WETWANG - and other ridiculous places names

[PastaAllaNorma]

We're driving to the Yorkshire coast and will shortly pass through th village of Wetwang. Since the children were tiny we all yell Wetwang!!! in the car as we spot the sign. They are adults now but I still do it even on my own.

Penistone was declared imaginary by a visiting American friend, so if we pass that way we always say "You cannot be serious" just the way she did.

Anyone else have daft family ritual/habits on a road trip?

Land of Green Ginger in Hull

Dartmoor has some great names. I do like Yelverton though, it's got a very voluptuous feel to it.

I grew up near Hull and always loved that name, I wanted to live there 🤣

Ugley in Essex.

And ‘The Glory Hole’ in Lincoln.

Oh and Carsick in Sheffield

I grew up in Netherthong. Up the road there is Upperthong.

Loose in Kent has a "Loose Women's Institute".

I'm a big fan of Shaggs in Dorset

I used to walk past this every day on my way to school.

You can guess the noise when we pass the sign for wooperton

There’s a barf hill in Yorkshire
on a horrible road where I always get car sick

I always refer to it as Sherbern in Helmet due to the bikers!

There's also a street called Poverty in Worcestershire - not Poverty Road or Poverty Street; just Poverty - which has some very expensive houses on it!

I've wondered too about house prices being affected by unfortunate names - especially in places where the upper-crust image of the place very much contributes to the exclusivity and high prices in the first place.

If you were looking at two near identical properties on adjacent streets - one on Orchard Lane and the other on Butt Hole Lane - which one do you think would be genuinely more coveted and sell for more?!

Land of Nod is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

In West Yorkshire there is a Tickle Cock Bridge which the council tried and failed to rename Tittle Cott.

Locally we have a Baghill and a Slutwell Hill named because of their history.

So many in the gutter minded South East:

Fulking Hill in Sussex
Effingham in Surrey (to be used when a bit cross)
Effingham Junction (to be used when very cross!)
Cockshot Hill in Reigate
Pratts Bottom in Kent
Upper and Lower Dicker in Sussex

Is that the one that goes through the village of Ronseal?!

Well there’s a place not far from us called Lucky Slap…. When my brother and I were kids in the back of the car you can imagine how that went.

I heard that there were a number of these around the country - named literally because they were once the local red light districts.

Most of them appear to have been renamed Grape Lane at some point in history.

I still love the fact that South Yorkshire Police HQ is based in Letsby Avenue!!

Shitterton in Dorset (where my car got sprayed with manure by a passing tractor). All the Piddle villages, of course. My all time favourite is Venta de Pantalones (sale of trousers) in Jaen province in Spain.

Twatt is a village on Orkney. I visited Orkney with my mum so wasn’t able to snigger at that.

When I'm PM, I'm going to not only reverse all the past name changes from funny ones to boring ones; but I am also going to make everywhere with a boring name to change to a funny one.

The locals can draw up a shortlist - which will have to be approved personally by me and any suggestions will be rejected if they aren't funny or quirky enough - and then it can go to public vote. Council tax will also be halved for a year for all residents of each winner of the new annual 'Funniest Name of the Year competition' (voting strictly mandatory).

Thoroughly recommend the fish and chips there btw 😂

I wonder if anybody has ever driven past the sign for Homer in Shropshire without saying "D'oh!!!" ?!

There are two villages in Lincolnshire called Haceby and Braceby, which are both directed to on one sign from the main road. I always have to sing "Come back and Haceby, Braceby" to the tune of Clodagh Rogers' 'Come Back and Shake Me' when passing!