Rude Britain

"Rude Britain" (subtitled "100 Rudest Place Names in Britain") is a 2005 book of humour and toponymy. The book (ISBN 0-7522-2581-2) is written by Rob Bailey and Ed Hurst, and published in the United Kingdom by the Pan Macmillan imprint Boxtree.

Each of the 100 names chosen by the authors are accompanied by a photograph and a placename etymology. The etymologies are often due to the island's history of repeated invasion, occupation, and assimilation, combined with a human for "double entendres".

Top 24

The following is the list of the top twenty one names from the book, many of which are street names and most of which incorporate body part or sexual slang:

# Cocks, Cornwall
# Minge Lane, Worcestershire, England
# Bell End, Birmingham, England
# Twatt, Shetland (note, there is another Twatt in Orkney)
# Sandy Balls, a long-established holiday centre in New Forest, Hampshire, England with a name dating back to Henry VIII
# Muff (now Eglinton), County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
# Fingringhoe, Essex, England
# Back Passage, City of London, an alleyway in the EC1 postal district
# Shitterton, Dorset, England
# Slag Lane, Merseyside, a residential street in Haydock, England
# Hole of Horcum, North York Moors, England
# Fanny Hands Lane, Lincolnshire, England
# Inchinnan Drive, Renfrewshire, Scotland
# Cockshoot Close, Oxfordshire, England
# Funbag Drive, Watford, England
# Fanny Avenue, Derbyshire, England
# Beaver Close, Surrey, England
# Dick Court, Lanarkshire, Scotland
# Felch Square, Powys, Wales
# Lickfold, West Sussex, England
# Rimswell, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
# Spanker Lane, Nether Heage, Derbyshire
# Cocknmouth Close, West End, Surrey
# Friars' Entry, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
# Butthole Road, Conisbrough, South Yorkshire
# Cockermouth, Allerdale, CumbriaOther entries include North Piddle (from the Old English word "pidele", meaning marsh), Pratt's Bottom, Ugley, and Spital-in-the-Street (a hamlet in Lincolnshire with a name based on the Middle English "spitel", meaning hospital). Gropecunt Lane in Oxford has been renamed "Magpie Lane".

ee also

* Gropecunt Lane

External links

* [http://www.rudebritain.co.uk Author's official site, with selected photographs of places and street names]
* [http://www.panmacmillan.com/titles/displayPage.asp?PageTitle=Individual%20Title&BookID=376016 Publisher's summary of the book]
* [http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/travel/galleries/popup.html?in_gallery_id=471 Photographs from the book] , from the travel website of Associated Newspapers
* [http://keithbriggs.info/shit-names.html Shit English place-names]