Is it just me, or are doubled-barrelled place-names inherently funny? I give you:
Bishops Stortford
St Albans
St Ives
Milton Keynes
Newton Abbot
Kings Lynn
Great Yarmouth
East Cheam
West Bromwich
Bognor Regis
Waltham Abbey
Newport Pagnell
Potters Bar
Hemel Hempstead
Saffron Walden
... don't get me started on place-names like:
Ashby-de-la-Zouche
Weston-Super-Mare
Welwyn Garden City
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Friday 4 July 2008
Towns with double-barrelled names
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36 comments:
You missed the best one: Blandford Forum
Stanford-le-Hope ?
Theydon Bois, and my favourite: Havering-atte-Bower
Brilliant, keep 'em coming!
Lytham St Annes
and ...
Charnock Richard
Barnacre-with-Bonds
Middle Wallop
Scotton Pinkney ... oh no, sorry, hang on a minute *rush of nostalgia*
Moreton in Marsh
Slyne-with-Hest
Bolton-le-Sands
Didn't the comedian Boothby Graffoe take his professional name from the town of the same name in Lincolnshire?
Midsomer Norton
Stow on the Wold
Now I'm off to watch Le Tour preview on ITV4.
But not forgetting:
Midsomer Murders!!
Lower Peover
Lower Peover
Sorry Greg, that last one missed the deadline.
Damn. I forgot Chipping Sodbury.
My personal favourites are Rotherfield Peppard in south Oxfordshire, or maybe Berrick Salome.
But I'd really like to live in "Toker's Green", it sounds fun!
Royston Vasey
Warmington-On-Sea
Camberwick green
Lark Rise
Twin Peaks
Crinkly Bottom
Holby City
Pebble Mill
Dawsons Creek
and
Beverley Hills 90210
BQ, of that list only Pebble Mill is a proper place (but it's not a town or village) and BH 90210 is not in the UK.
Shudy Camps. Saffron Walden. Bury St Edmunds. King's Lynn.
Actually, my wife has a game of picking a West Indies XI from English place names. "It's Blandford Forum bowling fast left arm from the bus-stop end. As he passes the umpire he....."
Perhaps we could narrow this down to "Daft-sounding place names that start with B"? There seems to be a preponderance of B's.
Bovey Tracey.
Upton Snodsbury
Lower Slaughter
Nether Wallop
Wilsford cum Lake
fictitious ?
yup !
Bashall Eaves
Bay Horse
Bamber Bridge
Bamber Gascoigne
Broughton Beck
Barrow-in-Furness
Belle Vue
Bishop Middleham
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Wilton
Barton-le-Willows
Bardon Scale
Bryant's Bottom
Horton-cum-Studley
It'd be fun listening to the commentary if Horton-cum-Studley's local cricket XI ever play against Chorlton-cum-Hardy's.
I came across Helions Bumpstead today, and I wasn't looking on porpoise, honest.
That is slightly dafter than "Steeple Bumstead" but not as rude. A town near "St Edmundsbury", as it happens.
While researching many old favourites for my English students, I gathered:
Buckland Dinham
Witham Friary
Upton Noble
Chewton Mendip
Queen Camel
Charlton Mackerel
Marston Bigot
Gurney Slade
Shepton Mallet (of course)
Longbridge Deverill (and Monkton, Kingston and Brixton Deverills)
Dilton Marsh
Farrington Gurney
Market Lavington
Fontmell Magna
Stour Provost
Fifehead Magdalen
Cerne Abbass
Milton Keynes
Hinton Charterhouse
Frampton Coterell
Huish Episcopi (my favourite)
Castle Combe
...
Do I win 5 pounds? hahaha
Martin (now in NZ)
Martin, that's a superb list, thanks.
But no you don't win £5, the competition deadline was 12 years ago.
Thanks for responding Mark.... yes I saw this blog was from 2008, but I appreciated the extra ideas and imagined you might still be alive, hahaha..
And the 5 pound claim was a joke of course :-)
I left UK 21 years ago for NZ...we have a very different set of naming rules and pronunciation over here of course.
But when a younger man in UK I lived and worked all over Wilts and Somerset in farming communities, thus regularly visiting all these quirky-named villages, nay hamlets, in many cases.
Thanks again for responding anyway!
Martin :-)
Now that this post has been resurrected, may I suggest Shellow Bowells and Matching Tye?
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