Misplaced Names Truhpenuh - so good they named it thrice
Misplaced Names – Truhpenuh – so good they named in thrice?
Just up the road from Chez-Ren is Torpenhow. So named, I am told after the 3 hills either seen from it or on the way to it. Tor being Cornish for hill, Pen being Welsh and How being Norse. Anyway: A Cornish man, a Welsh man and a Viking got together and decided to name a village in Cumbria after 3 hills. Hell I don’t know, I’m making this up now. The point of this blog is that Torpenhow is pronounced by us locals as Truhpenuh. (all the uhs are pronounced northern and short (bit like the Picts)). This pronunciation completely ignores the Cornish and the Vikings thus confirming my worst fears that we are Welsh afterall… aargh. The other school of thought is that there is in fact only one hill, but it’s very noticeable standing as it does above the village. So noticeable that the locals named it thrice? I think not. It implies that us Cumbrians have the memory span of goldfish. Oh look there’s a hill….. Oh look there’s another hill…. Oh my god there’s another hill.. I do believe it’s the same hill .. why don’t we call it ‘Thought I saw 3 Hills’ ? I’m starting to ramble. Happy Christmas
Just up the road from Chez-Ren is Torpenhow. So named, I am told after the 3 hills either seen from it or on the way to it. Tor being Cornish for hill, Pen being Welsh and How being Norse. Anyway: A Cornish man, a Welsh man and a Viking got together and decided to name a village in Cumbria after 3 hills. Hell I don’t know, I’m making this up now. The point of this blog is that Torpenhow is pronounced by us locals as Truhpenuh. (all the uhs are pronounced northern and short (bit like the Picts)). This pronunciation completely ignores the Cornish and the Vikings thus confirming my worst fears that we are Welsh afterall… aargh. The other school of thought is that there is in fact only one hill, but it’s very noticeable standing as it does above the village. So noticeable that the locals named it thrice? I think not. It implies that us Cumbrians have the memory span of goldfish. Oh look there’s a hill….. Oh look there’s another hill…. Oh my god there’s another hill.. I do believe it’s the same hill .. why don’t we call it ‘Thought I saw 3 Hills’ ? I’m starting to ramble. Happy Christmas
posted by Anonymous at 4:28 pm
2 Comments:
Phenomenon not confined to Cumbria: disturbing number of "Knockhill"s and the like to be found in Northern Scotland. Even worse, there is a village near Elgin called "Llanbryde", which it really shouldn't be, absolutely the wrong sort of Celtic by hundreds of miles to the north and the east.
Just stumbled across your blog - hello from a relative neigbour in North Yorkshire !
My favourite North Yorkshire place names are pretty resolutely Norse - Booze and Muker for instance !
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