Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Unfortunate

Shitterton: The village that dare not speak its name - This Britain, UK - The Independent

From the article:
This isn't the only place in Britain proudly to wear the Shit– prefix – an unholy trinity is formed with Shittlehope and Shitlington Crags, both in the North-east of England – but Shitterton is the only one of the three actually to be named after excrement. According to the mathematician Keith Briggs, who keeps an informative website on this burning topic, the name is probably derived from a river called Shiter, "a brook used as a privy".
The whole article is funny, in a Benny Hill/Two Ronnies kind of way:
Shitterton probably started a slow metamorphosis towards Sitterton during the Victorian era, at the same time as towns and villages on the river Piddle were being renamed to Tolpuddle, Affpuddle and Puddletown – presumably in order not to cause embarrassment to travellers asking for directions.
I see that the Independent ran another article recently on rude place names in England. Go and pick a favourite.

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