Place names

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,C.G.
Date: 12 Jul 20 - 04:48 AM

Upper Thong and Nether Thong in Yorkshire.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: BobL
Date: 10 Jul 20 - 02:06 AM

Shitlington in Yorkshire changed its name by dropping the h

Its Bedfordshire namesake, when Queen Victoria was due to visit the area, became Shillington.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Jul 20 - 02:01 AM

The site is called Nob End. Does that ring a bell...?

Well a bell end would, wouldn't it?

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Neil D
Date: 09 Jul 20 - 11:41 PM

Knob Lick in Missouri. Someone earlier mentioned Intercourse, Pennsylvania which, I'd like to point out, is just down the road from Blue Ball.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,John from Kemsing
Date: 08 Jul 20 - 10:42 AM

Near the French town of Vigny, west of Paris, at one particular "T" junction there is a sign post which indicates to the left, "Us" and to the right, " Marines".

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 04:28 AM

Just north of Manchester there's a former Victorian industrial site which was once used as a dump for alkaline waste. It's now famous among botanists for harbouring weird and wonderful casual alien plants. The site is called Nob End. Does that ring a bell...?

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 02:45 AM

In Gloucestershire there is a village called Nympsfield with a nearby hamlet called Cockadilly

And in Te Awanga, Hastings, Hawkes Bay, NZ I saw a sign to Knob Hill.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 02:10 PM

Then there's Ramsbottom, oft dubbed by us northern yokels Tupp's Arse...

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 01:52 PM

Lynsore bottom- hamlet near Canterbury- not nice for Lyn

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Murpholly
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 06:59 AM

Part of Bradford is called Idle. The Idle Working Men's Club has the highest membership of any club in England.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Jos
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 06:55 AM

As a child I had a Birthday Record with a rather naff song about being seven "Isn't it heaven to be seven ..." on one side, and on the other side was a much better song about a runaway bus, listing dozens of places in southern England through which the bus went. The bit I remember being "... through Highgate and Reigate and then he passed my gate".

Subject: RE: Place names
From: G-Force
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 05:32 AM

You could do worse than read the words to 'Slow Train' by Flanders & Swann.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,SteveT
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 04:17 AM

“Both Barrels (Nately Scures” by Dick Henrywood has lots.

‘Originally inspired by signposts on the oft-travelled A303 pointing to Compton Pauncefoot, Sutton Montis, Corton Denham and Charlton Hawthorne, this tribute to double-barreled village names grew like Topsy with the aid of an AA Great Britain Road Atlas (1983 edition). The choice of odd names was huge but, rather ironically, none from the original signposts made the final cut. Finished in 2008 after several years’ procrastination.”

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 03:40 AM

Shitlington in Yorkshire changed its name by dropping the h. :-)

Subject: RE: Place names
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 03:14 AM

Billy Anthonys Bottom, Pratts Bottom, Badgers Mount Fannystown

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 02:50 AM

Adge Cutler wrote a song about Nempnett Thrubwell - I only ever heard Acker Bilk sing it (Adge was a roadie for Acker at one time)

U Toob
Lyrics - Down in Nempnett Thrubwell
Wiki - Nempnett Thrubwell

Subject: RE: Place names
From: peteglasgow
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 02:45 AM

we live in Cockermouth. a town as lovely as it sounds until there is too much rain - not unusual in Cumbria. As we stay where the river cocker meets the river derwent we are vulnerable to flooding = 7 feet deep in 2009 and 5 feet in 2015 . i'm afraid we don't think much about the more pleasant connotations of the name.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,Bert
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 12:21 AM

Bruce from Bathhurst challenges us to write songs with place names.

Here's one I wrote recently to the tune of Barbara Allen.

In Barking Town,where I was born
there was a fair maid dwelling
and all the Yobs cried lovely Bristols
when they saw Sonia Snelling

All in the merry month of May
when gasworks smog was smelling
young Billy Bloggs cried “well a day”
for the love on Sonia Snelling

He cried “I haven't got a chance”
and as the tears were welling
he drowned himself in Barking creek
for the love of Sonia Snelling

And slowly, slowly she came up
to the place they said he fell in.
She slipped upon the muddy bank
and splosh went Sonia Snelling

It was about three days or more
their bodies started swelling
don't eat the fish that come to feast
on Billy Bloggs and Sonia Snelling

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Mr Happy
Date: 29 Jul 13 - 03:09 AM

Wank!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Old Grey Wolf
Date: 29 Jul 13 - 02:10 AM

Just north of Askam-in-Furness, Cumbria (but really Lancashire!) is a hamlet called Paradise, it has a beautiful sea view. It used to have a roadside sign, but it was stolen so many times the council stopped replacing it.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Jul 13 - 01:18 AM

Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire is called Ozzle by its inhabitants, I believe.

