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Source: (consider it) Thread: Strange or stupid street signs or place names
Campbellite

Ut unum sint
# 1202

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Another of Virginia's odd place names.

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I upped mine. Up yours.
Suffering for Jesus since 1966.
WTFWED?

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Loquacious beachcomber
Shipmate
# 8783

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For the kinky with fond memories of being slippered in school, there is a sign in Salmon Arm, BC, for the Shuswap Paddling Centre (pronounced shoes-wap) where one can rent paddle boats.

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TODAY'S SPECIAL - AND SO ARE YOU (Sign on beachfront fish & chips shop)

Posts: 5954 | From: Southeast of Wawa, between the beach and the hiking trail.. | Registered: Nov 2004  |  IP: Logged
Mamacita

Lakefront liberal
# 3659

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There's a resort area in Indiana called French Lick.

And we have passed this road sign many times. We knew our kids were really getting exposed to popular culture when they started to giggle at it.

[ 12. July 2012, 04:06: Message edited by: Mamacita ]

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159

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quote:
Originally posted by Campbellite:
Another of Virginia's odd place names.

Isn't that where the bankers hang out?

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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!

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balaam

Making an ass of myself
# 4543

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Solid is the name of a lane in Huddersfield. Not Solid Lane or Solid Street, just Solid. Yes we know, if it was Liquid it would be a canal.

At five letters and no spaces, and with the demolition of A Row in Birmingham it has to also be the shortest Street name (discounting A1, M62 etc.)

There is AB Row in London, but the space makes it longer.

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Last ever sig ...

blog

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Avila
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# 15541

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Needless Alley in Birmingham is well known.

Just up the road from me is Bog Lane, then the village of Rock, in the other direction is Stoke Bliss.

I remember in my home town when major road works led to a sign for 'Temporary Long Stay Car Park'

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Angloid
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# 159

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I don't know if it still exists, but there was a street in central London called Of Alley. It was between Duke Street and Buckingham Road (or some similar pairing, I don't know exactly what.)

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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!

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Horseman Bree
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# 5290

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When The West was opened up by the railroads, there were so many new stations*, sometimes with towns attached, that naming them all became quite a problem.

One example is Dotsero in Colorado, next to a volcano of the same name, named from being the "zero-point" of a survey of the area.

When a new cutoff, shortening the line from the east, was built to join the old line at Dotsero, the other, eastern end was called, obviously, Orestod, since you had to go back to get there.

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It's Not That Simple

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Horseman Bree
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# 5290

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Sorry, added the * and didn't put the explanation in: given the technology of the time, there had to be telegraph stations at most ten miles apart for traffic control on the single lines with passing loops, but there were quite large areas where it was obvious that there would never be much in the way of villages, let alone towns.

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It's Not That Simple

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JeffTL
Apprentice
# 16722

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Here in Chicago we can have some rather complicated addresses...you could, for example, have a service entrance at 151 East Lower South Water Street...signifying a door a furlong and a half east of State Street on the south side of the lower level of South Water Street. Which is in turn so named to distinguish it from North Water Street on the other side of the river, not the usual use of South to indicate the part of a road south of Madison Street.

Don't get me started on the three streets that rhyme with the naughty bits of a lady.

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churchgeek

Have candles, will pray
# 5557

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quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
When The West was opened up by the railroads, there were so many new stations*, sometimes with towns attached, that naming them all became quite a problem.

One example is Dotsero in Colorado, next to a volcano of the same name, named from being the "zero-point" of a survey of the area.

When a new cutoff, shortening the line from the east, was built to join the old line at Dotsero, the other, eastern end was called, obviously, Orestod, since you had to go back to get there.

Novi, Michigan is said to have been named after its railway stop (No. VI), but I don't think there's solid evidence for that one, and it's (sub)urban legend. (The town's name is pronounced NO-vie; non-locals tend to mispronounce it as "NO-vee". Of course, we also pronounce Saline, MI as "suh-LEEN" - except my dad, who has always pronounced it as in "saline solution" - and Milan, MI as "MY-lin".)

