@@WanderingRavens EXON is in Devon on the River EX and Moscow is in Cumbria neat the Northumberland county border and near the Scottish English border. I have been to both places, but cant find them on the map or any map. not even GOOGLE maps
@@WanderingRavens Hello guys. Love your channel! Just thought I'd point out that Yorkshire was never an administrative county in the proper sense - as you say in the video, it was split into the 3 Ridings. So it didn't really cease to exist in the early '70s with local government reorganisation. Traditional Yorkshire is still, however, a Ceremonial County, with its own Lord Lieutenant (whatever the hell that means :-) ). Back in Viking times, there was of course the Kingdom of York (upon which Yorkshire is loosely based) which actually pre-exists the Kingdom of England.
@@garyscholes9567 The Lord Lieutenant is the Monarchs official representative in the County and will greet the Monarch whenever they visit and carry out ceremonial duties on behalf of, they all have one, some have to represent more than one County as in Yorkshire or Sussex ( East and West ).
Let's face it microwaving water is the least of the American blasphemies regarding tea.... The Americans think correct tea party behaviour involves a boatload of tea and a harbour!
Growing rhubarb in the dark makes it put all it's energy into creating a tall stem, or stick, as it searches for light. This results in a "stick" of rhubarb that is thinner and less fibrous than normal with an under developed leaf. It is also paler in colour and sweeter making it more suitable for culinary use.
Yorkshire dialect has strong roots in Old Norse. I remember my Dad having a conversation with a Norwegian, he using his Yorkshire Dialect and she speaking Norwegian.
The funny thing is that although Bristol is deemed to be in 'The West Country', yet, Edinburgh is actually further West than Bristol but it's on the East Coast.
The Caledonian Canal runs from Inverness to Fort William it used 4 natural lochs (including Loch Ness) to get through the Great Glen - you can hire boats to do the trip
There will always be a Yorkshire! Unfortunately the situation was a little more complex than you mentioned. The East Riding of Yorkshire was actually scrapped (dare I say murdered) in 1974 and replaced with an unpopular artificial county called Humberside (yuk) which included northern parts of Lincolnshire. This was so absolutely hated in East Yorkshire that the county was scrapped in 1996 after 24 years and East Yorkshire / East Riding of Yorkshire was reborn. Yay! Alas, the hated H word lives on for the time being in the name of the police, fire service and local BBC radio station (for old folk). There is also a very small airport in Northern Lincolnshire called Humberside Airport. It also explains why the "region" is known as "Yorkshire and the Humber" as the sliced off part of Lincolnshire is still often included with 4 counties of Yorkshire for some purposes. Its a relic of the 3 Yorkshire 1974 counties and Humberside making up an area together. Perhaps, it was because the East Riding was reborn that it wanted to reinstate the word Riding even though the borders are slightly different to the pre-1974 East Riding.
@@WanderingRavens Ha, you're welcome and yes, vive le Yorkshire. Lancashire may have had a Merseyside sliced off it at the same time, but we Yorkshire folk, didn't put up with that "Humberside" nonsense for long! :)
@@andyt8216 As I see it, out of all the 1974 counties only Merseyside really caught on. Probably because Scousers tend to think they're something apart from the rest of us.
My favourite is on the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire. Were it passes at high level over the Pennine Hills the carriageways are several hundred yards apart due to the topography. Between the carriageways is a single isolated farm that's known as: 'The little house on the prairie'.
@jason longsden I did yes, that's why they got him to be the Mayor. I also used to drive through Hadfield (which was used as Royston Vasey) every day as I worked in the next town. The local cafe I went to every lunch time still had the words "you'll never leave... much" on the menu, despite being at least a decade later.
Portsmouth is Pompey and Plymouth is Guz in naval folklore. Guz because Devonport naval base is the first port of call from the Atlantic for a good "run ashore" and guzzle as much ale as a matelot wants.
@@russcattell955i I was always told the name "GUZ" came from the naval radio designation for Plymouth during WWII. Pompey nicknamed because Portsmouth held all the dens of iniquities like brothels etc found (and seen by the RN sailors visiting in the 1800s) in the Roman city of Pompey
Great video! I’m from the East Riding of Yorkshire and we used to be part of an area called ‘Humberside’ (the area around the River Humber) which contained the East Riding, including the city of Kingston-upon-Hull, and North Lincolnshire. However, as of the 1990s, this was abolished but the riding was kept as before, whereas South, North and West Yorkshire removed the riding parts. Yorkshire is also rightly known as ‘God’s Own County’ and for some reason to come from Yorkshire is something to be incredibly proud of. I have Yorkshire Pride! Hope that’s helpful :-)
You should also look into the history of the street in Hull called ‘The Land of Green Ginger’. Lots of fairytales about it. Definitely a video opportunity here
There is a very small village near where I used to live near Howden in Yorkshire. The road sign is there, there are a hand full of houses but it's not on a map. It's called - The Land Of Nod
I drive past there so often on the way to the East Coast and see the sign all the time. I never realised it wasn't on a map. I just checked. You're right!
Rhubarb was well known for growing on privy sites. When privies were at the bottom of the garden and periodically moved, the ones with pits that is, not buckets, the old site would provide an abundance of rhubarb. Rhubarb originated in China. One Emperor during the opium wars suggested that they stop selling the stuff to us so that we would die of constipation.
Spaghetti Junction contains a canal , a viaduct , a railway , a motorway , and a couple of major A routes plus local traffic underneath. It’s nuts but the best thing is the lovely view of Villa Park ! Up the villa 💕
It's nicknamed Tusky, because of an incident quite a while back. A traveller was passing a Yorkshire Farmer, harvesting his Rhubarb crop using his newly acquired Malamute farm dog, which he was handing Rhubard stalks to and the dog was dropping them into a basket by the edge of the field. The Traveller pointed at what was going on and asked : "Hello, what's this?" Farmer replied: "That's T'usky in't it." And the name stuck.
The last thing I expected in one of your videos was The League of Gentlemen! Loved it :-) PS Your pronunciation of English place names is getting much better, keep it up. PPS Was going to mention The Black Country and The Magic Roundabout, but I see they have already been brought up in the comments
Yay!!! You mentioned stoke! My beloved potteries! Home of the humble cheesey oatcakes (not to be confused with the scottish oatcake) and ppl who look at the bottom of plates to see if it's one of ours. I'm a born and bred stokie and I'm very proud of my potteries roots. I think most ppl my age (36) and above have worked in a pottery factory or shops at some point in their lives. It's like a right of passage!! You said Portsmouth right! Well done you are figuring out our confusing language!! As always you are lovely and thank you for making me smile.
