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?

I also remember being shocked as a teen to discover that County Durham wasn't in Ireland...

Me too, at a much older age. And I'm still not sure about it.

Whenever anyone says Rutland I always think of Rutland Weekend Television

I thought Bedfordshire was a made up place that really meant going to bed.

I still haven't got much idea where it is. North of London, south of Birmingham is about the closest guess I could make.

Then they reply ' Near Rutland Water?' Yes! ( Where the fuck did you think Rutland Water was?)

To be fair, Leeds castle isn't helping with that situation...

I’m always amazed that when I’m in north Norfolk I’m further north than Leicester and Birmingham.

I'm pretty good at knowing where places are. I even know where Middlesbrough is these days, but I'm pretty sure they moved it from where it was when I was a child.

Pontefract has a museum in a beautiful Art Nouveau bulding if you ever end up there (when you meant to be somewhere else.)

I though Carlisle was in Eastern Scotland unless I saw that map

To be fair, Carlisle has been back and forth across the Scotland/England border as a result/of historical battles.

I always thought Pontefract was in Wales. A name like that has no business being up north!

Penrith is definitely in Wales and/or Cornwall.

PP mentioned Sheerness, so I looked it up. Well, it is where Shoeburyness is supposed to be, and Shoeburyness has moved to near Southend-on-sea. What do google maps think they’re playing at?

“How is Edinburgh further WEST of Carlise, Cardiff and Bristol? I've just double checked on a map and it's definitely more East...isn't it??” That’s to do with Britain being rotated slightly clockwise on maps to look “upright” but actually on the globe it’s tilted “to the left”

@buttons4me - no Cotswolds are just north west of oxford, slightly south east of bottom right of wales, kinda between oxford and Bristol

The problem with Dunkirk is our insistence on anglicising place names even when there’s no real need, if you knew it as dunkerque I doubt you’d think “scots”

My sense of direction at a smaller level is horrendous though! As a driver many times I’ve got lost and I’ve simply headed for a place name I know I know how to get home from! This has led to...interesting detours! Eg I live on the west coast of Scotland but have got lost coming home from glasgow more than once and done so by going to Ayr or prestwick first because I go there more regularly so know how to get home from them!

As an army brat we often had relatives wanting to come and stay with us in certain places THINKING we were near to other places they wanted to visit only for my parents to have to point out “actually that towns a 4 hour train ride from us! Where did you think we were?!”

Where I live we share first part of postcode with some islands but we are on the mainland - lots of arguments with online retailers about this!

And...there’s my misapprehension! I too thought Brunei Middle East not south east Asia!

@SHAR0N

“I was surprised that Edinburgh is further west than Carlisle .“

AND Bristol..

This just blew my mind..

I always that that it was unfair that Jade Goody of Big Brother fame got slagged off for thinking that East Anglia was in Africa. She was obviously thinking of East Angola.

I live near Pontefract. It means "broken bridge": pontus fractus. The castle is nice, so is Valley Gardens at the edge of it, and there are a lot of very old buildings there but it's run down and a bit of a dump in places!

I’m always baffled at how often on these threads Billericay comes up, invariably as somewhere people thought was in Ireland, when the name doesn’t sound or look at all Irish.

Politicians now are talking about the norther powerhouse which is a bit if you live in Newcastle or Scotland.

Totally agree that Dunkirk sounds Scottish and Billericay sound Irish.

My one is not knowing that Leeds Castle is in Kent. I hadn't heard of it until I moved down south and was very puzzled that train stations sometimes had a poster advertising a castle in Leeds alongside posters for attractions in the South East.

@SmallChickBilly
Yes , I suppose so!!

I always thought Lanzarote was in Wales, as a child

Petty France, small place in Gloucestershire. Why? So bewildering.

Admittedly I am a bit of an anorak and love looking at maps - both paper maps and google map, but I am still surprised at how many people don't know where major cities are, or even counties.

Having family dotted around the place and often taking UK holidays means that I have visited many parts of the UK, and needed to look at maps to get there.

However, I had no idea how far West Edinburgh is.

Does no-one look at google map to see where they are going when they go on holiday?

@1066vegan, but why does it ‘sound Irish’ to you? It doesn’t resemble any Irish placenames at all, and the difference between the written form and the way it’s pronounced is completely un-Irish.

I used to think Rotherhithe was n Scotland!

@sashh

The thing I don't understand is why my brother who lives in Cornwall goes to Brittany on holiday.

Easy ferry crossing that seems to do offers in the local paper quite Often

Is the Billericay = Irish thing because of Tipperary ??

I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY NORTHAMPTON ISN’T IN THE NORTH...