A selection of delightfully English place names...
...and all from the same 40 mile journey.
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A few weeks ago, I spent a weekend in Salisbury, whose cathedral, as all suspicious visitors know, is famous for both its 123 metre spire and its clock. It’s a lovely little town1, and we had a delightful weekend, marred only slightly by the moment on Sunday morning when I decided to check train times out of the place and read the four worst words in the English language: “Rail replacement bus service”.
Oh well. Despite my fears that bus and dog was not a good combination, Henry Scampi wedged himself happily between seat and wall and watched the world out of the back windscreen for the hour and a half it took us to reach Basingstoke, and our slow tour of the back roads of Wilts and Hants did give me an opportunity to enjoy a truly magnificent set of English place names. Here are some of the destinations I spotted on signage along the way.
Downton – A village in Wiltshire, without an abbey. It gave its name to the Downton College of Agriculture, founded by John Wrightson, whose great-grandson Julian Fellowes eventually became a successful writer of guilty-pleasure ITV dramas and borrowed it.
Old Sarum – The original Salisbury, on a hill above the town. The site, which had been home to an Iron Age hillfort and Norman castle, was abandoned in the 13th century following a row between the local bishop and sheriff and also, according to the excellent local history museum, because it was horribly windy up that hill. Remained a “rotten borough” – retaining representation in parliament, despite having essentially no residents – into the 19th century.
Figsbury Ring – Another Iron Age hill fort. The “ring” refers to circular earthworks.
West Winterslow and Middle Winterslow – From “Wintreslei”, meaning “winter’s burial mound”. There’s also an East Winterslow but it’s tiny.
The Wallops – Crossing the border into Hampshire, Over Wallop, Middle Wallop and Nether Wallop have names referring to the valley (hop) of the spring or stream (waella). Over and Nether are just a different way of saying Upper and Lower, but “Nether Wallop” sounds excitingly filthy.
Grateley – This one’s a village whose name is from the Old English for “great wood or clearing” (you’d think woods and clearings would be quite different things, but hey). Mildly diverting because it sounds like “Greatly”, but I mainly included it because it gave its name to a station that’s in the next village along, whose name is actually…
Palestine – …which is unexpected. Wikishire thinks it took its name from its remoteness, halfway between Salisbury and Andover, though how that follows I have been unable to establish. It does contain Mount Carmel Road, Mount Hermon Road and Zion Road, though.
Little Ann – Neither the forgotten American soul singer nor a neglected work by Charles Dickens, but a hamlet, near to Abbotts Ann and the Anna Valley. Seems to take its name from the Celtic river name recorded variously as Ann, Anne and Anna (helpful), which apparently means “stream by the ash trees”. Seems probable that this river also gave its name to the larger settlement of Andover in which I found…
Whynot Lane – Leading to Fingle Drive. “Whynot” seems to be a surname.
Red Rice – Rede Ric is apparently an Anglo-Saxon term for a council chamber, although other possible explanations include the colour of the local clay and the local shrubbery.
Enham Alamein – This is a good one. Was merely Enham (“lamb homestead” or “lamb enclosure”), until 1945 when many of those injured in the Battle of El Alamein were brought to the village to recover. Their convalescence was largely funded by money donated by the people of Cairo, who wanted to thank the British for freeing the country of Axis domination. The village was renamed to say thank you in return.
Picket Twenty – “There is very little information available about the meaning behind the unusual name Picket Twenty,” says the Andover Advertiser. Brilliant, thanks for that.2
Whitchurch – White church, though whether this is the one with the weirdly aggressive sign telling me that it was (this is the full text) “where GOD has been worshipped for over 1200 years” I couldn’t say.
Freefolk – Seems to mean exactly what you think it does, though who or what they were free from (surely not the Seven Kingdoms) has been lost to time.
Overton – Pleasingly literal: upper settlement. Included here mainly so I could make a joke about windows but now I can’t think of any, sorry.
Quidhampton – The one I spotted was the one near Overton, whose name apparently comes from “coed” meaning wood. Looking it up though, I realised there was also one near Salisbury: the name of that one, the internet tells me, comes from old English cwēad, meaning “dirty” or “dung-y”. Whether these two places of similar names really have radically different origins, or whether this merely tells us something about the difficulty of being certain about geographical etymology, is a matter left to the reader.
Newfound – What’s new about it I couldn’t tell you. Lovely name, though.
Winklebury – Surprisingly pastoral for a suburb of Basingstoke, a new town full of roundabouts.
Houndmills – Named for a very old mill, though today is simply an industrial estate wedged besides a main road. If the hound looking out of the bus window could read he would, I fear, be disappointed.
Given that all these were in the same 40 mile journey, and given that my capacity to go on about weird place names is functionally infinite, It is perhaps for the best I do not spend more time crossing the country by road.
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No it isn’t a city, British state, don’t be stupid.
I shouldn’t be mean, that piece by Emily S. Roberts has been extremely useful in researching this.