Thursday, Mar. 04, 2010

A Name Only Beavis Could Love

Can you imagine ordering from a catalog if you lived on Butt Hole Road in South Yorkshire, England? Where would you like the package shipped? 555 Butt Hole Road. I'm sorry, ma'am, what road? Butt Hole Road. Did you say Butt Hole Road? Yes. Yes, I did. The name was — unsurprisingly and quite literally — a pain in the ass. The road sign became a tourist attraction, often drawing tour buses full of spectators, some of whom would drop their drawers to snap a photo. It turns out the unique name came from a historical communal water butt, but residents didn't care. After years of bad jokes, they pooled the £300 necessary to change the road's name in 2009 and picked a distinguished, snicker-free name, Archers Way, after a nearby castle.