The town of Shitterton's new sign, which locals hope proves immoveable.Kelvin Chan
Every time hooligans steal the Shitterton town sign, there are renewed calls to change the place name to something less tempting to fans of scatological humour. This summer, residents of the southern England hamlet in Dorset have done something they hope will put an end to the debate, and the puerile thievery.
Most of the 50 households in Shitterton each contributed £20 toward pay for a £680 signed chiselled from a rough-hewn block of Purbeck marble, weighing about a tonne and a half.
"With Britain being as smutty as it is, kids would try to nick the sign" again if district authorities had put up another standard replacement metal or wooden model, said Ian Ventham, a 20-year Shitterton resident and chairman of the parish council.
He said he could remember at least "three or four times" that the sign indicating the way to Shitterton has been stolen. "With a bit of luck, we hope nobody's going to bring an [excavator]along to remove it."
Despite its dirty-sounding name, Mr. Ventham and his fellow Shittertonians are proud of their town in southern England. Their home is on a dead-end lane with many pretty thatched-roof cottages dating as far back as 1650. To many, it's the quintessential image of English country life. Novelist Thomas Hardy set some of his novels in the nearby village of Bere Regis, most notably Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
The origin of the name Shitterton, however, is as prosaic as they come.
According to mathematician Keith Briggs, who maintains a website on English place names with the "shit" prefix, Shitterton got its name from a nearby river that was used as a sewer. "The name is probably derived from a river called Shiter '... a brook used as a privy," he writes, citing a book on English river names.
Mr. Ventham said another explanation is found in the Domesday Book, the land survey commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, in which the name is recorded in Norman French as Scatera or Scetra, which means a little town on a stream.
In Victorian times, there was a movement to rename the place Sitterton, an idea that was brought up again a few years back.
"There are still some people who live down here who are Sitterton people rather than Shitterton," Mr. Ventham said.
But he added, "It is definitely Shitterton and always has been. It's perfectly legitimate. Most of us prefer to live in Shitterton, and that's what the name is and what it should be."
Special to The Globe and Mail