@@WanderingRavens I worked in the shop ☹️. BUT in order to work in the shop we had to have induction days where they would show us around the factory and teach us about the processes in the factory so we could tell people about the pottery. My mum worked in the factory checking the prints on plates. We made simple pottery in art lessons and glazed it and the teacher put it in a kiln.
I am from Dorsetshire in the south of England. I would say that we are definitely in the West Country and would define the area as the old Saxon Kingdom of Wessex. Also Cornwall normally gets lumped in as it is otherwise on its own and isolated and afterall it is to the west of Wessex so why not?
The Landsker Line - a linguistic line in West Wales separating English- and Welsh-speaking areas. This gives rise to the area unofficially called Little England Past Wales, which is nothing to do with the number of English people who live there but is due to the language. It goes back to the 11th century.
Always heard of parts of Pembrokshire being little England in Wales. Tenby springs to mind especially, but didn't know about the Landsker Line, it makes sense now thanks :)
When the old county of Yorkshire was reorganized in the 70s, the East Riding part became part of Humberside together with a part of North Lincolnshire. It was officially no longer Yorkshire, although everybody still thought of themselves as from Yorkshire. The new county was so unpopular it was eventually abolished and the constituent bits returned to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Yes, the Great Glen is fully navigable by boat and ship. The lochs have been joined by a series of canals and locks so as to shorten the journey by sea. It was a massive engineering achievement.
The "reek" in Auld Reekie has got little to do with smell. It is specifically to do with chimney smoke. Another use of the word is in the Scottish well wishing phrase "lang may your lum reek". You can read this as "long may your chimney have smoke coming out". This is expressing a hope that you long have the wherewithal to heat your house and cook your food!
What most people don't know is that beneath Spaghetti Junction is a canal junction. I have narrow - boated along these canals once on holiday. It is amazing to sail under this crazy junction. You should try a narrow boating holiday as it's so relaxing. Great video btw.
One you might of missed is "The Jurassic Coast" this refers to the coastline of Dorset where about 90% of all British Fossils have been found. They are so common here that if you know what you're looking for they can still be found even today just walking along the shore.
The ‘Home Counties’ - to me this means ... counties directly bordering London, Tory voters, Daily Mail or Telegraph readers, listen to Radio 4 or 3, but NOT necessarily suburban (which just means the less urban area of a large town or city). Very much like ‘Middle England’, which extends to a broader area to also include central England and East Anglia. They both refer to attitudes and social class.
Originally when Yorkshire was divided it was split into North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside. But nobody in Humberside liked that because they identified as Yorkshire folk so they eventually got it changed again in 1996 most of Humberside became the East riding of Yorkshire and the rest mainly became North Lincolnshire
I've heard London referred to as "The Smoke" - lol note the definite article there! It's pronounced Portsmuth - same as Dartmuth, Exmuth, and so on. Or, as I'm a cockney, it'd be Porstmuff, Dartmuff, etc
Yorkshire as a county exists where it belongs in the hearts of us Yorkshire folk . Tory jerrymandering can't split Gods Own County ask most Yorkshire Folk where they come from and they will answer Yorkshire not South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and so on I was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire for example
You were 'lucky' enough to get Tory jerrymandering. The 1970s changes were a much watered-down version of what the previous Wilson government had in mind (confer the Maude Radcliffe report)
Love that you got the rhubarb triangle correct with Morley, Rothwell and Wakefield. The center of this triangle is East Ardsley where the forced rhubarb was put on the trains for London. However the name for rhubarb locally was not tusky but tushy. I am from east Ardsley/Thorpe the two villages close to the center of the triangle, though the most apt description nowadays is where the M1 meets the M62 motorway since Ardsley station closed in 1963..
The majority of the Welsh population lives either in one of the large towns on the south coast between Newport and Llanelli or in the Valleys. Also, the Balti triangle in Birmingham, the Jurassic coast, the Welsh Marches, the Borders (the area on the Scottish side of the border between England and Scotland), the north, and the channel islands (in the Bristol channel including flatholm, steeholm, and lundy), aren't normally on maps...
Just a quickie: The city of Bristol (which also has county status, though not referred to as such) is often included in The West Country groupings, regardless of what some folks further south like to say.😉
The Caledonian Canal through the great glen (which connects and makes use of a number of lochs including Loch Ness) was built to allow ships to pass from the east coast to the west coast without going the long/hazardous way round via Cape wrath. Completed in 1822, it became redundant as a trade route as ocean going ships became too large to pass through it, but it is still used for leisure and the occasional coastal vessel carrying logs.
@@WanderingRavens A northerner went to London once and was reported to the police by worried Londoners.. He was charged with smiling and saying hello to people indescriminately.
@@RoyCousins I agree. If we were visiting London, we would say we're going down the smoke. Before the Clean Air Act took effect, we always arrived home with the inside of our collars black where the soot in the air had stuck to our sweat.
Middlesex is an ancient county that was completely engulfed in Greater London in 1965. The only references to it are the towns, postcodes and the cricket team.
I can concur that you actually can hear forced rhubarb growing. I went to see one of the sheds on a school trip as a young kid. Put it this way I wouldn't want spend the night in one, it's kind of subtle but eerie creaking noises.
The land north of the Great Glen was once geologically part of America.It's a closed sea I think , and the rocks match with the Canadian north western seaboard.
Can't find Yorkshire? Just shout "Oh Go help me" and the clouds part, rays of sun spatter down, Micheal Parkinson arrives, flat cap on head, whippet scurrying dutifly around his feet, Pint of Tetley tea in a mug gripped in his hand... Ps: Even thinking Yorkshire doesn't exist is Blasphemy, but actually saying it out loud will get you barred from Yorkshire for eternity, thereby preventing entry to heaven..
I remember a dyed-in-the-wool Yorkshireman telling me in all mock seriousness that the first Yorkshireman came into being when a Geordie screwed a pig. Though he didn't use the word screwed.
Think you'll find it's Yorkshire Tea that he's got in the mug and instead of a whippet it'd be a copy of the Yorkshire Post 📰to see how his beloved Yorkshire County Cricket Club🏏 are doing. Lol
Yes i did has a small child my parents took me to a neightbours house. My father showed me a small shed went inside. Was so dark i could only see a candle. The noise i heard was so weird it freaked me out. Later did more research read about force growing amazing stuff.
