One of the things I love about the UK is its preponderance of crazy place names. During boring car journeys, I often pour over the road map to find the most ridiculous-sounding place name in the vicinity. I have a soft spot for Westward Ho! just because of its exclamation mark, and I still giggle when I see the sign for a village called Pink Green. Near my brother’s house in Lancashire there are two hamlets beside one another called Nook and Cow Brow.
We all know what the longest place name is in the UK, but do you know what the longest place name is in England?
Here are some of my favourite place names. Many of these are local to me, and I enjoy seeing the names on road signs.
You just have to see this name to start laughing, as Richard Whiteley did on Countdown–his mirth at the village’s name ended with him being invested as Wetwang’s mayor! The name also turns up in The Lord of the Rings (described as “a desolate lonely place between Rohan and Gondar”), and it’s mentioned in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
In the Domesday Book, Wetwang is listed as Wetuuangha, though no one can decide what the word actually means. Some believe it derives from the Norse vaett vangr, ‘field for the trial of legal action’, while others think the word has its origins in Old English, meaning ‘wet field’ (there’s Driffield, ‘dry field’, not far away). Wetwang’s archaeology is rich, including Iron Age chariots and the skeletons of two men and a tribal queen, plus an earlier Bronze Age burial of a chariot and its rider.
The Land of Nod is a hamlet at the end of an unmetalled road—I went to find it yesterday afternoon and was singularly unimpressed, for there’s nothing there to indicate why this place was named the Land of Nod (unless it’s so boring that visitors fall asleep).
The original Land of Nod appears in the Old Testament as the place Cain fled to after he murdered Abel: And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. (Genesis 4.16)
‘Nod’ is the root of the Hebrew word ‘to wander’, and some scholars believe this passage refers to Cain being cursed to wander the land forever rather than settling down in a specific place called Nod. Quite why a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire should have the same name is anyone’s guess.
Ryme Intrinseca is a village in Dorset, though in 1086 it was located in Somerset as ‘a manor called Rime’. In 1102, now called Ryme, it became part of the Diocese of Salisbury in Dorset. The name is a combination of Saxon and Latin—Ryme comes from the word rima, meaning a rim, border, or ridge, and probably refers to the hills nearby. As there were two adjacent manors in Ryme, they were identified by the prefixes ‘In’ and ‘Ex’ (in and out) and became known as Ryme Intrinseca and Ryme Extrinseca, though Ryme Extrinseca no longer exists.
Ryme Intrinseca was immortalised by John Betjeman in his poem ‘Dorset’.
So, what’s the longest place name in England? It’s half the size of Llanfair PG’s name and it’s a village in North Yorkshire—Sutton-Under-Whitestonecliffe.
Place names are great – I see a lot in my day-job, sending out orders for online shops. Did you know there’s a place in Finland called “Espoo”? That makes us crease up every time (sorry, people who live in Espoo, I’m sure our place names mean silly things in Finnish so you can laugh at us too)
There’s some amusing names in Shropshire and along the Marches, though annoyingly I can’t remember them right now… However, I can tell you that Mordor (well, Morda at least) is next to Oswestry
I’ve been to Espoo! One of my friends lives in Finland and we drove through Espoo one day LOL! And there’s a place called Hell in Norway, though I think there’s one in the UK, too. Chris Rea obviously knew what he was singing about.
Ahhh so that’s where Mordor is! Next time I’m down that way I must look out for the big eye in the sky
We have a few dafties up here – the best one being Happisburgh which is pronounced Haysborough. Go figure.
Always makes me smile!
We also have Horsey, which I set Mere Mortals in, not pronounced like horsey horsey, but whorsey.
Oh and Puddledock and Stiffkey
In the town where my mum lives there’s a place called Caldmore which is pronounced ‘Karma’ – never could work that one out.
I like Stiffkey. It sounds a bit rude, like Wetwang.
I always remember one of the Radio One DJs falling about laughing when he had to read out a traffic report which included the (perfectly legitimate) placename Lickey End.