And while we're on pronunciation of weird names, in the UP (Michigan's Upper Peninsula; "UP" is pronounced as the two letters, not as the word "up" - and people from there are known as "yoopers") we have Sault Ste. Marie, which is pronounced "Soo Saint Marie" and even informally written as just "Soo". The locks there (between Lakes Huron (via waterways) and Superior) are the Soo Locks.

And spanning the strait between Michigan's peninsulas, you have the Mackinac Bridge, pronounced "MACK-in-aw". The bridge spans the Straits of Mackinac, in which you might visit Mackinac Island... but at the bridge's southern point on the Lower Peninsula, you find yourself in Mackinaw City, where there's a Fort Michilimackinac. It's all due to the French transcription (Mackinac, but pronounced "-aw") of the Native American place name (Michinnimakinong); and when the British heard the French pronounce it, they transcribed it as Mackinaw.

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My article on the Virgin of Vladimir

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Moo

Ship's tough old bird
# 107

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In Charlottesville, Virginia, there is a street called Rio Road. Outsiders are amazed to hear the locals call it rye-oh, because they assume it's from the Spanish word for 'river'. In fact, it was originally a road which ran alongside the railroad tracks and the old maps showed the name R10, R standing for 'railroad'. (I don't know where R1-R9 were located.)

Moo

[ 14. July 2012, 22:06: Message edited by: Moo ]

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Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

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If you go to Saskatchewan, Canada, you'll have decide whether to your trip sequence is Love first, and then Climax, or the other way around. Climax has a sign on the way out telling you to Please Come Again. I think I'll just mention Big Beaver and leave it there.

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\_(ツ)_/

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blackbeard
Ship's Pirate
# 10848

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We have a Great Bottom Flash.

(explanation - the Great Bottom is, of course, a valley bottom; a canal passing through it has formed a lake, technically known as a flash).

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Matt Black

Shipmate
# 2210

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That's near Aldershot, isn't it.

Going back to Shropshire, there is - or was - a Gropecunt Lane in Shrewsbury where the local demoiselles de la nuit used to ply their trade.

[ETA - Cocking is in West Sussex between Chichester and Midhurst; there is a Tiddle Hill nearby.]

[ 16. July 2012, 11:35: Message edited by: Matt Black ]

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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)

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BroJames
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# 9636

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Langley Vale used to be known as Langley Bottom, but bottoms aren't genteel [Eek!] . Wikipedia says the name changed some time between the wars. It was still Langley Bottom on the place name road signs when I was commuting through it in the early 1980s.
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Matt Black

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# 2210

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One of the members of our congregation is called Mellish. Locally, there is a Mellish's Bottom and, at after-church coffee, much* merriment is made by comments such as "I went up Mellish's Bottom the other day."

*Well, about 5 seconds' worth.

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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)

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Selmo
Apprentice
# 14632

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My hone county, Staffordshire, has the highest village in the British Isles. It's called Flash.

I have seen people there walking around in long raincoats. It was raining, though.

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coniunx
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# 15313

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quote:
Originally posted by Selmo:
My hone county, Staffordshire, has the highest village in the British Isles. It's called Flash.

I have seen people there walking around in long raincoats. It was raining, though.

Perhaps they were expecting flash floods.

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Coniunx

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Trudy Scrumptious

BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647

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Newfoundland is one of the Odd Place Name capitals of the world so we have plenty of interesting names to choose from. I drive through Paradise on a regular basis; my husband once tried to sell encyclopedias door-to-door in Nicky's Nose Cove; yesterday, after doing some work up at the cabin, my parents had lunch in Dildo. And this is barely scratching the surface.

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Books and things.

I lied. There are no things. Just books.

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no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

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re Newfoundland. You reminded me of being on the south of the Avalon peninsula. We walked a piece of the East Coast Trail. Pee-pee Island was on the map, with Arse Leg Point on the island marked. I suspect bored sailors and fishermen in olden times.
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Matt Black

Shipmate
# 2210

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Down here we have 'Anker Lane' in Stubbington (Anker being an old Dutch word for smuggler, and booze smuggling being big business locally in the 18th century); the street signs for it inevitably have 'W's chalked on them regularly, despite the best efforts of Fareham Borough Council and local residents to clean it up, by bored teenage boys who think it's really big to do that.

