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

I live not far from the Peovers (there's also Nether & Lower Peover - which one is the lowest?). They lose a lot of their fun when you find out it's pronounced Peever, and not Pee Over. Sorry, Mrs. Z.

Thanks I knew there were more of them! just couldn't remember - and now I am sad because I had fondly imagined it was 'over-pover'



Maybe there could be a mention of the dozen or so fictitious 'Midsomer' villages? They seem to get wilder and wilder as the script gets more and more unbelievable

Pity Me, in County Durham, is apparantly from 'Pithead Mere' - boggy ground - mine drainage pumping.

Wide Open (Tyne & Wear) (Wideopen to locals) is thought to have been a farming area with, yes, wide open fields.

just to put get rid of the parenthetical:


Dildo, Newfoundland, Canada (and, of course, Come-By-Chance).

Pity Me, County Durham, (Mrs Zen @18) is said to be from the mine drainage outflow - Pithead Mere.

Wide Open (Wideopen to the locals) is apparantly 'cos the farms had wide open fields.

Blakehopeburnhaugh (Northumberland) is the longest English placename: Anglo-Saxon, Black valley stream with flat riverside land.

Amble, Northumberland, Anna's Bill.

Annapoorna, County Durham: yes, after the mountain.

Bearpark, County Durham: not bears but Norman-French Beau Repaire - beautiful retreat.

Saying "Nether Peever"'s still pretty satisfactory though, particularly in Estuary "Nevver Peever". And interesting to know at last where "Pity Me" came from.

Midsomer Norton does exist.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=midsomer+norton&sll=53.864253,-1.957688&sspn=0.053854,0.110378&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Midsomer+Norton,+Radstock,+Avon,+United+Kingdom&z=12

Anyone mentioned the Piddles yet?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=wyre+piddle&sll=51.285421,-2.485428&sspn=0.114236,0.220757&g=midsomer+norton&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Wyre+Piddle,+Pershore,+Worcestershire,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.125268,-2.05101&spn=0.028034,0.055189&z=14

I quite like Pyewipe.

There's that place in Austria that doesn't get past the profanity filter. It's here if you want to look: http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=wolfing&countryCode=AT (I've chosen a village near it to get past the PF)

Although not particularly unusual names, I like the juxtaposition of this village and town near where my parents live, as seen on this signpost: http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/40/01/400106_e8d64a14.jpg

RF

I like those village signs where they put some sort of traffic calming message in small letters above or below the village name. I've driven past

Please drive carefully
UGLEY

(in Essex)

and I've seen pictures of

Slow Down
GORDON

(Goodness, but I want it to be summer again....)

Sorry - my post was a response to RF's signpost picture, which must have been taken one May from the Cow Parsley in the hedgerows.

RE Pratt's Bottom:

The name is first recorded as Spratts Bottom in 1773 and by 1791 it had changed to the present form. The meaning is likely to be valley of a family called Pratt (from Wikipedia)

Sheepy Magna and Sheepy Parva always amuse me. The former sounds like an animal liberation organisation, and the latter like a disease farmers should worry about.

Sheepy = place where sheep graze (sensible, if boring)

Sheepy Magna - big sheep grazing place
Sheepy Parva - little sheep grazing place

http://www.mdlp.co.uk/resources/Sheepy/history.htm

Where I come from in Germany, there is a street crossing: Turn left, and you will get to "Hungerstorf" (Hunger Village), while the right way will take you to "Sorgenlos" (No Worries).

Oh, and in Austria, there is the lovely town of... Well, this one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking,_Austria

Y.

There's probably not much point in just replicating the entries from Rude Britain, as Wiki does here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rude_Britain

Just posting this here before I lose it. A fascinating read, and at the end it covers the derivations of some of the ones already mentionsd... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/shitterton-the-village-that-dare-not-speak-its-name-831420.html

I did a bit of Peover related research. What I didn't know was that Over P & P Superior are actually two names for the same place. Also, Lower P is the village in the parish of Nether P. So the four names, all of which you see on sign-posts, are actually only two villages. Very odd. Peover Heath is another village, but it only seems to have the one name. Nearby Peover Hall was General Patton's HQ in WWII.
They are all named for a brook that runs through the villages, called the Peover Eye. The word itself derives from the Welsh, pefr, meaning dart, and refers to the bright, darting nature of the brook.

There is a small settlement nearby called Badgerbank, but nobody will be interested in that.

Thanks for that hygienicdispenser - all those years I've wondered about the oddly named Peovers. I think there is a Hall there too?

There is a Hall. It's called Peover Hall, and was General Patton's HQ in WWII.

That's weird, deja vu

- didn't read your first post carefully enough