h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now, does anyone know anything about Pontadawe?

'sus

Yup - search under PONTARDAWE
Incidentally the "Pink Geranium" is also known as the Star Wars Bar because of the off-world dress style of some of its users

I would write more about various Welsh places, but I've just moved to Southampton...

I am putting together a collection of little Welsh places that don't appear on many maps. Some of them don't have have a signpost to tell you where they are (Banwen and Waungron for instance. Although Mochdre, near Newtown, is even smaller and is well sign posted). Most of these tiny places have got some sort of story, so I intend finding out something moderately interesting about each place. Or even something boring that doesn't appear in other reference books.

The great thing about Welsh place names is their translations. The name of a village always says something about its past.

I read somewhere that there are a number of Mochdre in Wales, I know of at least two myself, and each one is supposed to be one of the stopping places of Pryderin(sp?) when he was moving the pigs around in the story from the Mabinogion (Mochdre meaning Boar or pig).

I somtimes stay at one of the Mochdre villages (the one near Newtown, Mid Wales). Yes, there seem to be a lot of them about. I have heard a couple of variants on the name, though; the commonest is that they lie on drovers routes, where the pig drovers would rest when taking their little piggies to market. The word Mochdre breaks down nicely into Moch=pigs, and Dre=town or village. However, a few academics claim that it is a corruption of an earlier phrase meaning something like steep slope, and relates to the geography of the place. Me? I'll stick with the pigs!
Some more stuff here: http://www.watb.net/mochdre/)

Does anyone know the meaning of the placename 'Goytre'? There seem to be a lot of them around too. It doesn't sound very pleasant, when considered in the English context!

~A~