What's in a name?
On most days I pass Aubigny Drive and I've often wondered how it got its name. Someone once told me that, long ago, the builder who put in that road and the first few houses had named it in memory of his brother who had been killed in the First World War at Aubigny. Has anyone else heard that story, or any other concerning the name of that road? I wonder if Arnold Hindley knows the answer?
Taking
a look at my road atlas of France I found that there are, in fact six towns or
villages named Aubigny and no less than ten more named Aubigny au/aux/en/la/les/sur...!
If the story is
true, then I assume it will be one of the Aubignys in the
north of France.
However, Aubigny-sur-Nère—in the department of Cher, about 100 miles south of Paris, and not too for from Bourges— has a story to interest the Scots in our congregation. It's all to do with the Auld Alliance— which dates back to the late thirteenth century. The alliance was revived in the early fifteenth century when 15,000 Scottish mercenaries joined Charles VII's forces to fight the English. Over the years many remained in France, some served with Joan of Arc, and some went on to form the Garde Ecossaise, the loyal bodyguard of later French kings.
For two hundred years the town was controlled by the House of Stuart and is still known locally as the cité des Stuarts. There's a Franco-Scottish festival held each July (that makes the mind boggle!); the former Château des Stuarts serves as the town hall, and the town even has its own tartan! This combines the colours of the town's crest with those of the Stuart of Atholl (see Scottish Tartans World Register if you don't believe me).