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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)

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balaam

Making an ass of myself
# 4543

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quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
Going back to Shropshire, there is - or was - a Gropecunt Lane in Shrewsbury where the local demoiselles de la nuit used to ply their trade.

It is now simply Grope Lane.

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Last ever sig ...

blog

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The5thMary
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# 12953

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In North Carolina there's a Fuquay Varina and Bun Level.

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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.

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Aravis
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# 13824

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Somewhere in Bridgend there's a road called Hafod Decaf. Actually it has nothing to do with coffee, and should be pronounced Have-od Deck-av (but usually isn't).
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Angloid
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# 159

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quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
Down here we have 'Anker Lane' in Stubbington (Anker being an old Dutch word for smuggler, and booze smuggling being big business locally in the 18th century); the street signs for it inevitably have 'W's chalked on them regularly, despite the best efforts of Fareham Borough Council and local residents to clean it up, by bored teenage boys who think it's really big to do that.

I bet it's not just teenage boys. It would present an irresistible temptation to many of us. As does (slightly less naughtily) Melly Road not far from here.

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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!

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jedijudy

Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333

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Off Metropolis Ave. we have Lois Lee Ln., Krypton Ln., and Atlantis Ln. (Then later was added Endeavor-without the 'u'.)

Someone read comics much? [Big Grin]

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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.

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Pearl B4 Swine
Ship's Oyster-Shucker
# 11451

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SLOW / CHILDREN / AT PLAY is a great road sign, for car passengers to laugh at.

I've always liked Accident, Maryland. While browsing their website just now, I saw that their Municipal Building is at 104 South North Street.

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Oinkster

"I do a good job and I know how to do this stuff" D. Trump (speaking of the POTUS job)

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Carex
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# 9643

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quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
Down here we have 'Anker Lane' in Stubbington (Anker being an old Dutch word for smuggler, and booze smuggling being big business locally in the 18th century); the street signs for it inevitably have 'W's chalked on them regularly, despite the best efforts of Fareham Borough Council and local residents to clean it up, by bored teenage boys who think it's really big to do that.

I bet it's not just teenage boys. It would present an irresistible temptation to many of us. As does (slightly less naughtily) Melly Road not far from here.
Then the next time you happen to be visiting Oregon you can stop by Wanker's Corners, a bit south of Portland. The general store is still there (founded by Grandfather Wanker), but the bar/pub has since moved down to Wilsonville, though keeping its name for the benefit of those (mostly across one Pond or the other) who find it humourous, as the word doesn't have the same connotation in American English.
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John Holding

Coffee and Cognac
# 158

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I used to visit family friends in Fetcham, Leatherhead (in Surrey) who lived on...The Street.

There were in fact many other streets in Fetcham.

John

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Campbellite

Ut unum sint
# 1202

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quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
In Charlottesville, Virginia, there is a street called Rio Road. Outsiders are amazed to hear the locals call it rye-oh, because they assume it's from the Spanish word for 'river'. In fact, it was originally a road which ran alongside the railroad tracks and the old maps showed the name R10, R standing for 'railroad'. (I don't know where R1-R9 were located.)

Moo

And Rio Rd crosses what used to be known as Seminole Trail, even though the nearest Seminoles lived hundreds of miles away... in Florida.

Why was it called Seminole Trail? Back before the Interstate system was built, the two main routes from New York to Florida were along US Route 1 (though Richmond) and US Route 29 (through Charlottesville) It was dubbed Seminole Trail by local businesses to encourage vacationers to take US 29 (and spend money locally). You would think having Monticello in their back yard would be enough.

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I upped mine. Up yours.
Suffering for Jesus since 1966.
WTFWED?

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Galloping Granny
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# 13814

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quote:
Originally posted by Janine:
Bull Run Road runs along a piece of the "Old Spanish Trail" -- I suppose there had to be cattle driven along there at one time, it's a ridge through the swamps.

There's a Bull Run Road not half an hour from here.

