# British Counties **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 7, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060 "2003-04-07T14:11:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/41 "2003-04-08T11:27:47Z")
Meanwhile, Surrey has been Surrey for… a very long time indeed. And it has no abbreviation at all. All hail Surrey. pan ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/42 "2003-04-08T11:32:43Z")
Dorking. _snigger_ ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/43 "2003-04-08T12:53:56Z")
Bah ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/44 "2003-04-08T13:03:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > \*\*Dorking. > > _snigger_ \*\* Dated someone from there. Name of place fully appropriate for residents within. Enough said. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/45 "2003-04-08T13:10:10Z")
**Kabbes** is a Dorking resident. _more sniggering_ ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/46 "2003-04-08T13:11:55Z")
I can’t get enough Dorking, personally. ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/47 "2003-04-08T13:16:02Z")
I thought Gropecunt Lane was in Lunnon Town. No doubt **Steve Wright** has his own reasons for locating it in Oxford, however. 😃 I have nothing to add, save that Bournemouth belongs in Hampshire and anyone who says otherwise is a Dorset Dumpling. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/48 "2003-04-08T13:34:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Andy \* > \*\*All my mail (from major financial institutions etc) is addressed to me in Manchester, _Lancashire_. > It totally baffles me. \*\* Not _so_ baffling surely? – before the invention of the county of _Greater Manchester_, Manchester was in the county of Lancashire. Still, all this talk of Bollockshire, Arseborough etc., leads me tenuously to the conundrum: Which three English Football League clubs have swear words in there name? Answer: Scunthorpe Utd, Arsenal and… Manchester Fucking United Appypollyloggies. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/49 "2003-04-08T13:40:46Z")
What is it with gerund place names in southeast England? Dorking, Barking, Woking. (I married someone from the last place, for a while.) **The Great Unwashed** ’s bad joke reminds me of one I’ve heard. Name three fishes that begin and end with the letter _k_. 1. Kippered haddock 2. Killer shark 3. Kilmarnock ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/50 "2003-04-08T13:50:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duke \* > **What is it with gerund place names in southeast England? Dorking, Barking, Woking. (I married someone from the last place, for a while.)** Blame the French. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/51 "2003-04-08T14:11:30Z")
Yes, Steve Wright, I suddenly remembered the proper cognomen of that particular lane about three minues after posting…useful thing, the memory…if only I could access it when it bloody counted! Please tell me that they haven’t changed it in the name of PC-ness! Shitlington Hall is in Northumberland, by the by. Friend of mine lives (unwillingly) in Dunstable. Local youths take delight in vandalising the road signs by obscuring the “D.” Big laffs. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/52 "2003-04-08T14:16:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Michael Ellis \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Duke \* > > What is it with gerund place names in southeast England? Dorking, Barking, Woking. (I married someone from the last place, for a while.) > > Blame the French. No, not the French, [the Saxons](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/-ing.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/53 "2003-04-08T14:29:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*(Factual note: I think Gropecunt Lane in Oxford has actually been renamed. But to what, I don’t know.) \*\* Yes, it was clearly unsuitable, so they changed it to Pigfelch Avenue. OK, not really. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/54 "2003-04-08T15:22:41Z")
My personal favorite is Noplace in Northumberland. Just try telling _that_ to a policeman when he asks you where you live. pan ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/55 "2003-04-08T15:47:43Z")
I believe there is (or used to be) indeed a Gropecunt Lane in London _as well_ as Oxford. I can only assume, mystifying as the etymology may be, that the term derives from some trade or activity that was popular in both locations. But precisely what trade or activity, I cannot envisage. Nope. Definitely completely utterly unable to imagine it. (I was raised by Sunday School teachers, as I have oft remarked.) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/56 "2003-04-08T15:56:20Z")
May I point out one small piece of trivia about that famed street in Oxford: > [@](#): > > Oxford’s promise of magic, of a ‘charmed circle’ has attracted a lot of arrivistes as well as bright sparks to Oxford, including the grotesque Robert Maxwell, pathological liar Jeffrey Archer and **Bill Clinton (who, incidentally, lived off the old Gropecunt Lane.)** [http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/reviews/book/horan.htm](http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/reviews/book/horan.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/57 "2003-04-08T16:02:01Z")
I swear my couny has changed from Worcestershire to Hereford-and-Worcestershire and back again (Hereforshire similarly) though I may have got this the wrong way round, or imagined it. Counties normally play no part in addressess, but if you don’t know the postcode, the post office is generally helpful if you address your letter to: Name, #, Streetname City Abbreviation for County though it asks you politely not to. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/58 "2003-04-08T22:32:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > \*\*No, not the French, [the Saxons](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/-ing.htm). \*\* I’d rather blame the French if it’s all the same to you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/59 "2003-04-09T06:26:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Unwashed \* > Not _so_ baffling surely? – before the invention of the county of _Greater Manchester_, Manchester was in the county of Lancashire. Which leads to the inevitable conclusion that **29 years** after the boundary changes, some people have yet to take notice. I mean I know there are slow learners around, but 29 years? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060/60 "2003-04-09T13:50:06Z")
I don’t live in a county at all - they got rid of it and put a unitary authority in instead. _Just adding to the OP’s confusion_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-counties/167060.md?page=2)