It’s often far from easy to say where you are
sir – The National Memorial Arboretum is located near the Staffordshire village of Alrewas (Letters, June 18), pronounced awl-ree-was. The name is derived from the Old English alor-waesse which means “alluvial land growing with alder trees”.
Andrew Baud
National Memorial Arboretum Alrewas, Staffordshire
sir – That arbiter of place-name pronunciation in his five Shell Guides, my late neighbour, the Rev Henry Thorold, mentioned in his Staffordshire “Alrewas (pronounced to rhyme with walrus)”.
In conversation with me, Thorold preferred Uxeter to the more usual Utoxeter, yet in his Derbyshire he failed to say that Bolsover should be Bo’zer.
H S Blagg
Car-colston, Nottinghamshire
sir – My 88-year-old father-in-law says that the porter at Alrewas used to announce the station by saying: “Alrewas and always will be.” Then along came Dr Beeching.
Mark Robbins
Bruton, Somerset
sir – Joanna Whatley (Letters, June 15) often hears chimley for chimney. Let us not forget the Singing Postman’s Hev Yew Gotta Loight, Boy? in which the name of his friend Molly Bayfield was altered to Windley specifically to rhyme with
the poetic line “she smook like a chimley”.
Min Flowers
Chichester, West Sussex
sir – In one of the Little Grey Rabbit books, in the middle of a storm, Milkman Hedgehog’s chimney falls down. Milkman Hedgehog utters to his wife the wise words: “That chimbley’d never have fallen down if it hadn’t been put up.”
Alison Uttley lived at Castle Top Farm near Cromford, Derbyshire. I think Milkman Hedgehog must have been modelled on her father, whose farm produced milk and much else. Naomi Stadlen
London N22
sir – In response to Roger Godwin’s letter (June 16) about the way Salisbury is pronounced in news bulletins, I worked there for two years and I’m sure locals did pronounce it Solsbury or possibly Solsbry. I’m curious to know what the “correct” version should be. John Tavner
Dedham, Essex
sir – Chris Cleland (Letters, June 18) writes that David Starkey is the only person he has heard troubling to pronounce the “i” in Parliament.
Should he wish to hear more, may I suggest he visits Lancashire, where the usual pronunciation is Parliment.
Peter Bleasdale
Whittle-le-woods, Lancashire