Spoken Word and Wayward Walks
Place Names
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE LOWER HOPE
Reaches and features of the Thames Estuary (from the Soundings from the Estuary project).
"Long Reach to Oaze Deep, Halfway Road to Middle Ground
Small Gains, Great Lines, the tide turns, the Hope rises..."
THE HOW, WHAT, WHERE AND WHY OF HOO
The lesser-known history and activity of the little-known Hoo Peninsula (from the Soundings from the Estuary project).
"...Lookers, overseers, muddies and smugglers, birders, boaters, anglers and caravanners;
Mudflats to saltmarsh to cliff of chalk ridge, launching of seaplanes and assembly of airships..."
EVER BEEN TO...?
A playful assembling of some of Britain's best place names, but can you tell which of them
are real and which are made up, or not places at all?
"...Eccles, Beccles, Wroxeter or Uttoxeter
Itchin Abbas, Toller Porcorum, Marston Magna or Portly Decorum... "
NOT MOCKING, JUST MESSING (see below for full version)
The delightful and evocative place names of Essex. And they're all for real.
"...Bocking and Barking, Fobbing and Frating, Stebbing and Epping..."
ESTUARY ENGLISH
Features of the English coast and sea - from cliffs and coves to channels. Again, all for real!
"...Dancing Ledge, Durdle Door, Boggle Hole and Baggy Leap..."
LINKING SHIRE
Place names of Lincolnshire.
"...Horbling, Spalding, Stragglethorpe and Legbourne
Spridlington, Friskney, Stickney and Great Limber..."
DANGER AREAS OF SURREY
Ordnance Survey maps reveal some curious or appropriately named features in
the military training areas hidden in Surrey.
" ... Ricochet Hill, Romping Downs, Hangman's Hill and the Devil's Pound..."
SNIGGLE WAYS
A tour of York's curiously-named pedestrian passages, the 'snickleways'.
"...Precipitate to Gillygate, Lollop along Jubbergate, and loop left at Lop Lane..."
THWING, THONG
In what curious and otherwordly land would you find these place names?
"...Ogle, Probus, Mutrix, Orcop; Witcha, Wigwig, Wigtwizzle, Wetwang..."
(Answer on application, or see if you can find out yourself...)
COMPLIMENTS TO HEART'S CONTENT
See Maritime page.
Not Mocking, Just Messing...
Brightlingsea and Thundersley,
Great Wakering, Margaretting and Mountnessing,
Vange, Grapnells and Grays;
And like the nose of the county, The Naze.
Pleshey Mount and Dengie Marshes,
Stifford and Stisted, Stansted Mountfitchet,
Chickney, Pitsea, Tiptree, Tilty,
Rickling, Writtle, Spriggs and Wix.
Doddinghurst and Bobbingworth, Pattiswick and Prittlewell,
Wivenhoe, Finchingfield and Fingringhoe;
Hoo Hall, Hungry Hall, Creeping, Cold and Gusted Halls,
Halls called Porridgepot and Toppinghoe.
Gay Bowers and Twitty Fee,
Wicken Bonhunt, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, and Layer de la Haye,
Stanford-le-Hope, Burnham-on-Crouch, Havering-atte-Bower and Frinton-on-Sea.
Sheering and Feering, Tendring and Cressing,
Marks Tey and Matching Tye,
Dedham, Dagenham and Debden,
Gore Pit and Poor Park, Cripple Corner and Cuckingstool End.
The islands of Osea, Mersea and Wallasea;
The surprisingly pretty village of Ugley.
Down the rivers Roach and Crouch you’ll find Foulness,
And along the Stour there’s a stop at Wrabness.
There's Bocking and Barking, Fobbing and Frating,
Stebbing and Epping, Mucking and Messing,
but oddly, no sign of Mocking.
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All the above (except Mocking of course) are genuine Essex place names, as found in the Bartholomew map of Essex dated 1986 - though this map appears to be simply a copy of a much
older map with a few superimposed amendments and additions.
(Thanks to: Mick Rodwell, Roger Allen)
© Germander Speedwell, 2005
