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Congrats on the Comfy Bed !!!!!
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Hastings hasn’t been a savory town since Billy the Bastard of Normandy arrived and lured Harry the Last Saxon King into a pitched battle! A battle lost by Harry (family name of Godwinson), in decisive fashion, I must say!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson#Death

Oh, this is a hotbed of controversy, this is.

EB, current belief is that the Battle of Hastings didn’t happen in Hastings. The official story is that it happened at Battle (formerly: Senlac) where Battle Abbey is. Supposedly, the Abbey was built on the site of the battle, but not a single artefact has ever been found in the fields around the Abbey.

So the actual site of the battle is one of history’s great rasslin’ matches.

I’m glad your intimidating mattress didn’t cow you into an unrestful night’s sleep!

And thanks for an excuse to while away half hour or so on Google Maps bemused by interesting English place names. The most noteworthy was Hooe. How’s that pronounced, anyway?

But also of interest, to me at least, was the inconsequential fact that Brighton is in east (uncapitalized) Sussex and Westdean is in East (capitalized) Sussex.

And then there’s the Dicker trio. Starting from The (capitalized) Dicker, you head northeast to Upper Dicker and then on to Lower Dicker.

Hono(u)rable mentions: Wartling, Headcorn, Three Cups Corner, Snave, and Wrecclesham.

English town names are so quaint. History is interesting but I wouldn’t want to live there. Then again, the 21st Century isn’t what I asked for either. I’m a man without a Time.

@Uncle Al—one of the family names in my genealogy is Hooe. On this side of the pond, it’s pronounced How, as in Howard. I’ll have to research the place.

I have been to all of those places! Sussex was divided into separate counties, East and West, because it would otherwise be impossible for people at the ends to make it to civic functions on horseback in a timely way.

When we drive through Hooe, we make owl noises.

My favorite, though, is Pratt’s Bottom. We used to drive past it when Uncle B lived in London and we drove down to the coast, which was every time I came to London.

I always wanted to stop and have tea in Pratt’s Bottom, just to say I had.

I guessed – that Hooe was going to be “how”, based on Sutton Hoo, discussed in previous episodes, since a “howe” is a burial chamber and then a place name.

Then again, who can tell when Dalziel is pronounced Dee-el.
Crazy English! Learn to speak your language!
English Rules! Okay!

My favorite name is Bucksnort, Caldwell County, Kentucky. Which we drove through ages ago and I have never forgotten, because it was the site of a road trip comedy routine pulled by our youngest when I tried to make him “go, because we’re here, and I’m not stopping again!”.

He didn’t much like the smell of the porta-johns, very smell oriented this one.
When I grabbed him around the waist (age 4) to carry him into the porta-potty, he lifted both feet and braced them against either side of the door preventing me from getting him in there.

Mrs D ’bout wet herself, and was no help.

Finally speaking of beds….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10473617/Social-media-users-share-beds-strange-intimidate-deepest-sleeper.html

Place names… USA Numbah Won!

Lizard Lick, NC…

Bumpass, VA

Add your own, I’m sure you know of one!

Ah, yes! British pronunciations…

Cholmondeley = CHUM-ly
Saint John = SN-jn (no pronounced vowels!)
Worcestershire = WOOS-tər-shər or even WOOS-tə-shə
Ralph = RAYF (as in Ralph Fiennes = Fines)
Godmanchester = GUM-ster
Magdelen (College) = MAUD-lin
Hunstanton = HUN-stun

In seeking out the correct spelling of Punxsutawney for addition to the list of unusual place names, I stumbled across this:

The Accuracy of Punxsutawney Phil

I am shattered… is there NO ONE you can trust these days?

Of course, of all the interesting place names I’ve bumped into one way or another, my all-time favorite is a lake in Webster, Massachusetts, in the good ol’ U. S. of A.:

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

In Loup (an Algonquian tongue), it supposedly means, “the neutral fishing place where English knife-men and Nipmuck Indians meet.”

But my dad once told me it meant, “I fish on my side of the lake, you fish on your side of the lake, and nobody fishes in the middle.” While likely linguistically inaccurate, I like my dad’s version much better.

I’ve been there too, Uncle Al! On the Mass/CT border. Hiked all around the lake. And I was given your dad’s definition.

I asked an old gentleman on a bench if he could pronounce the name of the lake and he said, “Sure – Lake Webster” (its other name).

You’ll find it here.

@Uncle Al

Please add Gloucester and Gloucestershire to your list.

GLOSS-ter and GLOSS-teh-shure

EB– Gloucester (a county in New Jersey) is also pronounced GLOSS-ter.

@Durned…I has distant cousins in Bucksnort…seems my Scots (paternal) 3x great grand Pawpaw walked from Georgia to Kentucky once his indenture was fulfilled. Successive generations migrated to Misery along the Missip and ultimately Calafornie.