Here's a similar kind of long-lived myth about the small town of Coggeshall in Essex. Here, the inhabitants are said to be not so much crazy as just plain slow-witted and disorganized. The link suggests that the idea originates from a group of civilian volunteers from Coggeshall during the Napoleonic Wars, who were satirized in a very popular play written by the town's schoolmaster in 1804 - an earlier version of "Dad's Army".

Are there any more towns or locations which long-standing "reputations" such as these, that other Mudcatters can add ?

- jeanie