The Highlands of Scotland would be an artificial island as the waterway you noted is called the Caledonian Canal (stretching from Inverness in the East to Fort William in the West), which is actually a series of canals joining the large lakes in the Great Glen together
Once you have finished touring The Valleys, which also had a long history of iron and steel working, make your way along the M4 and keep going until you reach "Little England beyond Wales"
You could also add the Marches which is the border area between England & Wales. The term goes back to the Norman conquest when powerful marcher lords ran the area and defended against Welsh raids.
Home Counties so named during the 2nd W War by pilots flying back over the channel as they were the first sight of 'home', so really these are Kent, Sussex (East & West) and Surrey with Hampshire, Essex as outsiders... ;)
Yes it is possible to make the journey from Fort William to Inverness by boat and that is the Caledonian Canal. There 29 locks, 4 aqueducts, and 10 bridges. Boat hires are available
I am from Erdington just up the road from Spaghetti junction a great place to learn to drive but can you say Spaghetti Junction with a Brummi accent?I now live in Droitwich Spa all the best and keep safe.
Hi Guys, many thanks for educating this Brit with some very interesting facts, I was in Pompey this Morning and well done Eric it is pronounced Portsmuth even though it is spelt mouth, you have cracked the English way of pronouncing really well.
@@1daveyp in order to stop the Midlands rubbing against London........the last thing i would want , is for my county to rub against London , so thank you beds and herts, you are doing a fine job............God Bless the Queen :)
East Anglia seems the most ill defined. Some purists insist it is just Norfolk and Suffolk, most people will add Essex, and quite a few others add Cambridgeshire too. Some others add other parts. The definite southern border is the Thames, no one adds Kent, it is Eastern enough but too south.
@@WanderingRavens there are so many interesting things to learn about when it comes to the Black Country including the accent, dialect, food, and LOADS more. If you get chance I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, I imagine it would be right up your street! Happy (slightly belated by 20 mins) Black Country day! 🥳
I wouldn't ever say that The Black Country is West of Birmingham, especially if you are in that neck of the woods, and by that I hope you don't mean the West of Birmingham (you could get lynched for that in that part of the world)!!! Whilst technically correct the places do have names, and have been just as important in Britain's industrial past as Birmingham is today - namely West Bromwich, Dudley, Tipton, Walsall, Wednesbury, and many more, but not Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, or Smethwick apparently (good luck pronouncing that lot). Great part of the world, not so black, industrial, or polluted anymore. In fact if going up there then Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge where the industrial revolution began. It seems very rural today.
The earliest mention of "the Home Counties" that I could find was from Charles Davenant in 1695. He was talking about taxation and does not mention WHY they are called The Home Counties, but he does say that there are ELEVEN of them! In his book, Kent from 1975, Marcus Crouch suggests that The Home Counties were so called because it was where the main circuit County courts surrounding London sat. Others have suggested that they were the counties in which Members of Parliament could reasonably be expected to travel to Westminster without claiming expenses for overnight accommodation, second homes or billets. The fact is that nobody knows exactly which counties are the Home Counties or why they got that name. All we know is that the term was in common use from at least the late 17th century and possibly before.
Try and find "Mexican Bridge". It's a group of three or four houses grouped around a very ordinary-looking bridge in East Lincolnshire. There is a road sign. I have no idea how the name came about
Locally to us in Warwickshire we also have the Black Country! It is an area of the West Midlands, west of Birmingham and commonly refers to a region covering most of the four Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. The Black Country gained its name in the mid nineteenth century due to the smoke from the many thousands of ironworking foundries and forges plus also the working of the shallow and 30ft thick coal seams. ^_^ Sammy xXx
Wandering Ravens We certainly do, but they were built for heavy industry not pleasure, so whilst they are nicer now they aren’t as picturesque as Venice. 😀
5:18 Yes. It's called the Caledonian Canal and was designed Thomas Telford for shipowers to ferry cargo from west to east without going round the top of Britain. There are a few UA-cam vids of people who have navigated it.
It was designed during the Napoleonic Wars to allow warships to get from the North Sea to the Atlantic (and vice versa) and built (with great difficulty) just before shipping became iron, steam-powered and much bigger... oops. Oh, and it was completed after the war was over...oops.
Although the Rhubarb Triangle is kind of a thing, the stuff used to be grown all over the north. I remember going into friends' houses as a kid where they had a room JUST for growing it. They would force it by blacking out the windows and it would grow really quickly because in the wild it would be trying to get above the undergrowth to find the sun. It grew so fast you could actually hear it! A loooooong, slow creaking. It was pretty spooky! And once again you pretty much said all of the above! I must learn to finish the videos before commenting!!! That long line of water in The Great Glen is pretty famous - it's Loch Ness!
Whilst travelling along the Spaghetti Junction towards "Brum" or "Brummagem" (Birmingham) and you feel a bit peckish, try the Balti Triangle for an amazing curry! Thanks for an interesting and absorbing post, you both have a wonderful way of articulating what you say very clearly, imaginatively and endearingly....received the kisses, but missed my "bizou!" tonight lol 😁
Spaghetti Junction sounds something like Malfunction Junction in Dallas (the intersection of I35E and I30, which can become impossible at times). But the old intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway (in NYC) was a multilevel horror before it was totally redone. (Google Maps knows The Potteries and a few other "place nicknames" you talked about.)
Although I am originally from the outer reaches of the Home Counties (Cambridge) I now live in Harrogate (a little bit of Surrrey parked in North Yorkshire!) just outside the Rhubarb Triangle. Harrogate is home to the Royal Horticultural Society's Harlow Carr Gardens which are very nice to visit but many people concentrate on the flowers and fail to realise that it is also home for The National Rhubarb Collection! Yes, a field in which an example of every variety of UK domestic rhubarb is maintained and grown. You just have to visit ...
If you can call 28 miles just outside? I have lived half a mile from the Rothwell point of the triangle all of my life and drove the 40 minutes to Harrogate and back again for three years. If only it was just outside, it certainly didn't feel like it to myself.
Stoke on Trent (the Potteries) is itself a Puzzle It only dates back to 1910 and Like the British "New towns" of the 1960's (there are several for you to find) You can walk a short distance and be in One of the Absorbed villages and towns. There are, they quote on the Wiki 6 towns and Villages in the Group en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke-on-Trent Want another Crazy location name ? Called Seriously: Ruyton -XI-Towns its near Shrewsbury. Locals call it obviously Ruyton the XI refers to 11 villages as Ruyton is little more than a big village itself😕en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruyton-XI-Towns
Corrections: The Great Glen is marked on the Ordnance Survey 1:250000 scale map, as are The Potteries. In the 1974 local government reorganisation, Hull was placed in Humberside, which also covered northern Lincolnshire. The East Riding was only revived from the northern part of Humberside in 1996.
