Jump to content

Weird Road Names [UK]

6Foot2

By 6Foot2
in Jokes/Interweb Things

 Share

Recommended Posts

Ephelyon

Ephelyon

Posted
Posted

We have a Slaughter Hill in Crewe, named for the old slaughterhouse of course but it's still fun. Has to be read in your best Scottish accent:

 

"MURDER... on Slaughter Hill!"

 

[cue ominous lightning strike]

enjay

enjay

Posted
Posted
Underwood and Townsend I'm familiar with as surnames. Never once have I met someone called Marshman - I would remember doing that!
6Foot2

6Foot2

Posted
  • Author
Posted
We have been in Wiltshire this weekend.

 

The county town of Trowbridge has a "Bythesea Road"

 

In a county with no coastline? :confused:

 

Link: Key to English Place-names

 

This is an up-to-date guide to the interpretation of the names of England's cities, towns and villages.

 

The names of villages and towns frequently refer to particular people(s), social and administrative activities, landscape, birds and animals, crops and vegetation, and most of them are well over a thousand years old. In other words, they can tell us something important about the history of those places, and how they were perceived, which would otherwise be unknown.

 

You can use the Key to search for a particular place-name, or to browse through the names of a particular county. It will provide you with a name's meaning and a break-down of the different parts of the name (its 'elements') and the language(s) of those elements.

 

In common with most historically-based research, we use the county-boundaries that stood before local government reorganization in 1974.

  • Thanks 1
AMLinington

AMLinington

Posted
Posted
Underwood and Townsend I'm familiar with as surnames. Never once have I met someone called Marshman - I would remember doing that!

 

You'll probably find a lot of names have been shortened over time - 'Marshman' might have been shortened to 'Marsh' - I've known a couple of 'Marsh's. Ditto for 'Hill's or 'Wood's. That is speculation ofc, but it makes sense. Surnames in Britain - particularly of the working and middle classes - were heavily place and occupation-related, but many have multiple regional spellings and variations.

 

My maiden name, Lightfoot, has two possible stems - the first from medieval military 'Light Footmen', and the second from couriers or runners 'Lightfoot'. Similarly 'Fleetfoot' or 'Lightbody'.

 

My current surname is one of the many spelling variants of a place-related name - Linington - the '-ton' bit denotes 'town'. But there are a massive variety of spellings, probably related to lack of literacy or misunderstandings over the centuries.

 

I've seen 'Linnington' (in fact a lot of people spell our name with 2 N's for no apparent reason, since 2 N's is no more or less common than the other spellings), 'Lynington', 'Lynnington', 'Limington' etc. Since my surname seems to be exclusive to the Isle of Wight, I'd hazard a guess it started life centuries ago in 'Lymington' (the town), and morphed over time.

 

I'm actually rather glad it's pretty 'boring'. Growing up a 'Lightfoot' with a weight problem led to some hurtful remarks and bullying. I'd get called 'Heavyfoot' a lot, or 'Smellyfoot' or indeed any variation on something rude about feet - 'Bigfoot', 'Fatfoot' etc. Since the surname originated a long time ago, the meanings have changed over time or are no longer relevant. The worst people can do to 'Linington' is spell it wrong.

HTCPCP

HTCPCP

Posted
Posted
Looked at a house on Cockbush avenue a few years ago, but having seen the property, decided against it. The estate agents seem to love that house - seems to go up for sale every year!
  • 4 years later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


×
×
  • Create New...