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

Entry: Skelmersdale, Lancashire, UK - A720893
Author: Z the Scout (and now ACE) who can't spell - U185843

Well go on.. what do you think?

When I lived in Liverpool the locals used to say that "Skem" was where they sent Liverpool people who'd done something very bad...

That's probably a bit unfair though. In any case your article looks good. There are a few big jumps in it - esp the history section and a few typos but nothing major.

I'm glad to hear that things are looking up for the place, anyrate.

Sprout

Yeah strangley things started looking up when I left there four years ago! my parents are still there though....

Oh and what have I missed out of the history section? but nothing much did happen before it became a new town? and where do you think the jumps are?

I've added a little more on the history of Skelmersdale now so hopefully it will flow a little better.

Skem! I've been waiting twenty years to tell this joke.
What's the difference between VD and a house in Skem?
You can get rid of VD

LOL oh yes I know that feeling in the 12 years since mmy parents have lived there, we have had our house on the market for 3 years solid. And how many people have viewed it? 2 and one of them was under the age of 3.

Maybe I should add a catagory as "jokes about skelmersdale" still that joke might be considered offenisve (by people who have Herpes, a VD you can't always get rid off.. )

I've added some new parts. Would anyoen like to make some constuctive comments! Or failing that I'd like a new joke..

Something I thought was weird was the way the Skem accent changed, which I noticed when I met my Skem-born cousins at a funeral a few years ago. When we were kids, they had a distinctly Lancastrian accent, yet twenty years later they sounded very Scouse.

Watching Pop Stars: The Rivals (I *know*, but it gets quite compelling seeing people's hearts breat on live TV), I was surprised by one of the contestants (the very young lad) who is from North Wales, but sounds Scouse-ish. My grandparents' generation were really the first proper Scousers, as pre-1930 the accent was much closer to Lancastrian. You can still hear distinct accents from districts within Liverpool and the surrounding areas (a Bootle accent is different to a Huyton accent), but the influence of the accent itself is now heard in Ormskirk, Southpork, St Helens and Widnes. The next generation will all sound much more Scouse.

Not sure if any of this is pertinent to your entry (which is cracking, by the way - a quick polish in a spell-check would do it wonders though), but I just thought I'd mention it.

Jims

in proper Skelmersdale way! I never did pick up the accent but I still say in my Southern Accent which sounds a little strange. I moved there at the age of 7 but for some reason never picked up the accent up! I've added a sentance on it and I'll run it through the spell checker later this evening. Still I didn't get my nickname for nothing

Looking good now - flows better.

Hello Z!

As someone born in St Helens and brought up in Wigan, I was intrigued to see what you could possibly say about the running sore - sorry - running joke () that is Skem...

I think you've done a really good job of getting a balanced view of the place, and this this will make good contribution to the Edited Guide. I've only a few ideas that you might want to consider:

There's a guide entry on Wigan: A500365. You might want to make a link to it.

You use the term 'Scousers' - while I'm sure a lot of people recognise it, overseas researchers might be baffled. I'd say leave it in for local colour, but maybe add a footnote explaining its meaning and perhaps even it origin?

Perhaps you could do with a note on the name. Anyone coming across the name for the first time would probably pronounce the first 'l' - but of course in practice, only people with real delusions of grandeur (my grandmother!) would do that. So: it's Skelmersdale, pronounced Skemmersdale and regularly shortened to Skem....

I know you say that you can't spell, so I'm not going to bother with typos, just one oddity that jumps out at a medieval historian. It's 'Domesday Book' and without a 'the' at the front - don't ask me why!

Btw - we used to call Skem 'Bethlehem' because all those white box houses looked like a down market version of the pictures on the Christmas cards...

I went to Skelmersdale once.

It was shut.

I'll make the changes that you suggest when I get home, I think if I include every joke in existance about skelmersdale then this would turn into one of those "my town is the most boring place in the Universe entries" that aren't really balanced at all.

Wigan being the butt of somany such jokes, I can appreciate that...

I've made all the changes Clovis Cat suggested, done some random googling and added a section on "Skelmersdale in the news" and mentioned it's involvement it Blood Brothers.

Come one someone must want to read this.. please..

Chill, Z, Chill!

Just thought - if you've got a link to the Wigan entry, you'd probably better put a link in to the Liverpool one to A280892 - it is a *very* good entry...

I did a really cr*p job of explaining the Doomsday thing

What I meant was to ask you to make that sentence read

"Mentioned in Domesday Book as a 100 acres of farmland."

There - you could even cut and paste it. What a fusspot I am

Think it's looking good - but it's going to have to be in PR for at least a week!

I know it has to be in here for a week.. sorry for getting impatient.. it never gets any easier..

I've made the changed you suggested.

Just spotted something - your link to the TM entry doesn't work, although it shows as a link. Doing the diagnostics thingy, I think it's because there's spurious space between the " and the A number