I am the egg van

A dull and dreary day failed to inspire me until I caught sight of this van. I don't know if you can see the writing [go [url=LARGE]LARGE[/url]] but it says it comes from Fferm Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Farm, the main supplier of free range eggs in this area.

It's not unusual to find farms and houses named after distant parts. Retired sea captains often called their houses after far-flung ports and likewise farms would be given the names of places that had a connection for the family. Wales had strong links with Pennsylvania. When I visit Philadelphia and I look at the public transport map it's like opening a map of Wales: Haverford, Narberth and St David's (all Pembrokeshire towns), Brynmawr, Radnor, Bala Cynwyd and more are all stations on the network.

Further down the coast from here there's a tiny deserted village that once went by the name of Pennsylvania. The track leading out of the cluster of now-ruined dwellings was dubbed The Road to America. Almost on the cliff edge, this was a community of outlawed Quakers whose sights were set westward to a land of religious freedom.

William Penn gave a verbal undertaking to provide 40,000 acres of land to Welsh Quakers who were being persecuted in this country following the Restoration. Large numbers emigrated and established Welsh speaking communities in what was called the Welsh Tract or New Wales. They called their new settlement after their old ones. By 1700 one third of the area's population was Welsh and the language was freely heard on the streets of Philadelphia. A second wave of emigration brought out Baptists and their new colony was to be given the name Cambria. But Penn reneged on his promise, refused the settlers self-government and called the state after his own name. Apparently he tried to pretend that Penn was the same as the Welsh word 'pen' meaning head or top, thus: 'high woodlands'. (Pull the other one Bill!)

The Beatles