Hadleigh…  So what’s in a name?

Here at HOTW HQ, we’ve been proud to promote (or perhaps I should say – boast) that the website is listed at the top of the search engine, ‘Google’ (www.google.co.uk) – simply type in the word ‘Hadleigh’ – and there we pop up, just like that aunt of yours, who turns up at the right moment to give a helping hand – if you need it or not (cough!).  

Until recently I hadn’t searched any further than the other sites that are specific to our local area, in order to see what our site was up against – until the other day.  Many of us have heard of Hadleigh in Essex, if you haven’t, someone at some point will surely stop you while taking a leisurely stroll to the shops to collect the newspaper on a Sunday morning to ask where the castle is!  There we start – the age of confusion, and the Internet doesn’t make things any easier, so let’s explore some of the websites that share the same name as our town…

One of the first sites couldn’t be really any further away, www.hadleigh.co.nz is a hotel located in – you’ve guessed it by the address – in New Zealand.  Unfortunately it isn’t located in a town of the same name, but in the city of Christchurch.  The description “… (The) extensive use of native timbers in panelling and carved door lintels, which are integral to the ambience that is Hadleigh” could not really be that different from our own?  

The second site, which opens with the rather intimidating page, which reads: “Hadleigh till we Die”, but no, this isn’t an advertisement for a retirement village, but for a football club based in Dublin who oddly promote the fact that they take a break in their training regime to catch the tea-time soaps…  Check it out at www.hadleighpinesfc.com

A third site, which our investigator stumbled across, wasn’t actually for a place, hotel or football club, but a television programme…  Anyone remember the series that apparently ran from 1969-1976 simply called ‘Hadleigh’?  I wasn’t even born then, but there is some episode information here:  http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-8032/ 

A fourth, ‘weird and wonderful’ site is in Japanese (can anyone translate?) which boasts that the Hadleigh Pomeranian is the home of the Hadleigh ‘Superman’ – and no we haven’t come across one of those numerous dating and sex services, that are seemingly awash in our town – take a look in Google, if you don’t believe me, but this is a website about a breed of dog – I would give you the URL, but as it (the site – not the dog) downloaded a virus to my PC, I won’t repeat it here!

Well – we had to stumble across it in the end.  Hadleigh Castle, located in Essex is shown with a brief history here:  http://www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_east_anglia/178/hadleighcastle.htm  

After all this travelling around the ‘net, you don’t have end up with an appetite, so conveniently our final site is for a restaurant.  If you’re ever in Hadley, Massachusetts why not stop off at the ‘Olde Hadleigh Grille’ for a bite to eat?  Oddly it’s not the ‘Olde Hadley Grille’… the link is www.theoldehadleighgrille.com and boldly promoted by the owners that they “have created a menu that truly has something for everyone”  

All these sites were found using the search engine, Google, at the time of writing, which is in March 2004.  If you come across any weird and wonderful sites like these, please get in contact with us, as part 2 may not be that far off…