There is a myth that Melchester doesn't have an actual location, that it was never mentioned or even hinted at. This simply isn't true, plenty of geographical information is given throughout the stories. In the 50s and early 60s, Melchester is described loosely as in the Midlands and having an estuary - an impossibility in England. So we must reimagine part of the country and create a new River the Mel to replace the Dee.
The River Mel, must be a poweful river flowing north west (as shown in maps), so the only logical place is around Chester (as done in the Luna map), however, that city could not be described as being in the Midlands, so the estuary itself can be extended south. This also creates room for the two neighbouring urban areas, Shermall and Melborough, which are on the north side of the Mel. Residents of Melchester regularly use the ferry to cross the river even in the 60s and 70s, which does suggest a very wide estuary. It was mentioned in the late 90s that Melchester itself has a population of 2 million, making it far and away England's second largest city, and of course having plenty of suburbs and satellite/commuter towns. So the western city boundaries must be pretty close to the Welsh border.
However, a bit like Springfield in The Simpsons, Melchester does appear to move around a bit. I just think this is the position that fits the majority of geographical hints given. Barrie Tomlinson has also said that he made it policy to never give Melchester a geographical position, as it was a team everyone could support and its location was up to the reader.
For clarity the co-ordinates of central Melchester on this map are 53°05'02.9"N 2°46'41.0"W, this places the city just within the bounds of the West Midlands region, but far enough north to have a realistic estuary in an alternative UK.
So here it is, for the best view, open in a new tab.
Which ROTR town do you live in? I'm currently closest to North Vale, having lived close to Redpool, in London since the 80s.
NOTES: Geography is my specialist subject and the origin of place names a favourite topic. This helps massively when choosing locations, i.e. Barndale must be in higher ground to Barnford, with Barnley an obvious take on Barnsley, these three towns can be arranged along our fictional river in South Yorkshire heading north east from the hills. We know Burndean is in the north, but not particular far north. It is also a big city, so sits roughly where Sheffield is. Thus the country begins to take shape when more of these bits of the puzzle are added.
The story centres around Melchester, so there are lots of midlands places. Peripheral areas where the Rovers rarely play, like Kent and Dorset have far fewer. But again in real life there aren't many Football League teams in either county.
The font size indicated the likely size of each town, teams called "City" are likely to be in bigger settlements than teams called "Town".
Place names are very often linked to a region of the UK. For example, Carnbrook is placed in Cornwall because the only places in England beginning with Carn are found in Cornwall and there are quite a few, although no Carnbrook. This logic works for many of the places that were never given any geographical hints in any story.
The River Mel was also know as the Mill or even Mil in the past, this means Millbay will be at the mouth and Mill Vale in the middle to upper course. I have merged Millborough, Milborough and Melborough into one district on the north side of the Mel.
FINAL POINT - This map is just a bit of fun, last time I shared a map, a few Welshmen got quite annoyed, suggesting that I had invaded North Wales and claimed parts for England. This time I definitely haven't stolen any Welsh land!
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