I kept my train ticket from Hell (this one in Norway) for some years after coming home. I don't know whether Condom in the south of France is on the railway.

I understood from my Mum that a small railway station in the South Island was called Oidono after the locals asked a visiting dignitary to name it and he was stumped for a good idea. But I've never found it and suspect that either it was a non-urban legend or that it was subsequently given a better name.

The citizens of Bulls in New Zealand sent food parcels to Cowes in England during WW II.

The roadside restaurant at Flat Hills is in hilly country. It features a mural of a shepherd with his dogs arriving gratefully at Flat Hills after a day mustering on the steep hills all around.

Next time I go south I must watch out for Windwhistle – I like the sound of it.

GG

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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113

Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged
Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492

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In Montebello (a little town east of LA) there is a Masser Place: it was named after my great-grandfather who developed a large part of the city and dead ends at the police station and fire department. Though not exactly in a rural area, the street was not paved until 1969. I have been there once and have a photo to prove it.

I think Oxnard, a seaside town north of LA near Malibu, has a strange and funny name...

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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.

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Sioni Sais
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# 5713

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In Hardingham, Norfolk, there is a short street named Policeman's Loke. There's another one in Lowestoft, but I've not seen that one. I believe a loke is a private road.

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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"

(Paul Sinha, BBC)

Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
daisydaisy
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# 12167

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Near where I live is Hardley, with Hardley Evangelical.

Also not far is Lower Upham and Upper Upham.

When I lived in the Midlands I rather fancied having Pink Green as my address.

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georgiaboy
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# 11294

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In Kentucky, where I was born and grew up, there are to be found these towns/villages (among others equally unusual): Monkeys Eyebrow, 88, Uno; there was once Possum's Defeat, but it has vanished. There are also London and Paris, and Cairo (pronounced Kay-Ro) is just across the river in Illinois.

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Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006  |  IP: Logged
daisydaisy
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# 12167

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quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
In Kentucky, where I was born and grew up, there are to be found these towns/villages (among others equally unusual): Monkeys Eyebrow, 88, Uno; there was once Possum's Defeat, but it has vanished. There are also London and Paris, and Cairo (pronounced Kay-Ro) is just across the river in Illinois.

I'd love to have Monkeys Eyebrow as an address - it beats Pink Green hands down!

You have reminded me that I live close to Egypt and Canada.

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Sighthound
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# 15185

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Near Pilling in Lancashire, there is a road called Michael's Wife's Lane. I always wondered who Michael was, and who his wife was, and how she came to have a road named after her, or rather after her status as Michael's wife.

As I child I used to find the name 'Battery' amusing as a destination of the local buses in Morecombe. I associated it with the kind of battery that goes in torches, not the artillery version. In the same area is a place called 'Bare' While down in Maidstone Kent there is also a 'Loose' which again looked a bit droll on the destination blind of the local trolleybuses.

On Pendle Hill (of the witches fame) is a village called 'Fence'.

[ 21. July 2012, 10:09: Message edited by: Sighthound ]

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Arethosemyfeet
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# 17047

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I used to live in Portsmouth... a tiny hamlet about as far from the sea as you can get in England, much to frustration of various lost looking lorry drivers who came off the ferry at Hull and followed their sat navs. The name of the nearest town roughly means "murder death town".

I grew up near Shepton Mallet, Middle Chinnock, Norton-sub-Hamdon and Charlton Mackrell. I now live on an island with around 750 people and over 3000 recorded place names. Even our house has two names and it was only built in the 60s.

On the subject of Morecambe Battery, I always used to think of cruelty to chickens.

[ 21. July 2012, 22:59: Message edited by: Arethosemyfeet ]

Posts: 2933 | From: Hebrides | Registered: Apr 2012  |  IP: Logged
balaam

Making an ass of myself
# 4543

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Much sniggering by schoolchildren (and those who should know better [Hot and Hormonal] ) about bus No 183 to Hard End.