You won't find The Lake District, The Peak District or East Anglia on most maps; I haven't checked, but also probably The Marches, The Fens, The Dales, even The Cotswolds... We have lots of 'area' names which are pretty nebulous.
FYI. The phrase up the creek comes from the access to Haslar Naval Hospital from ships anchored in the harbour. Boats carrying sick sailors would go up Haslar creek. It is between fort Blockhouse/HMS Dolphin submarine base, sadly gone and the marina.
What about Avon? This used to be a county ( Bristol and surrounding area ) created in 1972 but now abolished although it still has a police force ! -Avon and Somerset police force.
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Have you guys visited Newark on Trent ?
@@joeswanson7634 Not yet!
theres two more! 1) Moscow 2) EXON
@@pjmoseley243 Thank you!!
@@WanderingRavens EXON is in Devon on the River EX and Moscow is in Cumbria neat the Northumberland county border and near the Scottish English border. I have been to both places, but cant find them on the map or any map. not even GOOGLE maps
Eric: *puts water-filled mug in to microwave*
Yorkshire: "BLASPHEMY!"
WHAT'S THAT?? A voice from beyond the grave?? I thought Yorkshire died in 1972!
@@WanderingRavens Hello guys. Love your channel! Just thought I'd point out that Yorkshire was never an administrative county in the proper sense - as you say in the video, it was split into the 3 Ridings. So it didn't really cease to exist in the early '70s with local government reorganisation. Traditional Yorkshire is still, however, a Ceremonial County, with its own Lord Lieutenant (whatever the hell that means :-) ). Back in Viking times, there was of course the Kingdom of York (upon which Yorkshire is loosely based) which actually pre-exists the Kingdom of England.
@@WanderingRavens Tell that to Yorkshire Tea, one of the most popular tea brands in the UK
@@garyscholes9567 The Lord Lieutenant is the Monarchs official representative in the County and will greet the Monarch whenever they visit and carry out ceremonial duties on behalf of, they all have one, some have to represent more than one County as in Yorkshire or Sussex ( East and West ).
Let's face it microwaving water is the least of the American blasphemies regarding tea....
The Americans think correct tea party behaviour involves a boatload of tea and a harbour!
You won't find the "Black Country" on a map even though it has a Museum dedicated to it.
I was just thinking of Black Country! Should definitely be on the list.
I came here just to say that. It's generally the most surprising people who aren't native!
I’m a bit late to the party but I was thinking they’d missed the Black Country too
So often have to stop to explain when talking about the black country online... Remember kids , pollution bad
I’m from the Black Country and think we should’ve had a mention, we even have our own alphabet.
Growing rhubarb in the dark makes it put all it's energy into creating a tall stem, or stick, as it searches for light. This results in a "stick" of rhubarb that is thinner and less fibrous than normal with an under developed leaf. It is also paler in colour and sweeter making it more suitable for culinary use.
The plants need to be grown in the open for a few years to build up their root reserves , then they can be "forced " inside once more.
Yorkshire dialect has strong roots in Old Norse. I remember my Dad having a conversation with a Norwegian, he using his Yorkshire Dialect and she speaking Norwegian.
The funny thing is that although Bristol is deemed to be in 'The West Country', yet, Edinburgh is actually further West than Bristol but it's on the East Coast.
I'm an old(ish) Yorkshireman and I only recognise Yorkshire as one large county.
I am an oldish Yorkshireman and Yorkshire will always exist in the hearts and minds of stout Yorkshire folk. The maps says otherwise, though.
I’m a very old and stout Yorkshireman and I can confirm that in our hearts and minds it’s still a whole entity. Now then, think on.
Absolutely, Yorkshire is one place to most Yorkshire folk.
And I only recognise it as "London's countryside".
One county with three Ridings.
The Caledonian Canal runs from Inverness to Fort William it used 4 natural lochs (including Loch Ness) to get through the Great Glen - you can hire boats to do the trip
There will always be a Yorkshire!
Unfortunately the situation was a little more complex than you mentioned. The East Riding of Yorkshire was actually scrapped (dare I say murdered) in 1974 and replaced with an unpopular artificial county called Humberside (yuk) which included northern parts of Lincolnshire. This was so absolutely hated in East Yorkshire that the county was scrapped in 1996 after 24 years and East Yorkshire / East Riding of Yorkshire was reborn. Yay!
Alas, the hated H word lives on for the time being in the name of the police, fire service and local BBC radio station (for old folk). There is also a very small airport in Northern Lincolnshire called Humberside Airport. It also explains why the "region" is known as "Yorkshire and the Humber" as the sliced off part of Lincolnshire is still often included with 4 counties of Yorkshire for some purposes. Its a relic of the 3 Yorkshire 1974 counties and Humberside making up an area together.
Perhaps, it was because the East Riding was reborn that it wanted to reinstate the word Riding even though the borders are slightly different to the pre-1974 East Riding.
That's so interesting! Thank you for sharing these facts with us :) May Yorkshire live on!! 💪🏻
@@WanderingRavens Ha, you're welcome and yes, vive le Yorkshire. Lancashire may have had a Merseyside sliced off it at the same time, but we Yorkshire folk, didn't put up with that "Humberside" nonsense for long! :)
@@andyt8216 As I see it, out of all the 1974 counties only Merseyside really caught on. Probably because Scousers tend to think they're something apart from the rest of us.
My favourite is on the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire. Were it passes at high level over the Pennine Hills the carriageways are several hundred yards apart due to the topography. Between the carriageways is a single isolated farm that's known as: 'The little house on the prairie'.
Yorkshire doesn't exist
Me: Loads double barrel shotgun and puts on flat cap. What did you say
CAMBRIDGESHIRE HAS NEVER BEEN OR EVER WILL BE PART OF THE "HOME COUNTIES" IT IS A PART OF EAST ANGLIA
I agree. I moved from Herts to Cambs thirty odd yeas ago...........Thankfully!
Good to know! :D
Sussex and Bedfordshire usually not and Oxfordshire definitely not part of Home Counties.
@@kevinjones4559 they are the counties that border the City of London with its Lord Mayor but then London kept growing and growing
@@WanderingRavens What about Essex...sometimes called "Londonshire".
I always thought "Home Counties" directly abutted London. So not Sussex.
Wow, League of Gentlemen reference! Welcome to Royston Vasey, you'll never leave!
@jason longsden I did yes, that's why they got him to be the Mayor. I also used to drive through Hadfield (which was used as Royston Vasey) every day as I worked in the next town. The local cafe I went to every lunch time still had the words "you'll never leave... much" on the menu, despite being at least a decade later.
