Bury suburb listed among ‘UK’s silliest place names’

Bury suburb Besses o’ th’ Barn has been listed among the ‘silliest names in Britain’.

The name of the small area – which sits between Radcliffe and Prestwich in the top half of Greater Manchester – never fails to raise eyebrows among tourists taking the Metrolink.

Besses o’ th’ Barn’s etymology remains something of a mystery, although one explanation is that the area was once home to a barn-like local pub run by a landlady called Bess.

But whilst this northern-looking and sounding name elicits chuckles from travellers, Britain is in fact home to a numerous, humorously-titled locations further afield.

LeaseCarUk has actually built a map highlighting all the ‘silliest’ places in the country – with the likes of Crackport, Bunny and Great Snoring all making the list.

The list in full is as follows:

• Brawl
• Lost
• Brokenwind
• Whiterashes
• Dull, Aberfeldy
• Spunkie
• Wideopen
• Pity Me
• Wetwang
• Blubberhouses
• Crackpot
• Giggleswick
• Besses o’th ‘Barn
• Jump
• Bunny
• Chemisty
• Barton in the Beans
• Great Snoring
• Plwmp
• New Invention
• Nasty
• Donkey Town
• Matching Tye
• Curry Mallet
• Brown Willy
• Catbrain
• Crapstone
• Loose Bottom

A spokesperson for LeaseCar.uk, which compiled the list, said: “The English language never fails to amaze us, and neither does the imagination and creativity that must have gone into naming these iconic places around Great Britain and Ireland.  

“We’re not sure how residents of Nasty and Crapstone convince people they’re nice places to live with names like that – Bunny in Nottinghamshire sounds much better!”