Well I never, that’s where that town is!

[CormoranStrike]

I have spent fifty years - okay, cumulatively probably just fifty minutes - being utterly convinced Exeter was near Cambridge.

Today I had to check it in a map! Who knew? It’s kind of a Torquay/Plymouth way.

My world is tilting in its axel.

Anyone have other random finds like this?

We go down to London, Cambridge and Oxford grin

Going down to Oxford is entirely appropriate but everybody goes up to Cambridge

Oh! Northern Ireland is not the top half of the island. Who knew north west Ireland is not northern ireland?

Mind blown.

We have loads of Welsh sounding place names in yorshire, like Mytholmroyd. They're a hangover of the briton/celtic areas

Patroclus we also have Wales on South Yorkshire. That isn't helpful.

Ey?

Mytholmroyd isn't Welsh-sounding.

When I was a child and lived in Devon, my aunt, who lived in Liverpool used to ask when we were coming "down" to see her. I used to say she came down to us and we went up to see her. She wasn't having any of it!

We're still keeping on with the ridings, Errol. The Post Office and The Queen might disagree but that's nothing to Yorkshire, hahahah.

A friend from America coming to see me in Huddersfield Hospital was mystified by the huge amounts of riding related injuries apparently going on (walking past the West Riding Knee Clinic, The West Riding Fracture Clinic...)

Mytholmroyd isn't Welsh-sounding.

I think it is the Ys that make it look "Welsh" to English eyes. There seem to be a lot more Ys in Welsh.

Although I don't think this example looks particularly Welsh.

Mytholmroyd is in the Kingdom of Elmet, which does show up in Welsh history and poetry.

Saying that, the name itself seems fairly OE and Norse inflected, right? Royd. = clearing (röd in Danish?). And holm means islet but it isn't one so maybe that's a red herring. Is it a flood plain?

Theres a place called pen-y-ghent around that area as well, definitely welsh sounding.

Pen-y-Ghent is one of the most obvious cases where the old Celtic or 'Brythonic' name survived in England.

It's rivers that seem to have kept their names the longest. I'm having difficulty thinking of any that aren't pre-Anglo Saxon era.

How about the Swale? According to wiki :

The name Swale is from the Anglo-Saxon word Sualuae meaning rapid and liable to deluge. Annual rainfall figures of 1800 mm p.a. in the headwaters and 1300 mm p.a. in the lower waters over a drop of 148 m in 32 km, gives proof to its name.

I also thought Dunstable was I. Kent. I'm still not convinced

The Avon, the Stour and the Trent rivers pop up all over the place

There's more than one Derwent, Esk and Ouse too.

Looks like Stour is also Anglo Saxon according to Wikipedia.

But I've now checked another twenty or so and found no others.

Mytholmroyd is from old English and means a field at the mouth of a river.

Is it a flood plain?

Most of the area around Mytholmroyd is blighted by flooding frequently, tney have flood alarms in the town I believe.

Wensum in Norfolk is Old English. So is Piddle in Dorset. Eden in Kent. Probably some others but I really should do some work!

The comment that Billericay's not in Ireland has got to be the longest running April Fool joke EVER!
Don't believe me? Just wait til 1st April is all I'm sayin'

I live in Billericay and I’ve never heard the Irish thing.....we are twinned with Billerica in Massachusetts, USA, we have a high street full of nail bars and barbers and a lot of range rovers but no obvious connection to the Emerald Isle. Although it’s likely a few leprechauns might have been spotted as stiletto clad TOWIE types stumble out of spoons, high on craft gin and mistaking the Dominos moped Man for a speedy Irish Sprite.

Lovely place is Billers, 20 mins to London via train but considerably longer to Ireland via anything that doesn’t have light speed.

Has anyone said Usk?

That should be in Scotland