Fictional place names

I abhor the fictional place name of Broadchurch. The creator of this fictional place clearly knew nothing about the origin of place names. The place name does exist, but as two words and is very recent in comparison to most place names. But as a place name it has to make sense – and if we stop and think for a moment if a church is broad in one dimension, it must be narrow in the other. I doubt anyone will create a place named Narrowchurch (or Slimchurch), so why opt for Broadchurch?

Perhaps publishers and/or authors might want to look more carefully at their created place names – maybe I should offer a consultation service?

It did get me thinking about other fictional names and whether they really work of not. Are some possible? How many are implausible? Let’s have a look and we’ll start with the greatest soap opera on radio today – well maybe….

The Archers live in Ambridge and, as we known the local river is called the Am, the idea of the ‘bridge across the Am’ seems plausible. Except very few places names have ‘bridge’ in them when they were coined during the Saxon era (as most were). Amford, would be more likely, unless the river took the name of the place (a process known as back-formation) but then we would need Am to be a personal name – not implausible, but doesn’t rub well with me. Ambridge is in the county of Borsetshire, named after the county town of Borchester. This works rather well and I can’t find any criticism here. We also hear of the nearby villages of Penny Hassett, Loxley Barrett, Darrington, Hollerton, Edgeley, Waterly Cross, and Lakey Green – all of these are quite likely, so it’s a pity they didn’t get Ambridge quite right!

Harry Potter has Hogwarts and the nearby village of Hogsmeade – now while these would never work as English place names, as it is set in the wizarding world (and the characters hardly have ‘standard’ names) I can’t really offer any complaints here.

Dad’s Army was set in Walmington-on-Sea and it is a perfect name for the southeast coast.

Coronation Street has Weatherfield and here I have a problem. To define its origin takes no stretch of the imagination at all, but places were named to be recognized. All fields have weather, and fields are a rather late addition to place name elements. Having said that, if we accept the ‘field’ suffix there is no reason it could not be said to be an exposed or ‘cold’ field – hence Coldfield might have been more appropriate.

EastEnders has Walford which can only have come from Old English wahl ford meaning the ‘ford of the Welsh’. Now while having Welsh (correctly non-Saxons) in the London area is not out of the question, it is stretching it a little. Anyway, not getting into a debate about it – I don’t wanna talk about it, leave it out, sorted.

Pride and Prejudice has Pemberley and is close enough to Permberton for us to use similar origins. Thus penn bere leah or ‘the clearing by the hill where barley grows’.

Famous Five and Kirrin Island (and also the family name), takes its name from a mythological creature meaning ‘the little dark one’.

Hot Fuzz is set in the fictional village of Sandford – obviously ‘the sandy ford’ which does work well enough.

Heartbeat was set in Aidensfield and I have problems with the ‘field’ (see above) and the supposed personal name as the prefix. Just doesn’t work for a Yorkshire place name – although I admit it does sound plausible and I’d probably be okay with it if I didn’t know better.

All Creatures Great and Small took place in Darrowby where the suffix of by works perfectly and the prefix is almost ideal – Barrowby would have been better ‘the farmstead by the burial mound’, but I’ll accept the slight tweak as credible.

Casualty is in Holby, and I have a real problem here as the place is supposed to be around the Bristol area and yet ‘by’ names are virtually all found in the north and east of the country. And the first element also doesn’t work.

Middlemarch is a novel by George Eliot and the place name only half works – nothing wrong with ‘middle’ but the ‘marches’ are the English/Welsh border regions and that doesn’t quite ring true with the book. But as a title, it’s fine.

Market Blandings is the fictional location created by P. G. Wodehouse. Market is quite possible, and if we take Blandings as a family name (it is the name of the castle) it works fine.

Midsomer Murders and Midsomer – there is a Midsomer Norton in Somerset, where the Norton or ‘northern farmstead’ has the addition for distinction. That addition comes from the dedication to the church to St John, whose feast day is Midsummer’s Day.

The League of Gentlemen and Royston Vasey – there is a place called Royston in Hertfordshire, the place name meaning ‘Royce’s farmstead’. Vasey is a perfectly plausible addition from the local lord of the manor.

Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple lived in St Mary Mead and again another plausible place name.

Children once watched Camberwick Green, Chigley, and Trumpton all set in Trumptonshire. Camberwick is fine, ‘the specialized farmstead at the sheltered place’. Chigley is a little more problematical, for while the ‘clearing’ suffix works I can’t find anything which would give a prefix like ‘Chig’. And then there’s the county town, again the suffix of ‘farmstead’ is fine, but no notion of where the first part could come from. And before you write, these programmes were broadcast years before anyone had heard of anyone called Trump.