Britain’s rudest and funniest place names

By countryfile

Published: Thursday, 09 June 2022 at 12:00 am

Britain is home to a number of amusing and slightly rude place names. The origin of many place names in the UK date back to Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse times and while they might not be pronounced exactly the same today, can be traced back to Celtic, Roman and old Viking settlements.

With the help of the University of Nottingham’s Key to English Place Names and the Dictionary of British Place Names, we examine the etymology behind some of the nation’s foul-mouthed farmsteads and vile villages.

Here is our pick of the funniest and rudest place names in the UK.

Bitchfield

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Bitchfield, Lincolnshire ©Bob Harvey

Originally appearing in the Domesday book as Billesfelt, this small Lincolnshire village forms a parish with Lower Bitchfield. As with many places in Britain, over the centuries its pronunciation and meaning has changed.

According to the Dictionary of British Place Names, the moniker initially signified that it was the open land of a man called Bill: Bills-felt. Alternatively, it could be from Old English, meaning Bill referred to a word for sword, synonymous with the description of a sharp ridge or prominent area of land.

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So contrary to the modern interpretation suggesting a field of female dogs or unpleasant women, Bitchfield describes and area of open land, belonging to a mystery man by the name of Bill, or simply open land on raised ground.

Cocks

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Cocks, Cornwall ©Tony Atkin

Coming from the Old English for heaps or hillocks, Cocks is most likely a modern spelling of the word Coccs. The area around this tiny village, the parish of Perranzabuloe on the north coast of mid-Cornwall, is rather hilly, so this one is pretty self-explanatory.

Strengthening that view is the road called Cocks Hill, one of the many examples of a name repeating itself when a new wave of invaders did not understand the language of the previous occupiers. For example, the Cheddar in Cheddar Gorge means gorge, the Canvey in Canvey Island means island, and the Beachy in Beachy Head means beautiful headland.

Lower Swell

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Lower Swell, Gloucestershire ©Ben Gamble

There are a handful of theories regarding this Gloucestershire village’s name. A “swelle” is an old English word used to describe a mound, literally a swelling of the ground. It is possible that Lower Swell comes from this and its location in relation to local hills, situated on the lower of the hill, or at the bottom of the high ground.

Another theory suggest that it comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “well” meaning spring or well. There is a spring nearby called the Old Lady’s Well, perhaps Swell is a contraction of that name.

Victorian historian Daniel Henry Haigh, an Anglo-Saxon expert, proposed that there was a battle fought near the village by Offa of Mercia. After the battle, he thought that the dead were buried and burnt on the ground where the village church now stands. Haigh believed that Swell was an Anglo-Saxon word for burning or funeral pile. In the Middle Ages the village was known as Little Swell and perhaps the name referred to the place where this small, morbid fire was constructed.

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