Friday, October 21, 2005

English towns with funny names

Stellblog , who is Scottish, thinks English place names are funny:
Someone at the AA, Ordnance Survey or whatever hell branch of the government it is that is responsible for naming English towns and villages, must be taking the piss.

As I perused a road atlas recently, I was struck by the number of plain stupid names that abound, for whatever reason, in Kent:

We have a station called Bat & Ball, a town called Battle (must have been a useful pointer when William was wondering where to start his fight), the downright disgusting Pratt's Bottom, and that triumvirate of villages named in honour of the Marx brothers: Upper Dicker, Lower Dicker and simply The Dicker.


Also:

* Bishops Itchington
* Feckenham
* Willey
* Foul End
* Lickey End
* Wyre Piddle
* Piddle Brook
* Bell End
* Druggers End
* Butthole Lane

Could he be making these up?

Butthole Lane?
at

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:19 PM

    Butthole Lane is in a small town called Shepshed, Junction 23 M1. The name Butthole Lane was given as the holes in the ground, known as "butts" for shooting grouse at the local estate, were in the field at the end of the lane. The lane and the name have been around for a considerable period of time - interesting maybe? But still bloody funny!

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  2. Anonymous11:49 AM

    I'd like to add Wetwang to the list.

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  3. miriam sawyer11:00 PM

    Thank you, anon.

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  4. Fozz12:17 PM

    How about Pity Me and No Place in County Durham...

    Or the two places called Twatt in Scotland, one of them on Shetland, the other on Orkney :-D

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  5. Paco7:51 AM

    Couple of Irish ones -

    Cock Hill in Donegal

    Muff, also in Donegal

    Hackballscross in Co. Louth

    Bastardstown in Wexford

    Termonfeckin in Louth

    Nobber in Meath

    Blueballs in Offaly

    Cum - Co. Mayo ( I'll leave the "in" out there. )

    Mullagh in Cavan

    Tubbercurry in Sligo

    There's quite a few more but I'll stop before I bore ye...

    More here if you are interested -

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055295449

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  6. Paco7:52 AM

    And Muff in Donegal actually does have a Diving club...

    http://www.muffdivingclub.ie/

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  7. Anonymous11:24 PM

    You've left out 'Failsworth' just north of Manchester.

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  8. Anonymous6:15 AM

    In South Africa we have a place called: Tweebuffelsmeteenskootgeskietfontein, which roughly translates to I shot two buffaloes with one bullet stream. Obviously, it is out in the sticks.

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  9. Anonymous10:52 AM

    land of nod neqar driffield

    ReplyDelete