Highways And Byways
Most, if not all, Rimmers are proud of their name, even those living in Southport where the Rimmers outnumber both the Smiths and Jones' and some regard it as a 'common' name, not in my hearing I might add! What better then than to have an address that reflects that pride? Southport, the acknowledged original base of the Rimmer clan, has two such addresses; Rimmers Avenue and Rimmer Green, both are rather modest places. Rimmers Avenue consists of only five or six houses and runs right alongside the main Southport to Liverpool railway line; Rimmer Green, on the outskirts of town, was originally a corporation housing estate and although now much improved under private ownership, is nothing to write home about.
Perhaps we could do better in some other places? Formby has Rimmers Avenue which might be quite nice? Liverpool has its Rimmer Avenue in Broad Green, which I believe is a pleasant area, but is only a stones throwaway from the M62! Rimmer Close isn't much better, being just off Hawthorne Road, which I know to be very busy, having travelled along it twice a day for more years than I care to remember (on my way to and from the office). Rimmer Grove in St Helens looks quite promising, being close to Castle Park. Manchester also has a Rimmer Close, of which I know nothing about.
The one thing that all these addresses have in common is that they have very few houses and are cul-de-sacs - in other words are short and are going nowhere, which in a way is rather worrying! Perhaps we would do better abroad.
Denmark has six Rimmersvejs and Sweden had Rimmarevagen, Rimmargatan, Rimmaregaten and Rimnersgatan, which surely backs up the theory that we are descended from Viking stock? Germany has Rimmerberg, which I rather fancy Rimmer of Rimmerberg (or would that be Rimmer von Rimmerberg?) has a certain ring to it!
When it comes to looking for a town with the Rimmer name, the phrase "hen's teeth" comes to mind. Again Denmark comes closest with Rimmerhus. I tried to find out something about this town without much success; Microsoft Autoroute shows it as a little black dot, well off the main road. The Internet comes up with a few sites which obviously say something about the place, but it's all Double Dutch to me! Of course there is always Rimbo in Stockholm, Sweden? After all, that is the nickname a lot of us Rimmers acquired at school, long before Sylvester Stallone used the name Rambo for his bloodthirsty films; Sylvester in my day was the name of a cat which featured in a very different kind of film.
Of course, there are now Rimmers to be found throughout the world and some of them are probably already living in towns, streets, avenues and closes bearing the Rimmer name. There certainly is, or was, a Rimmer family living in Rimmers Avenue in Southport. Let us hope that many more of them join us here in the Rimmer Family History Society.