How England ended up with so many rude and "utterly hilarious" place names will be the subject of a talk on January 24 at Hatton Park Village Hall - and again on 31 January at Alcester War Memorial - hosted by Person Irresponsible, England’s most invisible middle-aged female adventurer.

Based on the book 'Everywhere I NEVER Wanted To Go', this Warwickshire-based woman who, along with her cat, spent a year living in a van visiting England’s most bizarrely-named, and occasionally down-right offensive, settlements. 

“I’ve a lot of knowledge of how the English language is put together, but when you combine it with even the briefest understanding of the bygone eras, you can see how we’ve ended up with so many accidentally smutty settlements!” the author explains. 

Of course, modern day English is nothing like that of our ancestors and the average English person has a strong preference for euphemism rather than direct biological terms, so any exploration of our national maps can end up an absolute treat for anyone with a passing interest in history and culture.  

For the most part, she thought Warwickshire was a very violent-sounding place, having such joys as 'Rowington', 'Shotteswell' and 'Arrow' to terrify her with, as well as, of course 'WARwick'.

Nonetheless, Warwickshire certainly did not disappoint in making the author laugh with it having 'Willey' and 'No Man’s Heath' in its boundary. It was in Warwick that she discovered why so many medieval towns have a Butts Lane or similar, and also why the Victorians removed all references to “Shame Streets”.  

Willey is a great example of how history shapes language, having once been better known as 'Wibtoft'. Ironically, it most likely means “The Homestead of the Wife” or “The Farm of the Women”, although others claim it hails from pre-Roman times and means “Holy Place”. You can make your own minds up.  

If you want to learn more, then do book a ticket via Eventbrite for Hatton Park or Alcester. The talk is called “The Story of England’s Rudest Place Names”.   

She promises there will be "no gratuitous sweating", but also that "you’ll never look at a road sign in quite the same way again".