Hacker News Reader

Comment by pacaro | Hacker News Reader

If you're not British or a serious Anglophile it can be hard to believe that Nempnett Thrubwell or Newton Poppleford are real places.

We used to drive to Portishead to listen to Portishead.

View on HN

Years ago, I heard what I thought was the name of a play, "Western Super Mayor" was opening in the UK. A bit of checking and it turned out that it's the town of, Weston-super-Mare; sort of a Latinized version of "Whatevertown-upon-Rivername."

I'm pretty sure that if you said, "Weston-super-Mare" to a random collection of Americans, virtually none of them would even recognize what you were saying.

I think that's where John Cleese is from, so this American knows it.

I must be one of a few Americans who know it because it's an interesting name, but had no idea Cleese was from there until I read your comment just now. Very interesting.

John Cleese, the original Western Super Mayor.

> "Whatevertown-upon-Rivername." "Upon-sea", actually, but yes.

Oh they're seas?! I always (wrongly I guess) assumed that they were all rivers, like Tine, Avon, that kind of thing.

No that's right. Parent meant "Weston super mare" literally means "Weston upon sea", not that Upon is reserved for seas.

Oh, I'm a goober, thanks for the explanation.

Ah, to clear confusion, here's some bits on Upon:

Kingston upon Thames Newcastle upon Tyne Stratford upon Avon Berwick upon Tweed

These are all rivers.

Here's a cheat sheet to decipher British names:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_pla...

Usually translates to something mundane. Weston literally means "West Town".

EDIT: Got confused by parent wording - upon is used for the river but the above comment is correct: Weston super mare means "Weston upon sea", not that upon is reserved for seas

Weston-super-mud (Weston-super-mare has mudflats)

Great Snoring and Little Snoring always cracked me up too. They're lovely sleepy little villages.

Middle Wallop. Upper Wallop and Lower Wallop -- hopefully not too firmly.

Some more English place names.

Nasty: https://binged.it/2tnXxmm

Ugley: https://binged.it/2eCIKSF

Matching Tye: https://binged.it/2gQYodA

Barton in the Beans: https://binged.it/2todjh8

Benny Hill: https://binged.it/2tnXmaT

Crackpot: https://binged.it/2gQUCRu

Blubberhouses: https://binged.it/2gReunu

Marsh Gibbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Gibbon

Westward Ho!

Only British place name with an exclamation mark. The village is named from the book, not the other way around, and was developed to cash in on tourism inspired by the book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho!

Dallas is also a rather small sleepy village in Moray.

I believe there may be another one somewhere.

I'm partial to Upper and Lower Slaughter myself.

Mellon Udrigle is one of my favourite Socttish place names.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com