Today I came across an article on the BBC website about a project called Location Lingo, which is run by The English Project and Ordnance Survey and aims to collect local nicknames for places in the UK. That is, unofficial names that don’t appear on maps.
Some examples they give include Skem and Barlick for Skelmersdale and Barnoldswick, two towns in Lancashire, and Swindump for Swindon. As well as collecting nicknames for cities, towns and villages, they’re also interested in nicknames for neighbourhoods, parks and landmarks, and you can contribute your nicknames on their website.
Do you have nicknames for places near you?
Where I grew up in Silverdale in Lancashire we called a wet area that used to be a well “The Swamp”, and a valley over the road from it “The Grand Canyon”. The official name of the former is Bank Well, but I’m not sure about the latter.
