{"id":579,"date":"2019-05-28T20:36:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T20:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/?p=579"},"modified":"2019-05-28T20:36:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T20:36:53","slug":"englands-weird-place-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/englands-weird-place-names","title":{"rendered":"England&#8217;s weird place names"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>England has some of the weirdest place names. Until recently, my favourite was Dial Post. Yes, there really is a place called <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/PRs3B11fRyAsDpHk6\">Dial Post<\/a>, and anyone familiar with the A24 south of Horsham will have seen the signs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"674\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dial-Post-1024x674.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dial-Post-1024x674.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dial-Post-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dial-Post-768x505.png 768w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dial-Post.png 1114w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>image from Google Streetview (not taken whilst driving)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Someone I knew at school came from a place with the glorious name of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kingston_Bagpuize\">Kingston Bagpuise<\/a>. The name, like so many weird English place names, is a corruption of the French. Just like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Biggleswade\">Biggleswade<\/a> is a corruption of the more exotic Old German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But my favourite so far has to be this one from the Cotswolds. Outdone by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lower_Slaughter\">Lower Slaughter<\/a> (probable inspiration for The Hobbit), <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stow-on-the-Wold\">Stow-on-the-Wold<\/a> (famous for a battle in the English Civil War) and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cirencester#Pronunciation\">Cirencester<\/a> (apparently pronounced &#8220;siesta&#8221; by locals), we found this on a signpost.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"464\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Screenshot-2019-05-28-at-21.26.14.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Screenshot-2019-05-28-at-21.26.14.png 464w, https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Screenshot-2019-05-28-at-21.26.14-300x116.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 464px) 100vw, 464px\" \/><figcaption>Image from Google Streetview (not taken whilst driving)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Guiting_Power\">Guiting Power<\/a>. Is that a Chinese energy company? No it&#8217;s the real name of a real village, which has had a small population for over 1000 years. The name is derived from Saxon, or Old French, or both. We haven&#8217;t found out how to pronounce it yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>England has some of the weirdest place names. Until recently, my favourite was Dial Post. Yes, there really is a place called Dial Post, and anyone familiar with the A24 south of Horsham will have seen the signs. Someone I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/englands-weird-place-names\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}