so…snape fans have speculated where cokeworth is located in the england map or what it’s equivalence would be. i’ve seen people speculate it’s probably up north perhaps. maybe snape’s a northerner.
however.
it’s been stated multiple times that cokeworth is in the midlands. so we’re thinking northampton, shropshire, stoke, birmingham.
but i prefer to think it’s in the black country. maijly for these reasons:
1. cokeworth is an industrial town, even if spinner’s end seems mainly abandoned, and the black country was the birth of the indsutrial revolution.
2. the black country was known for steelworks, glassworks and cokeworks which maybe where the town got its title from.
3. the black country suffered from high unemployment due to the closing down of a lot of industrial sites in the 60s and 70s which ties into the idea of spinner’s end being practically desolate now, and also the strain on the snape’s household’s economic position.
4. petunia met vernon dursley and marries him. his job was being the director of a firm thay made drills. which are made of steel. steelworks anyone?
5. which leads to my last and favourite theory; petunia marrying vernon who perhaps also came from the black country then decided to name their child after something close to home. a nearby town perhaps - dudley.
If anyone ever reads this reblog I’d like to draw their attention to here:
This is a very old analysis, much of it doesn’t mean much to me being outside of the UK, so I can’t really speak to it — but if someone has counterpoints to it, I’d love to hear it.
I also found this account very interesting and agree with almost everything, i also did a little research on the town mentioned in the essay, Cradley Heath, and came to some interesting conclusions. Please correct me on things i might have gotten wrong, i do not live in England, also please excuse any mistakes i make in english, it’s not my first language 😅
- As stated in that essay, there is a real street called Spinner’s End Dr in Cradley Heath; from what i gathered on old maps and Google maps, there is a small canal and a meadow-like playing field close to that street, as well as a fish and chips shop (dont know for how long it has been there though) so it is quite possible that this is the place Rowling envisioned in her books;
- The town was famous for chain making: it used to be a famous center for the production of chains before WW2, around 2/3 of the chain-making workshops in Britain were situated in the area at that time. This specific industry started declining in the 1950s, although the iron/steel works business continued to exist until the recession in the 1980s. If i would place any bets on Tobias Snape’s profession, it would be a job in ironworks or mining, since i found an account of a mine closing in 1959, resulting in a loss of 118 jobs. That would explain a lot;
- Dudley is one of the neighbouring towns, it is actually right next to Cradley Heath;
- There also used to be a motorcycling team, the Cradley Heathens, which was formed in Dudley and popular in its surroundings in the 60s. If anyone is wondering why the hell did Eileen Prince marry a misanthropic muggle, it might be because he was kinda cool on his motorcycle idk;
- There is an old library in the area of Spinners End Dr; also two methodist churches, one of which is on a street called Granger’s Lane and a baptist church. I just thought of California dreamin’ and added this here for fanfic purposes;
- The last one i recognised quite late, but the name Heath is obviously connected to Heathcliff, the infamous, yet tragic anti-hero of Wuthering heights, from whom Snape is allegedly inspired from.
I had a lot of fun doing this, so here are the two links i skimmed through if anyone is interested:
Those links offer a very detailed history of the region by a man who grew up there in the 1960s. It also includes his personal experience with living in the area. It should be noted that the author experienced domestic violence, so im putting a tw for violence for the second link:
i actually hate human nature/family of blood discourse actually. because there are so many layers to it and i feel like people are being wilfully obtuse.
i also think part of the problem (and the era as a whole) is that rtd is not as good as subtle writing as he thinks he is.
You know - it’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t concern yourself with right and wrong. When you just…do things for a laugh. That’s your problem, Batman - and it’s hurting your efficacy:You’refartooserious.
