[HPforGrownups] Cultural clues to locations/origins

[John Walton]

No: HPFGUIDX 22711

Amy Z said:

> I don't know how to ask the question more specifically because these
> cultural clues are invisible to my American eyes.  But it comes up
> now and then--e.g. someone recently said Ottery St. Catchpole sounded
> like it was in the West Country.  Are you all carrying around secret
> information about where Little Hangleton and Cokeworth are and where
> Dean and Lee and Madam Pomfrey hail from?  Say more, please!

Ottery St. Catchpole is almost certainly Westcountry. There's an Ottery St.
Mary in Devon (near Exeter, where JKR went to uni), and there's a plethora
of "Something St. Someone" type names in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset
and Wiltshire. 

Little Hangleton, to me, sounds like it's somewhere in the Cotswolds.
Somewhere around Oxford, methinks ::disagreeing with Al::

Cokeworth, IMHO, is definitely Northern. Probably Yorkshire. "Coke", after
all, is not only a fizzy drink, but (IIRC) a member of the coal family which
is used in fires. My auntie in the Lake District uses it to heat her
woodburning Rayburn. The -worth suffix, moreover, is often seen int'north.

As for the *people*, I've got very little clue so I agree with Al.

--John

________________________________

John Walton -- john at walton.to

"Prick us. Do we not bleed?
Tickle us. Do we not laugh?
Poison us. Do we not die?"

"Nope. That's what *immortal* means."
-John
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