
Head to Google Maps, hover over the West Country and zoom in on the vast empty swathes of greenfields. Chances are you’ll find some beautiful little villages with the strangest-sounding names you’ve ever heard. Places close to Bristol like Yatton Keynell, Chew Magna, Halluvington and Hatch Beauchamp are all fantastic to hear spoken aloud. But even they barely scratched the surface of how weird some villages get. So here are some of the strangest place names you can visit from Bristol.
1. Catbrain
Most Bristolians will have heard of this one. Catbrain is on the outskirts of Bristol near Cribbs Causeway. The gruesome name derives directly ‘cat’s brain’, which is a common name for fields in the south of England. It comes from the Middle English, Cattes Brazen, referring to a rough clay mix used in the soil. There are a few Catbrains knocking about too in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Surrey. While you’ll find a similar-sounding Catsgore in Somerset, which is actually more cat-related. Meaning ‘place where the wild cats live’.
2. Nempnett Thrubwell
“There’s not a pub, there ain’t a shop, you never see a traffic cop. Drink up, and no-one says “stop”, down in Nempnett Thrubwell.” So silly is the name for this Somerset village that the West Country’s comedy folk group The Wurzels sought to get a laugh out of it with their song Down in Nempnett Thrubwell. Nempnett and Thrubwell were once separate places, with neither name as silly as they sound together (okay Thrubwell is still funny). Nempnett comes from the Old English word’ emnet’, meaning level ground. While Thrubwell may mean gushing stream. Nempnett Thrubwell is also home to the Neolithic barrow, Fairy Toot.
3. Tiddleywink
This silly-sounding village in Wiltshire, near Castle Combe, is made up of only eight cottages. But driving through, the name will stick with you forever. Tiddleywink is said to derive from rhyming slang for ‘a quick drink’. Passing cattle drovers came to know one of the cottages as serving the best beer on their route.
4. The Shoe
Yes, there probably is an old woman who lives in The Shoe. Whether she had so many children she didn’t know what to do, we don’t know. Sitting on the Fosse Way, the hamlet is named after the former inn called The Horseshoe.
5. Petty France
We’ll try to avoid winding up Anglo-French relations, but we’ve always been an admirer of this hamlet in South Gloucestershire. (It might be just because my dad has a story about cycling there as a child, thinking he was actually going to France, that he loves to tell.) Jane Austen was less enthusiastic about it in Northanger Abbey, saying: “There was nothing to be done but to eat without being hungry, and to loiter about without anything to see.”
6. Velvet Bottom
Basically, everywhere in the West Country sounds either like an England cricketer or a 70s glam rock band. Velvet Bottom could be both. You’ll find this silky-sounding valley near Cheddar. This nature reserve is mostly grassland, with some smaller areas of woodland, and is great for exploring the beauty of the Mendip Hills.
7. Temple Cloud
Unfortunately neither a temple nor in the clouds, this village in the Chew Valley not be the spiritual retreat you were hoping for. But it’s still rather charming and home to Rockaway Park, a weird and wonderful community arts hub. It’s believed Temple relates to the Knights Templar who held many manors nearby. While Cloud may derive from the Old English ‘clud’ meaning rocky outcrop.
8. Queen Camel
A camel in Somerset? We thought we’d seen everything… Some think Queen Camel was the site of the final battle of King Arthur. (You know, if you believe that he existed of course.) The name does not derive from the animal but from ‘Cantmael’, the place’s name in the 10th century, which could be the conflation of two Celtic words: ‘canto’ meaning district and ‘mael’ meaning bare hill. Meanwhile, the ‘Queen’ element likely comes from Queen Eleanor, the wife of Henry III, who owned land in the 13th century.
9. Curry Mallet
We do love curry in Britain, but this place long outdates its arrival on these shores. Originally called Cory Mallett, Curry Manor was held by the Mallett family from 1215 to 1356. Legend says that three streams run under the manor and lead directly to the holy well at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. While there have been numerous ghostly sightings on the grounds too.
10. Westonzoyland
There are actually a few ‘zoy’-based places in Somerset, all in close proximity. You don’t often see it elsewhere in the English language, but proves popular in this part of the world. Westonzoyland, Chedzoy and Middlezoy are all related to islands (which is strange if you‘ve visited any of them). Meaning “the island of sowy”, simply “island;” and “flowing island” respectively.