Greater Manchester town named on list of ‘UK’s silliest place names’

The UK’s silliest place names have been revealed, and a Greater Manchester town has made the cut.

Places like Wetwang, Nasty, and Loose Bottom are just some of the odd place names to make the list, which includes various towns, villages and hamlets across the country.

There’s some other truly bizarre offerings on the list, with several rude, funny and quite often just bizarre place names located in the UK.

Gerald England / Geograph

And one of those on the list is Besses o’ th’ Barn in Bury, located between Radcliffe and Prestwich.

How the town earned its pretty unusual name is a mystery, however there are several theories, with one based around Dick Turpin’s horse, Black Bess.

Another more likely explanation, according to the BBC, involves a local pub run by a lady called Bess.

The BBC’s 1986 Domesday Reloaded project said: “The most reasonable sounding tale is of a local pub which looked like a barn and was run by a lady called Bess.

“The local invitation to a drink would be, ‘let’s go see Bessie at th’ barn’. Later, as houses were built around, the name came to mean the whole village, not just the pub.”

LeaseCar.uk

Our region isn’t the only one with funny names on offer, as in Scotland you can visit Brawl, Brokenwind, Spunkie, and Whiterashes, while over in Yorkshire you could travel to Blubberhouses, Crackpot, Giggleswick, and Wetwang.

Here’s the full list:

• Brawl
• Lost
• Brokenwind
• Whiterashes
• Dull, Aberfeldy
• Spunkie
• Wideopen
• Ae
• Pity Me
• Wetwang
• Blubberhouses
• Crackpot
• Giggleswick
• Besses o’ th’ Barn
• Jump
• Bunny
• Chemistry
• Barton in the Beans
• Great Snoring
• Plwmp
• New Invention
• Nasty
• Donkey Town
• Matching Tye
• Curry Mallet
• Brown Willy
• Catbrain
• Crapstone
• Loose Bottom

A spokesperson for the company that compiled the list, LeaseCar.uk, said: “The English language never fails to amaze us, and neither does the imagination and creativity that must have gone into naming these iconic places around Great Britain and Ireland. 

“We’re not sure how residents of Nasty and Crapstone convince people they’re nice places to live with names like that – Bunny in Nottinghamshire sounds much better!”