The English Riviera was coined by the Great Western Railway in the 1920's and displayed on railway posters in stations etc
I live on the other side of Portsmouth Harbour, and can see one of the new carriers from my living room window.
Eric has it right
Brilliant! Thank you! :D
Portsmouth is Pompey and Plymouth is Guz in naval folklore. Guz because Devonport naval base is the first port of call from the Atlantic for a good "run ashore" and guzzle as much ale as a matelot wants.
@@russcattell955i I was always told the name "GUZ" came from the naval radio designation for Plymouth during WWII.
Pompey nicknamed because Portsmouth held all the dens of iniquities like brothels etc found (and seen by the RN sailors visiting in the 1800s) in the Roman city of Pompey
Great video! I’m from the East Riding of Yorkshire and we used to be part of an area called ‘Humberside’ (the area around the River Humber) which contained the East Riding, including the city of Kingston-upon-Hull, and North Lincolnshire. However, as of the 1990s, this was abolished but the riding was kept as before, whereas South, North and West Yorkshire removed the riding parts. Yorkshire is also rightly known as ‘God’s Own County’ and for some reason to come from Yorkshire is something to be incredibly proud of. I have Yorkshire Pride! Hope that’s helpful :-)
You should also look into the history of the street in Hull called ‘The Land of Green Ginger’. Lots of fairytales about it. Definitely a video opportunity here
There is a very small village near where I used to live near Howden in Yorkshire. The road sign is there, there are a hand full of houses but it's not on a map. It's called - The Land Of Nod
I drive past there so often on the way to the East Coast and see the sign all the time. I never realised it wasn't on a map. I just checked. You're right!
I love that name! I'll bet they sleep well there 😂
Isn't the Land of Nod from the old Testament?
I think thats near Swine?
My dad always talked about the Land of Nod airport.
Rhubarb was well known for growing on privy sites. When privies were at the bottom of the garden and periodically moved, the ones with pits that is, not buckets, the old site would provide an abundance of rhubarb.
Rhubarb originated in China. One Emperor during the opium wars suggested that they stop selling the stuff to us so that we would die of constipation.
And Middlesex is part of the "Home Counties" but was abolished at the same time as Yorkshire.
Spaghetti Junction contains a canal , a viaduct , a railway , a motorway , and a couple of major A routes plus local traffic underneath. It’s nuts but the best thing is the lovely view of Villa Park ! Up the villa 💕
It's quite a sight walking along the canal tow path underneath it all. Aston Villa brought us Martin Laursen, so I can't fault Villa
Otherwise known as Witton Wanderers
KRO, SOTV
I shall swim to France and confiscate that microwave
😂😂
It's nicknamed Tusky, because of an incident quite a while back.
A traveller was passing a Yorkshire Farmer, harvesting his Rhubarb crop using his newly acquired Malamute farm dog, which he was handing Rhubard stalks to and the dog was dropping them into a basket by the edge of the field.
The Traveller pointed at what was going on and asked : "Hello, what's this?"
Farmer replied: "That's T'usky in't it."
And the name stuck.
Hahaha
Nobody outside Yorkshire got the joke.
Well played, that man.
I'm from East Anglia and I have no idea what that means.
I'm from Huddersfield, unfortunately I got it 😂
I'm Welsh & I got it, it comes from the Yorkshire habit of dropping the "he" part of the, so the house would t'ouse, the mill would be t'mill.
The last thing I expected in one of your videos was The League of Gentlemen! Loved it :-)
PS Your pronunciation of English place names is getting much better, keep it up.
PPS Was going to mention The Black Country and The Magic Roundabout, but I see they have already been brought up in the comments
Yay!!! You mentioned stoke! My beloved potteries!
Home of the humble cheesey oatcakes (not to be confused with the scottish oatcake) and ppl who look at the bottom of plates to see if it's one of ours.
I'm a born and bred stokie and I'm very proud of my potteries roots.
I think most ppl my age (36) and above have worked in a pottery factory or shops at some point in their lives. It's like a right of passage!!
You said Portsmouth right! Well done you are figuring out our confusing language!!
As always you are lovely and thank you for making me smile.
Hi Sharon! Thank you for the lovely comment! Did you learn to make pottery as a Stokie? That's so cool!
@@WanderingRavens I worked in the shop ☹️. BUT in order to work in the shop we had to have induction days where they would show us around the factory and teach us about the processes in the factory so we could tell people about the pottery.
My mum worked in the factory checking the prints on plates.
We made simple pottery in art lessons and glazed it and the teacher put it in a kiln.
I always look under cups and plates to see where they are made. I used to work at Wedgwood and Royal Doulton.
I'm from Middlesex (one of the former Home Counties) and was taken to Stoke by my poetry teacher to see how it was done!
I work in a Tile factory in Stoke
You pronounced Portsmouth perfectly, mate!
Brilliant! Thank you! :D
Nar Portsmiff ;¬)
I am from Dorsetshire in the south of England. I would say that we are definitely in the West Country and would define the area as the old Saxon Kingdom of Wessex. Also Cornwall normally gets lumped in as it is otherwise on its own and isolated and afterall it is to the west of Wessex so why not?
Kernow. It's own country
The Landsker Line - a linguistic line in West Wales separating English- and Welsh-speaking areas. This gives rise to the area unofficially called Little England Past Wales, which is nothing to do with the number of English people who live there but is due to the language. It goes back to the 11th century.
Always heard of parts of Pembrokshire being little England in Wales. Tenby springs to mind especially, but didn't know about the Landsker Line, it makes sense now thanks :)
This is a great one to know about! Thank you for sharing that with us!
When the old county of Yorkshire was reorganized in the 70s, the East Riding part became part of Humberside together with a part of North Lincolnshire. It was officially no longer Yorkshire, although everybody still thought of themselves as from Yorkshire. The new county was so unpopular it was eventually abolished and the constituent bits returned to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Eric, you are correct in your pronunciation of Portsmouth
Wonderful! Thank you!
But your pronunciation of Torquay is VERY amusing!
@@marcusjohns5166 tour key
@@marcusjohns5166 my favorite is Derbyshire makes me laugh everytime they say it
@@marcusjohns5166 when did they say Torquay? I heard Torbay?
Yes, the Great Glen is fully navigable by boat and ship. The lochs have been joined by a series of canals and locks so as to shorten the journey by sea. It was a massive engineering achievement.
Incredible! Would love to take a boat through that one day!
The Devil's Staircase (Banavie locks) is well worth a visit
@@dasy2k1 Neptune's Staircase
anything to do with Telford?
