It's not the actual motoring that I enjoy, I could quite happily take on the services of a chauffeur and just sit in the back of the car for it is the places and their names that I really like.
I am fortunate that my working territory includes some wonderful scenery from the North Yorkshire Coast to the Moors, inland to the Vale of York and sweeping back around hugging the north bank of the mighty Humber Estuary. There are some lyrical and not a little humorously titled towns and villages on my patch.
Top of the list is undoubtedly that of Wetwang.
Most travellers have no reason or compulsion to explore beyond the main through road which is the A166. The population is around 700 souls.
It is a busy route for those headed to the seaside or the tourist destination of York.
There is a good chance that they passers-through may recall an association with the TV presenter Richard Whiteley, succeeded by the TV weatherman Paul Hudson but may not dwell on the reason why.
One attraction for those running late for lunch by the sea or feeling hungry after a day out on the beach is a good Fish and Chip shop. This has changed hands a few times in recent years which can mean either acquisition on the grounds of a lucrative cash rich business or regular bankruptcy. I feel sorry for the population as the village lacks a general store and the public house never seems to be open for trade.
For those inadvertently overshooting the limited parking opportunity outside the chippy or just being deprived temporarily of their sense of direction they may come across just a couple of parallel residential roads.
Most of the housing is from the Post-War and more modern era. For a place of perceived remoteness and sparse amenities it is likely that the motivation for folk to move to Wetwang was because properties tended to be amongst the least expensive in this eastern part of the County of Yorkshire.
There is some beautiful countryside on its doorstep as the village itself is on a bit of a ridge amongst rolling fields flecked with white chalk stones.
Even the railway line gave up and left having been in service from 1853 until closure in 1950 although in that near century of operations the Station serving Wetwang was the busiest amongst the local branch.
There is a lot of history for such a small place.
In 2001 there was the excavation during a building project of a war chariot thought to date back to the Iron Age around 350BC.
The discovery was one of many indicating the former status of Wetwang as an emerging European cultural centre and compounded by the fact that the resident tribe were from the Celtic Parisi tribe who gave their name to the capital city of France. The chariot was a deliberate burial artefact for a very well to do and influential tribal leader.
Wetwang has also thought to have been the location of the Romano British settlement of Delgovicia although alternative sites have included Londesborough, Market Weighton and Millington.
The true meaning of the name Wetwang is actually a bit mundane being derived from the Viking word, Vaett-vangr which is a Court or meeting held out in a field although another and contested source is that meaning Wet Field which is in direct contrast with the nearest large town of Driffield or Dry Field. Perhaps in the mists of time this represented a bit of inter-settlement rivalry although, to be honest, whether a place is wet or not so wet has both positive and negative factors at play.
The village name is, just on its pronunciation enough for a bit of a schoolboy tittering although it was the author, Douglas Adams of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fame who really put Wetwang on the map of public ridicule with his Meaning of Liff (1983) definition as "a moist penis".
It's funny how you remember things like that the most about a place. Sorry people of Wetwang.
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