{"id":9851,"date":"2011-12-18T16:02:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T21:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=9851"},"modified":"2022-03-19T09:57:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T14:57:02","slug":"numerical-place-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/numerical-place-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Numerical Place Names"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wondered if I could find any place names composed entirely of numbers. Thus, while communities such as Thousand Oaks<\/a> and Twentynine Palms<\/a> in California were interesting in a sense, they wouldn’t do for my purpose. I wanted to find places that transcended the precision of a description to reach entirely higher circles of absurdity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Twenty, Lincolnshire, UK<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Village<\/a>
The Village Hall at Twenty, Lincolnshire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stereotypically, I figured, I’d probably find numerical place names in the former colonies rather than the motherland. Mainland Britain had additional centuries to come up with something other than numbers for is place names. Nonetheless I discovered a site where imagination must have waned momentarily. Somebody in Lincolnshire thought Twenty would be a good choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty sits within an expanse of highly fertile soil reclaimed from the fens. I’ve intentionally skewed the map link<\/a> to show the series of drainage canals that empty surrounding wetlands. This condition underlies one of the theories<\/a> behind the hamlet’s unusual name. Apparently it happened to grow in proximity to the Twenty Foot Drain. Others theorized that its derivation may be due to its position 20 miles from Colsterworth? Or perhaps the original station fell within Section 20 of an Ordnance Survey map?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncertainty became a common theme with numerically named towns. Oftentimes nobody quite knew how it happened but it didn’t prevent rampant speculation, authoritative or otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wonowon, British Columbia, Canada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n