Have you ever spotted a road sign in Gloucestershire and wondered where South-rop or Cliffords Mez-nay is? Well you aren’t alone because the are some pretty puzzling village names out there.
We’ve put together the 10 most difficult to pronounce places in the county to test you out.
Over – the big divider, if you live one side of the Severn it is over and in rover, if you live the other it is oover as in hoover
Michaelwood – the services on the M5, it looks like it should be a wood belonging to a man called Michael but it is actually ‘micklewood.’
Bagendon – that sign you see on the A417 on the way to Cirencester, not bag-end-on but badge-en-don, we know it looks wrong.
Berkeley – where the castle is. You don’t say it like the American uni, it is bark-lee.
Upleadon – don’t worry about that ‘a’ it is pronounced, up-led-on.
Southrop – the little Cotswold village where Kate Moss got married, it is a tricky one to say if you aren’t from round here, suth-rup not south-rop.
Cliffords Mesne – as hard to spell as it is to say, this village just outside Newent should sound like ‘cliffords meen’.
Dymock – another one of the villages around Newent, this one is dimm-ock, not di-mock.
Somerford Keynes – out by the Cotswold Water Park, it is kanes, not keens for the last bit.
Cheltenham – we aren’t joking, if you aren’t from these parts then it is easy to add an extra syllable, if you want to sound like a local it is chelt-num.
This story was first written in September 2019, and has been republished December 2024.