
Jump to our pronunciation guide to Northern towns with counterintuitive pronunciations (below).

As a child my parents often took me on camping trips around the north of England. Getting lost is one of my abiding memories. With no sat nav to hand in those days, we would often resort to pulling over and asking someone for directions. As is often the case this didn’t always go smoothly…


Travelling up the East coast, we were heading for a coastal town called Staithes. We had been in the car for quite some time when we started to wonder if we’d missed the town altogether. My Dad pulled the car over and asked a passing gentleman “excuse me, do you know where Staithes is?”, “never heard of it” was his response.

After much confusion and more than a hint of pedantism from the passer by, my Dad resorted to writing the town name on a piece of paper. “Oh, you mean Steers” he said, in a sudden light bulb moment. It turns out we were 10 minutes away.

Now, I don’t for a second think that this man really couldn’t understand what my Dad meant. What is more likely, is he had been asked the same question by many tourists and simply enjoyed the opportunity to be awkward. There is no way that – without some local knowledge – you could possibly deduce that Staithes is pronounced Steers.

My point is, there are a lot of places out there, a lot of which have odd pronunciations and in these towns live pedants who love to “not understand” what you’re saying.



Below is our pronunciation guide to Northern towns with counterintuitive pronunciations. Please feel free to comment with your suggestions or corrections.

@NorthernLifeMag This could be the most important list the North has ever known 😉 — TodmordenTweets (@TodmordenTweets) January 7, 2016

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Commonly mispronounced Northern Towns Place Name Area Pronunciation Hough Cheshire Huff Rawcliffe Near Preston Raycla Cholmondeley Cheshire Chumley Aigburth Liverpool Egberth Luddendenfoot West Yorkshire Lud Foot Mytholmroyd West Yorkshire Mithumroyd Peover Cheshire Peever Sough Lancashire Suff Roose Cumbria Rooz Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria Barra-in-furnace Harrogate North Yorkshire Harragut Huyton Liverpool Hi-ton Bury Greater Manchester Beri Barnoldswick Lancashire Barlick Aspatria Cumbria Spatry Workington Cumbria Wukinton or W'kton locally Alnwick Northumberland Annick Euxton Lancashire Ekston Oswaldtwistle Lancashire Ozzletwizzle Staithes North Yorkshire Steers (Local Pronunciation) Altrincham Greater Manchester Aultringam Barugh South Yorkshire Bark Beauchief Sheffield Beechiff Bellingham Northumberland Bellinjam Brougham Cumbria Broom Sandwith Cumbria Sannuth Burgh By Sands Cumbria Bruff By Sands Kirkby Merseyside Kerby Cambois Northumberland Kamas Ponteland Northumberland Pon-tee-land Cholmondeley Cheshire Chumly Cholmondeston Cheshire Chumston Chop Gate North Yorkshire Chop Yat Claughton Lancashire Klafton Claughton On Brock Lancashire Klighton Cowpen Northumberland Koopen Keswick Cumbria Kezzick Cudworth South Yorkshire Kuderth Dodworth South Yorkshire Doderth Elsecar South Yorkshire Elsikar Gateacre Liverpool Gattaka Greysouthen Cumbria Graysun Keighley West Yorkshire Keithlee Masham Northern Yorkshire Masam Meols Merseyside Melz Meols Cop Southport Milz Ovingham Northumberland Ovinjum Prudhoe Northumberland Pruda Quernmore Lancashire Kwormer Rievaulx North Yorkshire Reevo Slaithwaite West Yorkshire Slawit Or Slathwit Sowerby / Sowerby Bridge West Yorkshire Saw-bi / Saw-bi Bridge Torpenhow Cumbria Trapena Ulgham Northumberland Uffam Wavertree Lancashire Wartree Market Weighton East Riding Of Yorkshire Weeton Wesham Lancashire Wessem Wombwell South Yorkshire Wumwel Wybunbury Cheshire Winbry Todmorden West Yorkshire Todmuden Simonstone Lancashire Simmunsten Whalley Lancashire Warley Barrowford Lancashire Barrah-ford Stalmine Fylde coast Stomin Blacko Lancashire Blackah Foulridge Lancashire Folridge Wiswell Lancashire Wizzle Place Name Area Pronunciation