|  | I'm a Mansfield man. Born and bred. I love the town. So when I decided to go on a six month jaunt around the world I was bound to be homesick. Unless....
 | | A sign for Mansfield community radio station in Victoria. |
It takes a strange kind of person to go to the other side of the world and hunt down towns with the same name as his own - and here I am.
It was just a vague idea at first. You know, drop in on the odd Mansfield where and when I could but the experience was almost universally a heart warming one. Mansfield, Victoria
My first overseas Mansfield was in Victoria, Australia. Here I developed my tactics. I would usually turn up unannounced, so the first port of call was the tourism office (if they had one) or the local newspaper.
At this point I would say "hello, I'm from Mansfield in England" and hope they would do the rest.  | | Mansfield Industrial Park in Queensland, Australia. |
It worked a treat in Victoria, a skiing resort when in season, though at the time it was about 35 degrees C.
The kind ladies from the tourist bureau gave me the red carpet treatment, even granting my wish to drive out three miles to the best looking Mansfield sign for a photo. Mansfield, Queensland
The Mansfield in Queensland wasn't quite as fulfilling. A suburb of Brisbane, there wasn't much there except a sign with those magical nine letters on it. Dignity is not top of the agenda when you ask a stranger to take a photo of you with a road sign to a city suburb. New Zealand was tenuous - a stop off at the birthplace of their most famous author. Yes, you've guessed it - Katherine Mansfield. But I have to say America, which seems to have a Mansfield in every other state, was a high-point. Read about Mansfield, Louisiana >> |
