From Wetwang to Crackpot: These are some of the weirdest place names in Yorkshire
Blubberhouses: The name of the Washburn Valley village probably derives from an Anglo Saxon description of “houses near a blubbering stream”. Another and rather sad view is that it relates to the weeping of children as they trudged along the Washburn Valley at the crack of dawn to start their day's work at the local flax and linen mills more than 200 years ago.
Crackpot: This village in Swaledale got its name from the Old English kraka, which means ‘crow’, and ‘pot’, the Viking word for cave. Crackpot Cave contains a column where a stalactite has joined up with its stalagmite, accessible through the aptly named Knee-wrecker Passage. Crackpot Hall, which overlooks Swinner Gill, near Keld, is now a ruin shrouded in its own myths and legends.
Tittybottle Park: This Otley park is actually called Manor Parade Gardens. It is affectionately known as Tittybottle Park as following its council purchase in 1909, nursemaids would take their perambulators to the small triangle of riverbank next to the Wharfe and sit and gossip with their friends while giving the infant a ‘tittybottle’. There are other Tittybottle Parks in the UK.
Fryup: The hamlet in the North York Moors National Park probably got its name from the Old English reconstruction Frige-hop. Frige was an Anglo-Saxon goddess equated with the Old Norse Frigg while hop referred to a small valley. Fryup is separated into two small valleys - Great Fryup Dale and Little Fryup Dale, and is the home of the Yorkshire Cycle Hub.
Wetwang: This Yorkshire Wolds village sits on a busy main road along the coast. Its name origin is not certain - it either means “field for the trial of a legal action” or just “wet field”. In 1998, having made numerous jokes about the village, TV personality and proud Yorkshireman Richard Whiteley was made Mayor of Wetwang.