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Last ever sig ...

blog

Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Mamacita

Lakefront liberal
# 3659

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quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
And spanning the strait between Michigan's peninsulas, you have the Mackinac Bridge, pronounced "MACK-in-aw". The bridge spans the Straits of Mackinac, in which you might visit Mackinac Island... but at the bridge's southern point on the Lower Peninsula, you find yourself in Mackinaw City, where there's a Fort Michilimackinac. It's all due to the French transcription (Mackinac, but pronounced "-aw") of the Native American place name (Michinnimakinong); and when the British heard the French pronounce it, they transcribed it as Mackinaw.

churchgeek, are there any Mackinac places that are pronounced with the hard "c"? I seem to remember that there are but I can't remember which one. Today I was wearing my tee shirt (from a long ago vacation) that has an illustration of a big pile of bicycles with the caption "Mackinac Island Traffic Jam"* and I want to be sure to pronounce it correctly!

*because there are no cars allowed on the island, but you can rent bikes

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
Ye Olde Motherboarde
Ship's Mother and Singing Quilter
# 54

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I have been to Intercourse, Bird in Hand and Paradise, Pennsylvania, also Moon Run, Beaver Falls, and Squirrel Hill.

And churchgeek reminded me on Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where some of my relatives were born.

Here in New Mexico, we have Elephant Butte, Madrid (pronounced Mad Rid) and Cuba (pronounced Coo bah). along with Truth or Consequences, and Pie Town.
In Arizona, I've been to Surprise, Show Low,(a poker term) Bullhead City, Carefree, and Chloride,(near the Boulder Dam).

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In Memory of Miss Molly, TimC, Gambit, KenWritez, koheleth, Leetle Masha, JLG, Genevieve, Erin, RuthW2, deuce2, Sidi and TonyCoxon, unbeliever, Morlader, Ken :tear: 20 years but who’s counting?..................

Posts: 4292 | From: Looking for more trouble to get into | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Sylvander
Shipmate
# 12857

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I recently pitched my tent near a village called Himmelpfort (Heaven's Gate). In Brandenburg. Nice wee village, too. It has a pillar box where you can post letters to Father Christmas, (provided by the church). And he answers them, too, a service of German Mail

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A martyr is someone living with a saint.
2509

Posts: 1589 | From: Berlin | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
JB

Independent Thinker
# 1776

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Bathtub Row

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You live, you learn
You learn, you live

Posts: 2588 | From: Land of Enchantment | Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
manfromcaerdeon
Apprentice
# 16672

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Essex has two villages called Messing and Mucking. The Ugley Womens' Institute has been mentioned already, (now called the Womens' Institute, Ugley) but Kent has a similar problem in the village of Loose. Nearby is Hucking, whose village signs are occasionally changed by passing comedians.

Yorkshire has Wetwang, Norfolk has Great and Little Snoring and Dorset has Piddletrenthide and Piddlehinton. One of these last two villages bottles the water from the river Piddle and sells it to the tourists as Piddle water.

Meanwhile Cornwall has Brown Willy, the highest point on Bodmin Moor, and in Yorkshire there is the town of Penistone. (pronounced penny-stone)

But my personal favourite for strange names must surely go to that famous village in Wales.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

There are many web sites which will tell you how to pronounce it so that you are able to impress your friends!

Fucking in Austria has achieved fame recently with tourists, along with Condom in France, where people delight in having their pictures taken standing by the village sign!

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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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quote:
Originally posted by manfromcaerdeon:
Essex has two villages called Messing and Mucking.

Some humorist with a bent for Spoonerisms christened one of the fundamental problems of understanding early Anglo-Saxon settlement (so fundamental I can never remember which one it was...) the Mucking-Fobbing Question.

Incidentally, Essex also has Shellow Bowells.
AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Gill H

Shipmate
# 68

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We have Bollo Lane near me, and we are so used to it the sign doesn't even get graffiti'd any more.

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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.

- Lyda Rose

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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128

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quote:
Originally posted by Sighthound:
Near Pilling in Lancashire, there is a road called Michael's Wife's Lane. I always wondered who Michael was, and who his wife was, and how she came to have a road named after her, or rather after her status as Michael's wife.

Near Ipswich we have Doctor Watson's Lane. I have no idea who he was, but he must have been an elementary sort of person, don't you think?
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009  |  IP: Logged



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