Aravis
Putrid Donut
- Location
- Gloucester
This is an idea I mooted a while back. Coming back from a short holiday in the borders at the end of September with a crucial picture tucked away in my camera, I found that the excellent ABC of the Saints thread had just been launched and I didn't want to be competing with it, so I've waited until now.
The idea is to start with the shortest possible place name in the UK, which as everyone knows is Ae*. Actually all the boundary signs on the approaches insist on calling it "Ae Village" which would make it an A(9) rather than an A(2). Problems before we've started.
Here's an old man beside the totem pole in Ae, wearing an unmistakeable item of cycling equipment. He didn't have his own bike with him at the time but fortunately the pole supplied one:
Next would come A(3) which is likely to be one of the many Ash's or possibly Aby in Lincolnshire. This might be followed by Box and Cam. D(3) might be tricky, but then there's Eye, and so it goes on.
I'm hoping this can be a forum challenge, which is something I don't think we've done yet. Once someone's posted an A(3) we move on to B(3), and only one of each is needed. If we agree that a letter/number combination is impossible we move on to the next. One day someone goes to that place just over the Menai Bridge and the challenge is complete.
I think we can be generous. I have an F(3) close to me. It may be the only one in the country, and it's too small to have anything like a boundary sign. But there's a tiny church with a sign carrying the name of the settlement. We do the best we can.
The town of Hope in Flintshire is obviously an H(4), but the Welsh version of the name, provided it's on the boundary signs, means it can be a Y(5) as well.
I think we ought to retain the principle of chronology. No banking pictures for future use.
Is anyone inspired? I don't think I have anything near here for A(3) so it's unlikely that I'll be taking the next picture.
* I believe that the Gaelic word for Iona is a single character, so it might be argued we should start with that. As I've already advocated using Welsh versions of place names where they help, I realise that my guidelines might not be fully watertight. What do you do?
The idea is to start with the shortest possible place name in the UK, which as everyone knows is Ae*. Actually all the boundary signs on the approaches insist on calling it "Ae Village" which would make it an A(9) rather than an A(2). Problems before we've started.
Here's an old man beside the totem pole in Ae, wearing an unmistakeable item of cycling equipment. He didn't have his own bike with him at the time but fortunately the pole supplied one:
Next would come A(3) which is likely to be one of the many Ash's or possibly Aby in Lincolnshire. This might be followed by Box and Cam. D(3) might be tricky, but then there's Eye, and so it goes on.
I'm hoping this can be a forum challenge, which is something I don't think we've done yet. Once someone's posted an A(3) we move on to B(3), and only one of each is needed. If we agree that a letter/number combination is impossible we move on to the next. One day someone goes to that place just over the Menai Bridge and the challenge is complete.
I think we can be generous. I have an F(3) close to me. It may be the only one in the country, and it's too small to have anything like a boundary sign. But there's a tiny church with a sign carrying the name of the settlement. We do the best we can.
The town of Hope in Flintshire is obviously an H(4), but the Welsh version of the name, provided it's on the boundary signs, means it can be a Y(5) as well.
I think we ought to retain the principle of chronology. No banking pictures for future use.
Is anyone inspired? I don't think I have anything near here for A(3) so it's unlikely that I'll be taking the next picture.
* I believe that the Gaelic word for Iona is a single character, so it might be argued we should start with that. As I've already advocated using Welsh versions of place names where they help, I realise that my guidelines might not be fully watertight. What do you do?
