Fun Fact Friday
Fun fact for Friday, except I forgot to post this and it's now Tuesday, sorry, sorry .... soo my BFF's mother used to live in a wee hamlet called Flowery Bottom!
Call it school-girl humour but this always made me giggle! I mean how much fun is that - Flowery Bottom!
Yes this teeny, tiny hamlet in deepest darkest Devon is probably filled with flowers, at least it was at some point in its existence. I did in fact visit it very briefly and whilst it was indeed beautiful and not in any way dark it was definitely slanted. As in on the side of a valley. So had we ventured forth to the "bottom" we might have come across a swathe of flowers. Although to be honest I can't actually remember what time of year we descended on BFF's Mother?
The quirky or literal naming of places in the UK is not uncommon, but really if you think about it, it's the same worldwide. Places are born of their history often by the person who claimed the land and set up shop as it were or the feature or benefit of the geographical location. Hence Flowery Bottom.
I was on hold the other day for a county institution and instead of the dreary, irritating hold music there was a brief history of the capital town - it was brilliant - and I learned, said county was named after the Native American word for racoon! Who knew? Not I!
There are some however that aren't so obvious like the Wallops .... um Over Wallop, Nether Wallop and there's probably a middle Wallop, an Under Wallop and perhaps even an Also-ran Wallop. One can just about work out it's probably again about location, but Wallop?? I thought that meant to give someone a hefty slap, you know give them a wallop?
And what's perhaps stranger still is there are Wallops all over the UK.
BFF's Mother has now sadly moved from Flowery Bottom, so I can no longer send her Chrimbly cards and such like to that address, but it brought me joy for the time she was there, made me smile.
Do you know of any fun, quirky place names that you've either visited or heard of? And for those of you lucky enough to own perhaps a Floral Fusion, Lavender Rose, or Sugar & Spice silk robes, yes I know you've got your very own Flowery Bottom :-)
Stay Well, Stay Positive, Stay Safe - Sophie xxx