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Thursday, August 16, 2012

I Shit You Not!

A roadside sign welcomes visitors to Shitterton 


IT IS AN idyllic hamlet based around a single street of picturesque thatched cottages in rural Dorset.

But however lovely Shitterton is, the tiny collection of homes on the edge of the village of Bere Regis has been named as Britain’s most unfortunate place name in a new survey.

The tiny settlement between Dorchester and Poole beat the nearby valley of Scratchy Bottom, near Durdle Door in Dorset and Brokenwind in Aberdeenshire in the survey by findmypast.co.uk,

Shitterton is a very literal English translation of the village name recorded in Norman French in the 11th century Domesday Book as Scatera or Scetra which means a little town that is on the stream of a midden or sewer.

But Ian Ventham, chairman of Bere Regis Parish Council and proud Shitterton resident, said he does not find the name of the hamlet, with its long history, embarrassing.

“Shit is shit. Let’s not beat around the bush, that is where the name comes from,” the retired RNLI director said.

“But it isn’t a midden or shitheap now. It is a perfect rural hamlet with thatched cottages and idyllic Dorset countryside.

“Those of us who live here are not the least bit embarrassed by it.” . . .

http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/shitterton-named-most-unfortunate-place-name-in-uk-1-2467917 

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