Tho, as to these odd OK pronunciations, you can't be sure how they go timewise. I was brought up that, until recently, Daventry was pronounced "Daintry" by the posh. But then read somewhere that this was a C16 misapprehension that it was founded on the site of a great tree planted by the Vikings [Danes], whence "Dane-tree", and that up to then it was pronounced as spelt, as it is now. Who knows the truth of such matters? ~~ e.g as to the personal name, some Featherstonhaughs pronounce themselves as spelt, some Fanshawe, some Feather-stonnach &c.



~M~

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,eldergirl
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 08:13 PM

A friend of ours says Carrickfergus simply wouldn't have the same magic if it was about Nempnett Thrubwell. I wish I was in Nempnett Thrubwell, only for nights in Compton Wick... Nah.
One of my favourites is Trottiscliffe in Kent, but it's pronounced Trusley. Confusing but properly English like Featherstonehaugh or Cholmondeley. ;^D tee hee!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 11:50 AM

Decies is pronounced DEES-eez.
I'm quietly fond of the name Hackballscross, Co Louth, and also Coolfancy, Co Wexford. Then there are complicated ones like Muirhevanmore, Co Louth, which I think means the grave of the great woman, and Muiceanach Idir Dhá Sháile, which means the place of boars between two saltwater inlets.
Dublin has nice names - Mullinahack around where Oliver Bond flats are now, and meaning the Mill of the Shit; there's an image to conjure with. And there's the conjunction of streets built by Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda, which include Henry Street, Moore Street, Earl Street, Of Alley (now Henry Place), and Drogheda Street (now the northern part of O'Connell Street).

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Dave Hunt
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 08:51 AM

Staffs/Derbys border area Draycott in the Clay and Marston in the Mud.

Shrops has Knockin - and yes, the village shop has in big letters
The Knockin Shop!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,Henry Piper of Ottery
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 07:37 AM

On the Shropshire/Powys border near Clun, lies the small hamlet of New Invention, bits its not, its been there at least 2oo years I believe.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 07:28 AM

Assowoman, Bumpass, Onancock - all in Vagina ... I mean Virginia.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 06:28 AM

Surely an opportunity for an enterprising Yorkshireman to open the Fryup Fryup!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Mr Happy
Date: 28 Jul 13 - 05:48 AM

Fryup, North Yorkshire - unfortunately no shop or chippy so you can't get your daily cholesterol in Fryup!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,Millindale
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 05:32 AM

When shopping in Castleford, West Yorkshire we have to walk under Ticklecock Bridge to the shops.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Splott Man
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 03:44 AM

On a recent trip to west Wales, I passed through the villages of Mwnt and Plwmp ("W" is the Welsh equivalent of the short "oo").

Subject: RE: Place names
From: TheSnail
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 09:38 AM

I've always been rather fond of Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire. Is the species extinct?

There is a Little Common near Bexhill which, like Ugley and Nasty already mentioned, has a Women's Institute. It also has a Working Men's club.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Sarah McQuaid
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 07:19 AM

Tom Bliss has created a rather wonderful pie recipe consisting entirely of English and Welsh town names, and has kindly gone to the trouble of putting a video on YouTube complete with helpful subtitles that spell out the names in question. Still has me giggling helplessly every time I hear it (it's also on his album "The Whisper"). Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tltEZzTxxs

Sarah McQuaid
www.sarahmcquaid.com

Subject: RE: Place names
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 04:02 AM

More on Dorset villages: within a close radius of Ryme Intrensica, already mentioned, you will find Mudford Sock, Beer Hackett, Preston Plucknett, Melbury Bubb...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Place names
From: fretless
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 03:41 PM

Havre de Grace in Maryland, which makes my list because it is pronounced "have da grass" locally.

Ad I've just returned from a week camping at Lake Anna in Virginia near the town of Bumpass, which I take as derived from either a poor route through the mountains or a rather sily dance.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Les from Hull
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 03:41 PM

Recently the Mayor of Fucking in Austria has become upset that a German beer company has been given the right to call a light coloured beer (called 'hell' in German) 'Fucking Hell'.

story here

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,Guest Millindale.
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 03:29 PM

How about my home town of Penistone.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Bettynh
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 02:55 PM

Music with real place names:

New Jersey

Massachusetts

Subject: RE: Place names
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 01:27 PM

One of the Shetland Islands is called Yell.

Dorset is a county noted for the outré names of many of its villages ~~ Ryme Intrensica is the one which comes to mind as my favourite.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Sarah McQuaid
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 01:13 PM

To get pretty much anywhere from where I live, in far West Cornwall a couple of miles from Land's End, you have to drive up the A30 -- which takes you past signs for Ventongimps, Broadwoodwidger and then a sign for "Hicksmill and Polyphant", which sounds to me like the names of the characters in a Beckett two-hander.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 01:39 AM

Here in Cambridgeshire we have Six Mile Bottom.

Coming so late to this thread, I am surprised to find no reference to the East Anglian villages of Great Snoring & Little Snoring, near Fakenham, Norfolk.