The stone on the east side of the Great Glen is European. On the west side it is north American. They are two different places. Continental drift
The "reek" in Auld Reekie has got little to do with smell. It is specifically to do with chimney smoke.
Another use of the word is in the Scottish well wishing phrase "lang may your lum reek". You can read this as "long may your chimney have smoke coming out". This is expressing a hope that you long have the wherewithal to heat your house and cook your food!
Reykjavik in Iceland has the same root.
What most people don't know is that beneath Spaghetti Junction is a canal junction. I have narrow - boated along these canals once on holiday. It is amazing to sail under this crazy junction.
You should try a narrow boating holiday as it's so relaxing.
Great video btw.
STOP WITH THE MICROWAVED TEA. 😂😂😂
😂😂
You said in another video that you don't use microwaves because you think they're unsafe. What changed?
One you might of missed is "The Jurassic Coast" this refers to the coastline of Dorset where about 90% of all British Fossils have been found. They are so common here that if you know what you're looking for they can still be found even today just walking along the shore.
The ‘Home Counties’ - to me this means ... counties directly bordering London, Tory voters, Daily Mail or Telegraph readers, listen to Radio 4 or 3, but NOT necessarily suburban (which just means the less urban area of a large town or city). Very much like ‘Middle England’, which extends to a broader area to also include central England and East Anglia.
They both refer to attitudes and social class.
Originally when Yorkshire was divided it was split into North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside. But nobody in Humberside liked that because they identified as Yorkshire folk so they eventually got it changed again in 1996 most of Humberside became the East riding of Yorkshire and the rest mainly became North Lincolnshire
I've heard London referred to as "The Smoke" - lol note the definite article there!
It's pronounced Portsmuth - same as Dartmuth, Exmuth, and so on.
Or, as I'm a cockney, it'd be Porstmuff, Dartmuff, etc
Canoeing the Great Glen is often used as an expedition task for those doing their Duke of Edinburgh's Gold award.
Yorkshire as a county exists where it belongs in the hearts of us Yorkshire folk . Tory jerrymandering can't split Gods Own County ask most Yorkshire Folk where they come from and they will answer Yorkshire not South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and so on I was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire for example
What's the difference between a Yorkshire man and a coconut? You can get a drink out of a coconut.
So true! I don’t think I’ve ever said I’m from West Yorkshire
@Jon Boylan What about the bits that are now in Lancashire!
@Jon Boylan a winner in the lottery of life
You were 'lucky' enough to get Tory jerrymandering. The 1970s changes were a much watered-down version of what the previous Wilson government had in mind (confer the Maude Radcliffe report)
Love that you got the rhubarb triangle correct with Morley, Rothwell and Wakefield. The center of this triangle is East Ardsley where the forced rhubarb was put on the trains for London. However the name for rhubarb locally was not tusky but tushy. I am from east Ardsley/Thorpe the two villages close to the center of the triangle, though the most apt description nowadays is where the M1 meets the M62 motorway since Ardsley station closed in 1963..
In Gaelic "Mor" means big, so Gleann Mor is Gaelic for "Great Glen".
Good to know! Thank you!
Beat me to it, Hadz.
Great Glen is a small village outside of Leicester too actually
In welsh Mor means sea, but can also be used to mean a lot of something :)
@Rhosyn Mintys In irish muir is sea and mor is big we also have fhairaige for sea
On the subject of road junctions, what about The Magic Roundabout?
Swindon. There's another one in Hemel Hempstead I'm told.
Haudagain roundabout
@@stephenphillip5656 The Hemel Hempstead is just by the Kodak building
The majority of the Welsh population lives either in one of the large towns on the south coast between Newport and Llanelli or in the Valleys. Also, the Balti triangle in Birmingham, the Jurassic coast, the Welsh Marches, the Borders (the area on the Scottish side of the border between England and Scotland), the north, and the channel islands (in the Bristol channel including flatholm, steeholm, and lundy), aren't normally on maps...
Thank you for these!! Will add them to the list for a potential part 2 :D
Ooh, Balti Triangle. Excellent.
Just a quickie: The city of Bristol (which also has county status, though not referred to as such) is often included in The West Country groupings, regardless of what some folks further south like to say.😉
I know some Yorkshire people and they will tell you there is no north, south etc and there is only Yorkshire. Their place so I don't argue.
They're right. There is only Yorkshire! Roll with it, don't question! ;-)
We'll roll with it :D
@@WanderingRavens I'm sure you'll have seen the Yorkshire Airlines advert, right? ua-cam.com/video/6VLYpKGVBUg/v-deo.html
There are three types of people: those from Yorkshire, those who wish to be from Yorkshire and those with no ambition at all!
The Caledonian Canal through the great glen (which connects and makes use of a number of lochs including Loch Ness) was built to allow ships to pass from the east coast to the west coast without going the long/hazardous way round via Cape wrath. Completed in 1822, it became redundant as a trade route as ocean going ships became too large to pass through it, but it is still used for leisure and the occasional coastal vessel carrying logs.
London is the Big Smoke not the Old Smoke...
When I was a kid, London was called The Smoke.
Good to know! Thank you!
London seems to have many names! 😂
@@WanderingRavens A northerner went to London once and was reported to the police by worried Londoners.. He was charged with smiling and saying hello to people indescriminately.
@@RoyCousins I agree. If we were visiting London, we would say we're going down the smoke. Before the Clean Air Act took effect, we always arrived home with the inside of our collars black where the soot in the air had stuck to our sweat.
Middlesex is an ancient county that was completely engulfed in Greater London in 1965. The only references to it are the towns, postcodes and the cricket team.
So how come you havent mentioned the .
'Black Country'?
Similarly to Spaghetti Junction, if you say Roundabout City pretty much everyone will know you mean Milton Keynes.
What about "THE BLACK COUNTRY" incorporates Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhamptoon and Walsall
Oh no! We missed one! Don't worry, if we can find enough names, we'll make a part 2 ;)
Careful there, Wolveramtun is a bit iffy and Saddle Town is a no-no. Best thing for Walsall is nuclear testing.
@ Dave Busby - We haven't been stopped from calling it that, yet, then?
Another one to add: Shakespeare Country!
@@Canalcoholic Wolverhampton born and bred, definitely black country.
I can concur that you actually can hear forced rhubarb growing. I went to see one of the sheds on a school trip as a young kid. Put it this way I wouldn't want spend the night in one, it's kind of subtle but eerie creaking noises.
The land north of the Great Glen was once geologically part of America.It's a closed sea I think , and the rocks match with the Canadian north western seaboard.
