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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Worst Place in the UK Changed |
| 2009-07-16 |
| We could apply this name to any number of august thoroughfares here in the States, particularly in DC. In the end, the constant jokes were just too much to take for the long-suffering residents of Butt Hole Road. Groups of youths used to visit the street and bare their backsides for photographs while many delivery firms simply refused to believe it existed. And coachloads of amused American tourists frequently turned up to view the sign after it appeared in a US book. And so despairing households in the suburban street in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, decided that the road's name simply had to change. They spent £300 to change their address to the rather more palatable Archers Way. Resident Peter Sutton said he originally thought the street's name would be fun - but admits he soon got tired of the jokes. Mr Sutton moved into the house vacated in 2003 by Paul and Lisa Allott, who were forced to move after becoming fed up with their street's name. Mr Allott said: 'We'd heard every single gag there is and we'd had enough. We've had people flashing their bottoms for photographs by the drive, we've had people ringing us up with hilarious jokes about the street name and then we've had those who just don't believe us. 'All the other street names around here are quite sensible. I just can't see why they didn't call it Butt Hall Road, or something like that. I've no idea why it was named like this.' Elizabeth Brennan, 77, who uses the street for access to her home, said: 'It was a bit tedious having the street laughed at all the time. The new name is much nicer.' But an internet petition has already been started to change the road's name back again. Butt Hole Road is believed to have been named after a communal water butt that was originally in the area. The road has been renamed Archers Way to refer to a medieval castle that is just half a mile away. |
| Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy |
| #9 Correction, the hole was called the bung hole, the bung was the stopper that was driven in to plug the hole. Lovely language, English. ;) |
| Posted by: Waldemar Slainter9268 2009-07-16 20:54 |
| #8 Yes, but water butts don't really associate with "holes", unless you have a now-non-functional water butt & a rapidly drying pool of mud around it. Actually...you would be wrong. Old fashioned barrels were filled through a hole in the side of the barrel. This hole was also called the "bung". I kid you not. Lots of colorful colloquialisms related to barrels, bungs and such. Where do you think the phrase "over a barrel" came from? |
| Posted by: Waldemar Slainter9268 2009-07-16 20:50 |
| #7 butt also means an archery target - probably from the practice of using a barrel as a target - and a grouse shooting position - which may be the origin of this name. |
| Posted by: Phil_B 2009-07-16 19:41 |
| #6 It could be worse. The last Gropecunt Lane in England disappeared in 1561. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2009-07-16 19:39 |
| #5 Regarding the word "butt", Etymology Online says: "In sense of 'human posterior' it is recorded from 1450". The "barrel" meaning dates to 1385. Would be interesting to know when the street was named, but given the proximity of the two dates it's looking like Butt Hole might always have been intended to mean Butt Hole. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-07-16 19:13 |
| #4 I understand Pelosi Drive was a proposed alternative, but was scuttled as the *snicker* meanings were too close |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-07-16 19:07 |
| #3 Yes, but water butts don't really associate with "holes", unless you have a now-non-functional water butt & a rapidly drying pool of mud around it. Anyways, before "butt" meant ass it meant "target of a joke", and that meaning's contemporary with the water-barrel meaning. There was no point in time when "Butt Hole Road" was a particularly harmless or desirable address, if you ask me. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-07-16 18:42 |
| #2 What has happened is an American slang term has recently come into common use in England. When the street was named, people would have thought a butt was a water barrel. |
| Posted by: Phil_B 2009-07-16 17:44 |
| #1 a modern version of this |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-07-16 17:10 |