Wiltshire's top 10 mispronounced town and village names

While most people in the county are aware that if you go to Salisbury and pronounce it sal-is-bury you’ll likely get an earful from a locals, there are some places where not even the residents can agree on how to pronounce them.

We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 most difficult place names to pronounce in Wiltshire, and how they got their names.

The 10 most mispronounced place names in Wiltshire

The Orient Express passing through the Wylye Valley. (Image: John Newbury)

Biddestone

The village of Biddestone, located near to Corsham in northwest Wiltshire, is not to be confused with the other Wiltshire village of Biddesden.

The existence of two ‘Biddes’ villages, named after the Bidde family, is already confusing enough.

But the real confusion is whether the village of Biddestone is pronounced ‘bid-stone’, ‘bidder-stone’, or ‘bide-stun’.

According to most locals, ‘bidder-stun’ is the correct pronunciation.

Calne

Located between Chippenham and Marlborough, Calne is home to over 19,000 people – and even they can’t agree on what their town is called.

The spelling of Calne hasn’t changed since the mid-900s, and the history books are unsure whether it is derived from the Welsh word for ‘loud river’, ‘cockerel’ or ‘coil’.

‘Cone’, ‘can’, 'carn’ and ‘caln’ and ‘coln’ are all frequently used when talking about this town, and some say that it simply depends on your accent.

While ‘caln’, ‘coln’ and ‘carn’ seem to be the most common variations used by locals, there is no right answer for this one.

Clyffe Pypard

Clyffe Pypard is a village just seven miles south of Swindon and it is so small that the streets don't have road names.

Even our reporters have debated whether it should be pronounced Cliff 'pie-pard' or 'pip-ard'.

Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre has now confirmed that the village should be pronounced Cliff 'pip-ard', as the name probably comes from landowner Richard Pipart (later spelt Pipard).

Ebbesbourne Wake

This village is located on the border between Wiltshire and Dorset, and the main confusion is around the number of syllables included in its name.

In 826, the village was called Ebbelsburna, but has since been edited to become Ebbesbourne over time.

While many visitors ask for directions to ‘Ebs-born’ Wake, the correct pronunciation according to locals is ‘Ebb-es-born’ with three syllables.

Lacock

Three miles from Chippenham, Lacock is famous for regularly being used as a filming location for blockbusters such as Downton Abbey and Harry Potter.

Due to the spelling of the village, many visitors are tempted to call it ‘la cock’ in a fake French accent but this would be incorrect – the village is pronounced ‘lay-cock’.

Mildenhall

This one has a tendency to lull people into a false sense of security as the spelling looks fairly straight forward.

But like most small Wiltshire villages, its name is not as simple as it seems.

Mildenhall, located near Marlborough, looks as though it should be pronounced ‘mil-den-hall’ and that’s not necessarily wrong, but saying it that way is a complete giveaway that you’re not local.

Walking around the village, visitors will see it signposted as ‘Minal’.

This is pronounced ‘my-nall’, and the nickname is so commonly used that even the cricket ground has a ‘Welcome to Minal’ sign on it.

Minety

Split into Upper Minety and Lower Minety, this is another one that looks deceptively simple until you have to say it out loud.

The village is often pronounced in a number of ways, including ‘minty’ and ‘minute-ee’, but according to locals the only way to say it is ‘my-ne-tee’.

This means ‘the island where the mint grows’.

Preshute

Located to the west of Marlborough, pronunciation options for Preshute include ‘pre-shoot’ and ‘pres-hute’ and not even locals can make up their minds on which one is right.

While Preshute Primary School pronounce their name the first way, the local college pronounces it the second way. The verdict is still out on this one.

Salisbury

Salisbury is Wiltshire's only city and is perhaps the most famous place for confusing visitors to the county.

If we had a penny for every time we had heard someone pronounce the city as ‘sal-is-bury’ then we’d all be rich.

The correct pronunciation is of course ‘sawls-bury’ or ‘sols-bury’, depending on your accent.

Wylye

This little village in southern Wiltshire can be a tricky one.

Wylye became more widely known after a stash of Bronze Age jewellery was discovered there in 2012.

Most logical people would of course assume that the two ‘y’s are pronounced the same – but that would be too easy.

Despite common mispronunciations like ‘why-lie’ or ‘willy’, the correct version is actually ‘why-lee’.