Pink road signs and funny place names

Mar 11 2009 By Patricia Lewis

WHILE the council were left embarrassed a few weeks ago over the criticism made about their new flamboyant Dumfries road signs we decided to spare a thought for the communities of other towns who have to live with such embarrassment on a day-to-day basis.

The residents of the town of Lower Slaughter in Gloucestershire are one such band of locals. The quaint, picturesque town set in the English countryside is believed to have derived its name from a Norman Knight by the name of Philip de Sloitre. Philip de Sloitre received the land from William the Conqueror.

But the knight’s last name became twisted and mispronounced by his English counterparts and was later substituted for the English equivalent ‘slaughter’.

There is a rival to this theory claiming that the origin of the town’s name comes from an altered version of an Anglo-Saxon word which means ‘watery place’.

Great Snoring and Little Snoring are two other towns who possess curious names despite their relatively mundane appearance.

Set in the backdrop of Norfolk in south-east of England the two towns sit near the edge of the coastline.

The strange and curiously titled village of Wetwang sits at the northern edge of the Yorkshire Wolds in England. Like Lower Slaughter there are several suggestions to the origin of the places name.

One of the more popular theories is that Wetwang gained its name from the Viking word Vaettvangrr which means the ‘field of summons’.