Incredible! Thank you for the fun fact!
Can't find Yorkshire? Just shout "Oh Go help me" and the clouds part, rays of sun spatter down, Micheal Parkinson arrives, flat cap on head, whippet scurrying dutifly around his feet, Pint of Tetley tea in a mug gripped in his hand...
Ps: Even thinking Yorkshire doesn't exist is Blasphemy, but actually saying it out loud will get you barred from Yorkshire for eternity, thereby preventing entry to heaven..
I remember a dyed-in-the-wool Yorkshireman telling me in all mock seriousness that the first Yorkshireman came into being when a Geordie screwed a pig. Though he didn't use the word screwed.
@@markanne54 Wrong, because God is a Yorkshireman and he came first. 😀
Think you'll find it's Yorkshire Tea that he's got in the mug and instead of a whippet it'd be a copy of the Yorkshire Post 📰to see how his beloved Yorkshire County Cricket Club🏏 are doing. Lol
Tetley's bitter more like alo a Yorkshireman would know that the triangle is where TUSKY grows
Yorkshire is on every map I've seen.
Yes i did has a small child my parents took me to a neightbours house. My father showed me a small shed went inside. Was so dark i could only see a candle. The noise i heard was so weird it freaked me out. Later did more research read about force growing amazing stuff.
So weird! That would freak me out too!
Wondered where that story was going...
Yes - the route through the Great Glen is the Caledonian Canal
Home Counties generally refers to the counties surrounding London. We definitely aren’t all white, middle class, church going people....
Live in Bedfordshire.
Very multi cultural.
Only 40 miles away something like that to London
It does fit in context though. It's where the well off professionals moved to out of London when the railways made commuting possible.
The Highlands of Scotland would be an artificial island as the waterway you noted is called the Caledonian Canal (stretching from Inverness in the East to Fort William in the West), which is actually a series of canals joining the large lakes in the Great Glen together
Thank you for letting us know!
Yorkshire is more a state of mind.
Fortunately you can find the superior county of Lancashire 😃
The Caledonian Canal runs the length of the Great Glen and is navigable from Fort William to Inverness
Trying to find unmarked places is like finding a needle in a haystack. Anyway, awesome video.
Thank you, Isaac!! :D
Set fire to the haystack then magnet the ashes 🤣
@@edwardpurkis1084 I like this answer! XD
Wandering Ravens you has your needle back and also a angry farmer to boot🤣
The Central belt , the area of Scotland than goes from Glasgow in the west to Edinburgh in the east.
"Chuff your crumpet"....
*dies* 🤣🤣🤣
Once you have finished touring The Valleys, which also had a long history of iron and steel working, make your way along the M4 and keep going until you reach "Little England beyond Wales"
I came here for entertainment ✓ never fails 😂
Got educated as well ✓ never knew about 'forced rhubarb' 👍👨🎓
So glad you enjoyed this one! Also, what's your name? You comment so often, we'd love to put a name to the username :D
@@WanderingRavens🤔 I'm like you, just backwards 😉👍
You could also add the Marches which is the border area between England & Wales. The term goes back to the Norman conquest when powerful marcher lords ran the area and defended against Welsh raids.
The term was also used for the administrative areas on the Scottish/English Border when it existed.
Home Counties so named during the 2nd W War by pilots flying back over the channel as they were the first sight of 'home', so really these are Kent, Sussex (East & West) and Surrey with Hampshire, Essex as outsiders... ;)
1695 is the earliest mention of The Home Counties, so that is unlikely.
@@tonycasey3183 Could still be an armed forces term. I suppose the first thing the navy saw was the white cliffs.
@@brianwilson3952
Could be. Could be anything. Nobody knows.
@@brianwilson3952
Wouldn't account for any of the non-coastal Home Counties, though.
landed gentry would refer to the main farm buildings as home farm or the part of the farm near their home
Yes it is possible to make the journey from Fort William to Inverness by boat and that is the Caledonian Canal. There 29 locks, 4 aqueducts, and 10 bridges. Boat hires are available
I am from Erdington just up the road from Spaghetti junction a great place to learn to drive but can you say Spaghetti Junction with a Brummi accent?I now live in Droitwich Spa all the best and keep safe.
Hi Guys, many thanks for educating this Brit with some very interesting facts, I was in Pompey this Morning and well done Eric it is pronounced Portsmuth even though it is spelt mouth, you have cracked the English way of pronouncing really well.
Glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for letting me know that I got the pronunciation right!
What about the hole in the ozone layer?
Its right above my house.
I eat a lot of peas...
So the increase in hurricanes is YOUR fault!!
So where in Antarctica do you live?
The Forth and Clyde and Union canal will take you from one side of Scotland to the other too or it did till they filled in a part in Edinburgh.
The Forth and Clyde gets you across the country - the extension to Edinburgh is all on the East.
Bedfordshire should never be included in anything. It's for the best if we pretend Bedfordshire doesn't exist at all
😆😆
Except when "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire" (Sung by the late great Dame Vera Lynn)
Bit Like Northamptonshire. they dont really fit anywhere . Beds, Bucks and Oxon, Or Beds Herts and Berks ?
I've always assumed Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire exist in order to stop the Midlands rubbing against London.
@@1daveyp in order to stop the Midlands rubbing against London........the last thing i would want , is for my county to rub against London , so thank you beds and herts, you are doing a fine job............God Bless the Queen :)
People of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, another Naval town, pronounce it just the same as we do.
I started twitching when that mug went in the microwave😂
😂😂
East Anglia seems the most ill defined. Some purists insist it is just Norfolk and Suffolk, most people will add Essex, and quite a few others add Cambridgeshire too. Some others add other parts. The definite southern border is the Thames, no one adds Kent, it is Eastern enough but too south.
It is pronounced Ports muth!! I've been sitting here waiting for The Black Country which is West of Birmingham :(
Oh no! We missed one! Don't worry, if we missed enough, we'll put them into a part 2 :D
@@WanderingRavens there are so many interesting things to learn about when it comes to the Black Country including the accent, dialect, food, and LOADS more. If you get chance I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, I imagine it would be right up your street!
Happy (slightly belated by 20 mins) Black Country day! 🥳
Ar, the black country, a bostin place to goo. 😁
I wouldn't ever say that The Black Country is West of Birmingham, especially if you are in that neck of the woods, and by that I hope you don't mean the West of Birmingham (you could get lynched for that in that part of the world)!!! Whilst technically correct the places do have names, and have been just as important in Britain's industrial past as Birmingham is today - namely West Bromwich, Dudley, Tipton, Walsall, Wednesbury, and many more, but not Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, or Smethwick apparently (good luck pronouncing that lot). Great part of the world, not so black, industrial, or polluted anymore. In fact if going up there then Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge where the industrial revolution began. It seems very rural today.
