Inside UK village with just 175 residents – complete with ridiculously posh name
Our friends over the pond have been known to laugh at us for our place names that sound like a caricature of old English, mead-drinking villages. But there’s one UK village that’s left people particularly stumped.
Cholmondeley near Nantwich recently made news after The Marquess of Cholmondeley encouraged the Princess of Wales to attend a techno music festival.
While some say the civil parish's name as chol-mon-de-lee, it is actually pronounced chum-lee. The village was listed last year as among the nation's most mispronounced places. With a population of 175 according to 2021 Census figures, Cholmondeley covers an area of six square miles and is home to historic parkland Cholmondeley Castle Gardens.
The Princess of Wales reportedly made an incognito outing to the Houghton Festival, held in the grounds of the Marquess and Marchioness’s stately home, Houghton Hall, after dining with the couple.
Some say the civil parish's name as chol-mon-de-lee but it is actually pronounced chum-lee (Getty Images)A source told the Daily Mail: “After dinner, one of the guests suggested that Catherine go to the festival. Catherine was nervous about the idea, but, after much discussion with her protection officers, she went with lots of security.”
Others on the list of most mispronounced names drawn up by tutoring service Preply include towns, villages and suburbs across all corners of the UK. The Oxfordshire town of Bicester regularly draws crowds of shoppers to its designer shopping centre, but its name is often wrongly pronounced.
While some say by-chester or by-cester, the town which has been compared to Miami in summer, is actually pronounced bister.
The Oxfordshire town of Bicester also causes issues (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, also causes issues for some people, but the name of this town - is relatively easy to say - Oh-ma.
A place name which likely to prove quite a challenge, especially for non-Welsh speakers, is the village of Ynysybwl, near Cardiff. It's a challenge to spell and pronounce, but the correct way to say Ynysybwl is an-is-abull, according to Wales Online.
Quernmore in Lancashire is pronounced kwor-mer while many would be forgiven for pronouncing Woolfardisworthy in Devon as Wool-far-dis-worthy. But this village, which is near the Bristol Channel, is actually pronounced Wool-zery.
Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, also causes issues for some people (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Scotland has a share of places with tricky names to pronounce, but one listed as especially challenging is Ballachulish. This village centred around former slate quarries is sometime mispronounced as Balla-choo-lish, but it actually sounds out as Balla-who-lish.
Frome in Somerset can also be difficult to say with some calling it frohm instead of the correct way to say it - froom.
The final place on the list of UK areas most often said incorrectly is the former village of Beauchief, which is now a suburb of Sheffield. Some might think it is pronounced Bow-chief but bizarrely the place is expressed Bee-chiff.
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
