How could Adrian Chiles have overlooked Dorset, where quaint village-naming meets nominative determinism (From Bentley Pauncefoot to Yetts O’Muckhart, I’m obsessed with Britain’s weirdly named villages, 7 October)?
The county is home to the three Matravers brothers: dark and cruel Langton, squandering the family fortune at the gambling tables; Worth, a one-nation Tory and local vicar with a floppy fringe; and youngest brother Lytchett, who was probably something of an afterthought for his parents and who launches social projects but never quite follows them through.
Meanwhile, I can help Adrian out with Zeal Monachorum: she’s a young Quaker environmentalist who has recently moved to Dorset, having fallen in love with Lytchett Matravers, and will be the good woman he needs to redeem the family name by setting up a successful alternative community.
Janet Fraser
Twickenham, London
What a treat to read Adrian Chiles’s piece on weird place names. West Yorkshire has lots to offer the etymologically inclined, with time assigning different meanings to them. My favourite is the village of Slack, which naturally has Slack Bottom, Slack Top and Mid Slack, perhaps a practical indication of the human effort required to reach each location. In Australia’s southernmost state, Tasmania, there are villages named Nowhere Else and Paradise. The trouble there is that visitors remove the name signs as soon as the previously stolen ones are replaced.
Madonna Grehan
Melbourne, Australia
My wife and I thought we were alone in applying personas to obscure village names on our travels. One particular favourite of ours is Moreton Jeffries, whom we envisage as a somewhat pompous, blazer and cravat clad ex-major, as per the late David Niven’s character in Terence Rattigan’s Separate Tables. And don’t get us started on Acton Trussell!
David and Anthea Collins
Kidderminster, Worcestershire
Adrian Chiles mentions some places named Green. I have also noticed that some apply to me. There is a Little Green (5ft 3in and shrinking), Broad Green (that happens with age) and Cross Green (when I stub my toe). The headlines in the paper often have my family responsible for many things at the moment, and the shortened version of my first name, where artificial intelligence is Al, for very many other problems.
Alan Green
London
