Looking at Google Maps, the end of the "river" is at the end of a brook: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=53.105896,6.081952&spn=0.004689,0.009377&t=h&z=17&om=1 - the roundabout is also seen on the top Wooster Collective photo.

I think my grandmother used to have one of those - and it is exactly for opening eggs.

The war in the 1870's was not the Franco-Russian, but the Franco-Prussian War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War

In Denmark, one of the major charities has just released "give a goat": http://givenged.dk - you can give a goat, a cow, 200 condoms, a bee swarm ... The thing is delivered in Malawi, Kirghistan or elsewhere and you get a nice card to present to the givee (is that a word?).