@@JonTheDrummer100 Yes, they'd love it, it's bostin'
Fun fact. Torbay has it's own mild micro-climate so receives more sun than other coastal UK areas.
Ask a stranger ????? Don't try that in London
Me: "Excuse me sir -"
Stranger: "YOU GOT A PROBLEM?!!"
😆
Your pronunciation of Portsmouth is spot on
Home counties have to touch the M25
Home Counties existed before the M25
Before London county, the home counties went into London.
@@tonycasey3183so did i. Good point well made .
The earliest mention of "the Home Counties" that I could find was from Charles Davenant in 1695. He was talking about taxation and does not mention WHY they are called The Home Counties, but he does say that there are ELEVEN of them! In his book, Kent from 1975, Marcus Crouch suggests that The Home Counties were so called because it was where the main circuit County courts surrounding London sat. Others have suggested that they were the counties in which Members of Parliament could reasonably be expected to travel to Westminster without claiming expenses for overnight accommodation, second homes or billets.
The fact is that nobody knows exactly which counties are the Home Counties or why they got that name. All we know is that the term was in common use from at least the late 17th century and possibly before.
Incredible! You really did your research on this one, Tony! Thank you!
Try and find "Mexican Bridge". It's a group of three or four houses grouped around a very ordinary-looking bridge in East Lincolnshire. There is a road sign. I have no idea how the name came about
That's a strange name to have in Lincolnshire! Thank you for sharing!
If you’re reading this: may the force be with you
And also with you
Why thank you!
Trust me it is and tastes lovely with custard, yum yum
Locally to us in Warwickshire we also have the Black Country!
It is an area of the West Midlands, west of Birmingham and commonly refers to a region covering most of the four Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. The Black Country gained its name in the mid nineteenth century due to the smoke from the many thousands of ironworking foundries and forges plus also the working of the shallow and 30ft thick coal seams. ^_^
Sammy xXx
You're welcome, guys.
Thank you, Tony!! You always teach us so much :D I'm so glad we were able to do a video together like this :)
*RHUBARB PIE??!!!*
Rhubarb crumble is the only way.
Both are delicious! It's been way too long since I had something rhubarb 😋
Apparently birmingham has more canals than Venice
Really!? That's wild!
Wandering Ravens We certainly do, but they were built for heavy industry not pleasure, so whilst they are nicer now they aren’t as picturesque as Venice. 😀
5:18 Yes. It's called the Caledonian Canal and was designed Thomas Telford for shipowers to ferry cargo from west to east without going round the top of Britain. There are a few UA-cam vids of people who have navigated it.
It was designed during the Napoleonic Wars to allow warships to get from the North Sea to the Atlantic (and vice versa) and built (with great difficulty) just before shipping became iron, steam-powered and much bigger... oops. Oh, and it was completed after the war was over...oops.
Although the Rhubarb Triangle is kind of a thing, the stuff used to be grown all over the north. I remember going into friends' houses as a kid where they had a room JUST for growing it. They would force it by blacking out the windows and it would grow really quickly because in the wild it would be trying to get above the undergrowth to find the sun. It grew so fast you could actually hear it! A loooooong, slow creaking. It was pretty spooky!
And once again you pretty much said all of the above! I must learn to finish the videos before commenting!!!
That long line of water in The Great Glen is pretty famous - it's Loch Ness!
That sounds so spooky! haha
Whilst travelling along the Spaghetti Junction towards "Brum" or "Brummagem" (Birmingham) and you feel a bit peckish, try the Balti Triangle for an amazing curry! Thanks for an interesting and absorbing post, you both have a wonderful way of articulating what you say very clearly, imaginatively and endearingly....received the kisses, but missed my "bizou!" tonight lol 😁
Spaghetti Junction sounds something like Malfunction Junction in Dallas (the intersection of I35E and I30, which can become impossible at times). But the old intersection of the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway (in NYC) was a multilevel horror before it was totally redone.
(Google Maps knows The Potteries and a few other "place nicknames" you talked about.)
Although I am originally from the outer reaches of the Home Counties (Cambridge) I now live in Harrogate (a little bit of Surrrey parked in North Yorkshire!) just outside the Rhubarb Triangle. Harrogate is home to the Royal Horticultural Society's Harlow Carr Gardens which are very nice to visit but many people concentrate on the flowers and fail to realise that it is also home for The National Rhubarb Collection! Yes, a field in which an example of every variety of UK domestic rhubarb is maintained and grown. You just have to visit ...
If you can call 28 miles just outside? I have lived half a mile from the Rothwell point of the triangle all of my life and drove the 40 minutes to Harrogate and back again for three years. If only it was just outside, it certainly didn't feel like it to myself.
You could have also included: The Three Counties; Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. 🙂
Three Counties Festival. Music festival that rotates between the 3 counties' respective Cathedrals. 😁
I lived at Spaghetti Junction for 20 years :-) Thanks for picking this topic! It won't fade from usage whilst the roads are there :-)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Stoke on Trent (the Potteries) is itself a Puzzle It only dates back to 1910 and Like the British "New towns" of the 1960's (there are several for you to find)
You can walk a short distance and be in One of the Absorbed villages and towns. There are, they quote on the Wiki 6 towns and Villages in the Group en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke-on-Trent
Want another Crazy location name ? Called Seriously: Ruyton -XI-Towns its near Shrewsbury. Locals call it obviously Ruyton the XI refers to 11 villages as Ruyton is little more than a big village itself😕en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruyton-XI-Towns
Corrections:
The Great Glen is marked on the Ordnance Survey 1:250000 scale map, as are The Potteries.
In the 1974 local government reorganisation, Hull was placed in Humberside, which also covered northern Lincolnshire. The East Riding was only revived from the northern part of Humberside in 1996.
Thanks for setting us straight on these :D
You won't find The Lake District, The Peak District or East Anglia on most maps; I haven't checked, but also probably The Marches, The Fens, The Dales, even The Cotswolds... We have lots of 'area' names which are pretty nebulous.
FYI. The phrase up the creek comes from the access to Haslar Naval Hospital from ships anchored in the harbour. Boats carrying sick sailors would go up Haslar creek. It is between fort Blockhouse/HMS Dolphin submarine base, sadly gone and the marina.
What about Avon? This used to be a county ( Bristol and surrounding area ) created in 1972 but now abolished although it still has a police force ! -Avon and Somerset police force.