pennsylvania  

Indeed there is a Pennsylvania in the U.K.  

 https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/pennsylvania-south-gloucestershire


I've not been able to establish why and how the hamlet was given this distinguished name.

 But I do know that many British people in the 18th century were entirely sympathetic to the cause for self government or independence by the American colonies.  Maybe some of  the 18th C. residents of this wee hamlet were Quaker admirers of William Penn, the "founder" of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 

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 William Penn's father, the Admiral Sir William Penn is buried in Bristol's famous St. Mary Redcliffe Church.



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There is also a Pennsylvania Hill in Exeter, Devon, and this:



http://www.thepenn.co.uk/about-us/history/




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