Chipshop, Crackpot and Bethlehem

From Great Snoring to Drunkard's Bottom, from California to Ogle, the names of towns and villages in Great Britain and Northern Ireland give rise to lots of laughs

Everyone's heard of the Great British Chipshop, but not everyone knows there's a village in Cornwall that's called Chipshop. It has a chipshop too, but it isn't called the Chipshop. It's the village pub that's called the Chipshop. And I know all about funny English village names, as I spent the first year of my life in a village called Crank.

One Christmas my brother gave my wife a book that celebrated wonderful British placenames. It was made up of photographs by Dominic Greyer of the road signs to all these places. Called Far from Dull (yes, there is a place called Dull), it began with Fryup and ended with Overend and Boot.

I knew there was a place called Crackpot, as I saw the road sign myself one time in the Yorkshire Dales. I was driving along the B6270 and there was the sign pointing down a side road. I had to go and look, but blink and you missed it.

So what other magical placenames did the book Far from Dull uncover? For a start there's Bethlehem, Palestine, Dallas and California. There are places called Keith, Trevor, Wendy, Homer, Arabella and Mavis Grind, who sounds like she'd be worth knowing.

You could have a drink in Beer in Somerset, see Bedlam in North Yorkshire, go to Brawl in the Highlands, say hello to Farewell in Staffordshire, visit Lover in Wiltshire, try More in Shropshire and take a look at Twatt in Orkney.

Far from Dull even missed a few places too, there's so many to choose from. There's Bumble's Green, Pig Oak, Goosey and Drunkard's Bottom. Though it did include Drinker's End in Worcestershire. And if you get tired of visiting all these places, why, just go to Retire in Cornwall.