Wyre Piddle, Brown Willy and Pratt's Bottom. No, not the latest schoolyard taunts: they are all the names of places where people live.

The Penguin Dictionary of British Place Names, published today, is full of such quaint, unusual or downright hilarious postal addresses. But before you start mocking the poor folk of Queen Camel (Somerset) or furtively sniggering that such a place as Durdle Door (it's in Dorset, idiot) should exist outside of the pages of a Harry Potter novel, take a good look at some of our own more unusually named towns and villages here in Yorkshire.

The people of Wyre Piddle have got nothing on the good Swaledale folk of Crackpot. And how would you feel if you had to give your address as Booze in Arkengarthdale. That's without even getting started on Wetwang, with or without its mayor.

So cut out that smirking. What were we saying about schoolyard taunts?

Updated: 10:36 Thursday, April 24, 2003