Place names

[brightncheerful]

About 5 years ago, I embarked upon scanning to pdf my collection of commercial property auction catalogues. The task took months but in the end freed up 3 large bookcases. Ocr more than 10,000 files also took a while. The prospect of renaming each file was daunting so I was content to search for whatever addresses I was looking for and rename each pdf as I went, A few weeks ago I decided to complete the next stage of the task and prefix each pdf with the place name so that i don't have to wade through hundreds sometimes thousands of pdf for the information I need, but simply go to a folder for each place name. The task will be finalised when I've finished renaming each file in a folder.

Almost complete, approximately 800 to do, I have discovered several places I'd never heard of and that lend themselves to my humour. For example, Amble (which is in Northumberland); Idle (near Bradford, West Yorkshire). I have ensured the folders for the 3 different places each named Newport contain correct info: Shropshire, Isle of Wight, Wales. (There is also a Newport in Essex near Saffron Walden.) For Wales, suffixing the folder with the county and whether south, west north-west or north. For places (that are obscure to me) their folders are suffixed with the nearest main town and county. Cleveland is no more but I'll keep the memory alive as I do for Middlesex. I have updated my spelling of Middlesborough to Middlesbrough.

There is a heritage value in the database. Some catalogues were from the mid 1980s, many from the 1990s. Photographs, trader plans, street scenes change, so too shop trading names, fascias, etc. It is interesting, at least to me, to observe how a property investment has fared. In one place I spotted a building which had been let to a national retailer at £11,000 pa with rent review 3 years on. The property came up for sale after the review had been completed at no increase in rent. A few years later, in another auction, the same building was offered fully vacant - by then the retailer had gone bust. In a more recent auction, the upper part has been converted into 3 flats which are all let, but the shop itself is let at the same rent pro-rata all that time ago. Reminded me of an overseas investor that bought a shop property on spec and which after the tenant did not renew the lease has lain empty ever since and now if saleable would probably fetch about 25% of the purchase price. I asked the investor whether he was aware the property had been offered in 5 different auctions before: no . A fool and his money… Or as I much prefer "when a person with money meets a person with experience, the one with experience ends up with the money and the one with the money leaves with experience."

Except for correcting spelling mistakes in places, road names, post-codes that I know, I have to rely on the addresses presented as correct. Currently, i am dealing with a shop property in Brighton (East Sussex) - nothing to do with New Brighton (Wirral) - where I have discovered thanks to renaming correctly, there are not as i had assumed through unfamiliarity two different streets in Brighton with similar names but the spelling of one is wrong. Having corrected the mistake, I now have about twice as much information about rents in the vicinity of the property I am dealing with.


Gosh is that the time?

[Lootman]

Idle (near Bradford, West Yorkshire)

Whilst visiting a friend attending Bradford University many years ago, one of the local sights he insisted on showing me was the "Idle Working Mens' Club".

Cheap beer, apparently.

[PinkDalek]

I have updated my spelling of Middlesborough to Middlesbrough.

Be careful if the property concerned was in Kentucky:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesbo ... tucky#Name

[YeadonLad]

Idle (near Bradford, West Yorkshire)

Whilst visiting a friend attending Bradford University many years ago, one of the local sights he insisted on showing me was the "Idle Working Mens' Club".

Friend of mine lives there, apparently the Working Mens Club used to sell tee shirts with their name on.

[idpickering]

Up here in Orkney, there's a village called Twat. There's also one in Shetland too. Must've had a sense of humour whoever named them. lol.

See link; https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tw ... &FORM=IGRE

Ian.

[PinkDalek]

Are there any mountains in Orkney?:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractio ... varia.html

[tjh290633]

Anyone who has been to Sheffield University will be familiar with "Twicker", as will most inhabitants of the City. I assume that it is still the name of the student rag magazine, as it was in the 1950s.

It took its name from t'Wicker, The Wicker being a short thoroughfare passing over the Don bridge and under the railway arch carrying the erstwhile Sheffield to Manchester line, now going only as far as Stockbridge, I believe. The local expression is:

"t'Wicker, weere t'watter runs over t'weir".

The Sheffield equivalent of Parliamo Scouse might be helpful.

TJH

[malkymoo]

Here's one for all my fellow overgrown schoolboys to snigger over:

https://www.tcii.gov.nl.ca/parks/p_dr/index.html

[marronier]

How about the men married to Corse or Loose or Ugley women , and the village in Herts full of Nasty men and women ?

[panamagold]

Two I'm aware of in France.

Montcuq - département Lot. Originally in Occitan the 'q' was pronounced 'k' - Mon cuk. As French is now the 1st language it is pronounced the same as mon cul (my ar.se). Apparently, on a good day, people can be seen queuing to raise their skirts or drop their pants for that photo momento beneath the town name panneau.

Chatte - département Isère. French slang for pu.ssy

So, something for everyone there.

[UncleEbenezer]

Individual place names are neither here nor there.

But in combination they can be more interesting. Or not. Dull's twinning with Boring and Bland may not be interesting, but it appears to have been considered newsworthy.

So where is, for example, Cockermouth twinned with?

[Watis]

Individual place names are neither here nor there.

But in combination they can be more interesting. Or not. Dull's twinning with Boring and Bland may not be interesting, but it appears to have been considered newsworthy.

So where is, for example, Cockermouth twinned with?

Probably this place, whose name will likely result in my post being deleted if I type it.

There's an article about it [url=http://www.tourmycountry.com/austria/[expletive deleted].htm]here.[/url]

NSFW.

Watis

[idpickering]

Are there any mountains in Orkney?:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractio ... varia.html

No not really. Lots of hills though.

Ian

[jfgw]

Are there any mountains in Orkney?:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractio ... varia.html

What are all those white patches?

[PinkDalek]

Are there any mountains in Orkney?:

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractio ... varia.html

What are all those white patches?

A different type of yellow snow?

[AleisterCrowley]

I've always found these twin villages/hamlets 'back home' raise a smile (not obscene FWIW)
https://goo.gl/maps/8AbVNCmzoMT2

[Scott0966]

I got married at Slack Top, just outside Hebden Bridge. Thankfully they didn't build the church a few hundred yards down the hill at Slack Bottom

[brightncheerful]

I've always liked Six Mile Bottom, near Cambridge. I gather it's pronounced simily boo

According to wikip, "The hamlet derives its name from its distance from the start of Newmarket Racecourse and because it lies in a valley bottom."

[brightncheerful]

Up here in Orkney, there's a village called Twat. There's also one in Shetland too. Must've had a sense of humour whoever named them. lol. Ian.

According to wikip "The settlement name originates from the Old Norse þveit, meaning 'small parcel of land'. The Norse word commonly produces in England the place name element Thwaite."

[jfgw]

This thread wouldn't be complete without mention of this village in Northern Ireland which has its own diving club,

Northern Irish Village