Nor has anyone cited Stephen Vincent Benét's famous poem of 1931, "I Have Fallen In Love With American Names", whose last line, "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee", was used as the title of Dee Brown's fine 1970 history of the American Indians.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Howard Jones
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 03:54 AM

As an Essex Calf, long exiled in t'North, I'm particularly fond of this old rhyme of Essex place names. It was published by Spike Mays in his book "Reuben's Corner" about his childhood growing up on the Essex-Suffolk border. He learned it from a horseman on the farm, George "Toe-rag" Smith.

Willingale Doe and Willingale Spain
Bulvan and Bobbingworth, Colne Engaine
Wenden Lofts, Beaumont-cum-Mose, Bung Row
Gestingthorpe, Ugley and Fingringhoe
Helions Bumpstead and Mountnessing
Bottle End, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Messing
Islands of Canvey, Foulness, Potton
Stondon Massey and Belchamp Otton
Ingrave and Inworth and Kedington
Shallow Bowels, Ulting and Kelvedon
Margaret Roothing and Manningtree
The bolder you sound 'em, the better they be!

Subject: Lyr Add: THOSE NAMES (Banjo Paterson)
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 03:14 AM

THOSE NAMES

The shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong,
After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along:
The 'ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before,
And the novice who, toiling bravely, had tommyhawked half a score,
The tarboy, the cook, and the slushy, the sweeper that swept the board,
The picker-up, and the penner, with the rest of the shearing horde.

There were men from the inland stations where the skies like a furnace glow,
And men from the Snowy River, the land of the frozen snow;
There were swarthy Queensland drovers who reckoned all land by miles,
And farmers' sons from the Murray, where many a vineyard smiles.

They started at telling stories when they wearied of cards and games,
And to give these stories a flavour they threw in some local names,
And a man from the bleak Monaro, away on the tableland,
He fixed his eyes on the ceiling, and he started to play his hand.

He told them of Adjintoothbong, where the pine-clad mountains freeze,
And the weight of the snow in summer breaks branches off the trees,
And, as he warmed to the business, he let them have it strong—
Nimitybelle, Conargo, Wheeo, Bongongolong;
He lingered over them fondly, because they recalled to mind
A thought of the old bush homestead, and the girl that he left behind.

Then the shearers all sat silent till a man in the corner rose;
Said he, 'I've travelled a-plenty but never heard names like those,
Out in the western districts, out on the Castlereagh
Most of the names are easy—short for a man to say.

'You've heard of Mungrybambone and the Gundabluey pine,
Quobbotha, Girilambone, and Terramungamine,
Quambone, Eunonyhareenyha, Wee Waa, and Buntijo—'
But the rest of the shearers stopped him: 'For the sake of your jaw, go slow.
If you reckon those names are short ones out where such names prevail,
Just try and remember some long ones before you begin the tale.'

And the man from the western district, though never a word he said,
Just winked with his dexter eyelid, and then he retired to bed.


Banjo Paterson 1890
Australia

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 07:39 PM

North Devon (UK) has Woolfardisworthy - Town Ident Sign says (Pronounced Woolsey) under the name !

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,daCat
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 06:14 PM

How about these:

In Ireland - Muckish, Stillorgan, Ballsbridge, Dolphin's Barn, Phoenix Park, the River Poddle, The Ragg, Moycarkey (local pronunciation "My car key"), Scribblestown, Ballygall, Dollymount, Booterstown, Usher's Island (not an island, of course), Horse and Jockey, Glasshouse, Callow, Bloody Foreland, Dunmore Head... Oh I could go on but I won't, and, yes, I'm Irish.

In England - so many have been mentioned. What about Ashby de la Zouche? There is also a town called Shitterton. To defeat countless thefts of the town sign, it now takes the form of an enormous carved boulder. And isn't there a street in London called Petty France?

Finally: In Austria - Fucking. Oh, yes.

Anyone know how to pronounce "Decies" in Waterford? There's a Decies within Drum and a Decies without Drum. Pronunciation of either one greatly appreciated.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: GUEST,Mr Happy
Date: 30 Dec 05 - 07:52 AM

Embarrass is a village located in Waupaca County, Wisconsin.

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Tootler
Date: 31 Aug 05 - 05:27 AM

More from County Durham, UK

Snods Edge
Wallish Walls

Oh! and Toronto is about 3 miles from Bishop Auckland

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 02:48 PM

And Thats Another 1oo !!!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 02:47 PM

OOPS Its ESE actualy - And Moscow is just a bit East of Kilmarnock !!

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 02:45 PM

Egypt is WSW of Andover !! (Hampshire UK)

Subject: RE: Place names
From: Tam the man
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 02:02 PM

other places in UK are

bonkle. lankirkshire Scotland
bottoms. west yorkshire
catbrain. avon
lower assenden. oxfordshire
north piddle. worcestershire
ogle. northumberland
pant. shorpshire
pratt's bottom. kent
slaggyford. northumberland
twatt/upper. twatt orkney
undy. gwent(Wales)

These are real places

Tam