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Thursday 8 April 2010

Fun with place names

Spotted on tonight's episode of Have I Got News For You was this reference to Funbag Drive, Watford:



It's been mentioned in the Telegraph and the Express recently, so it must be true. Oh, and it appears in that oracle of truth and veracity, Wikipedia, too. Watford football fan and Twitterer Kerron Cross misheard it spoken of as "Funbag Crescent", and he asks "Where??".

Where indeed. Funbag Drive, Watford is on the telly, it's in our papers, in fact it's everywhere - except on a map. Google maps says (rather dolefully): we are not able to locate the address.

There are two other rude named places in the Telegraph/Wikipedia list which don't exist. Can you spot them? Or do you prefer facts which are copied from flaky sources and not checked before they are broadcast or published?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've only spent about a minute looking into this and possibly the original source is a book called Rude Britain by Rob Bailey and Ed Hurst. If it is even in Watford then I don't know where and I know Watford fairly well!

Martin said...

Thanks Anonymous, I've lived in Watford 46 years and I've never heard of a Funbag Drive. My wife was laughing last night after hearing it mentioned on Have I Got News For You, so I said we should check by doing a search on a map. Of course nothing came up. Part of me wanted to keep quiet because I think it is a good wind up, but the other part of me said: well you've spotted two national newspapers and the BBC making a fool of themselves so why not let everyone know. Thanks for joining in with the joke!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the confirming this guys I live in Watford, know the town well and have never heard of this amusing street name either!

Anonymous said...

hello i bought rude britain for my dad a few years ago and read it first. I was quite excited to see a watford road in it (little bushey lane) as i live in watford. That was the only one though, definitely no funbag drive!

Martin said...

Thanks Alex. The internet makes it so easy to check an address it seems barmy that this has got as far as it has.

Anonymous, you remind me of a friend I had at Uni who always used to smirk whenever Bushey was mentioned. (I went to Bushey Hall School, for instance) Of course Bushey was so close it never struck me there was a double-entendre to be had there. Sarratt Bottom on the other hand ... [snigger-snigger]