I am confused by the two (2) following standardized places. Are these one and the same place? The
Answers
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I think that you are right to be confused! However, there is a difference (rightly or wrongly). According to the FS Standard Places "Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, Wales, United Kingdom" and "Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, Wales" refer to the same underlying place and are two place-names (with a single "L") for the Poor Law Union (PLU). This was the body that administered the Poor Law over the area in question.
The Bedwellty place-names with two"L" are all the other "places" such as the parish, town or populated place. Logically, unless you have Poor Law records, you should be using the 2L variant.
Should the PLU be spelt with one "L"? No idea - it's a single "L" in Wikipedia but on Peter Higginbotham's Workhouses web-site it's spelled with two. There are maps on Peter's site that show 2. There are links from the Wikipedia article to maps in visionofbritain.org.uk and all show 2. So, personally I have my doubts about that single-L.
Really one needs the legislation that set Bedwellty PLU up in 1849 (oh yes, the FS dates are wrong - they've just done the default dates). It might be that the Victorians used an English variant - it happened on occasions, for instance the famous Heritage Railway, the Ffestiniog is actually legally the Festiniog Railway because that's the spelling in the legislation setting it up. But that's just a vague possibility.
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