Six more places in Worcestershire people pronounce wrong

In response to our run-down of six names people find tricky to say, readers have been sharing more of the places they’ve heard mispronounced.

In some cases, people have also suggested ways of saying place names that seem very specific to the location - how many do you recognise?

Evesham

We touched on the subject of Evesham vs EveRsham last time, but Viv Hall was not alone in suggesting: “A lot of real locals would say Asham.”

Jim Walker elaborated: “Asum the correct annunciation of Evesham locals recognised by the greeting ‘Ow Bist’.

“Known to be strong in the arm but thick in the head.”

Twyning

I’ll admit that before writing this story I had no idea Twyning, which is just over the Gloucestershire border, is actually pronounced ‘twinning’.

So thanks, Stephen Lacy, for pointing that out - that’s a Bevere-style embarrassment narrowly avoided.

Powick

There seems to be a number of ways to pronounce Powick. Wikipedia says it is locally pronounced with the ‘ow’ to rhyme with ‘mow’. But some people definitely say the ‘ow’ to rhyme with ‘now’.

And Craig Bourne was among the readers to point out it’s actually pronounced ‘Poyk’.

Naunton Beauchamp

Jayne Lewis describes Naunton Beauchamp as “maybe less well known but a rather quiet, pretty village betwixt Evesham, Pershore and Upton Snodsbury, except when the ford is in flood”.

She says it should be pronounced ‘Norton Beecham’.

Guarlford

One that catches a lot of people out, I would think. When pronouncing the name of the village, just ignore the ‘u’. As one reader put it: “Guarlford is actually ‘Garlford’ not ‘Gwarlford’.

Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury sits right on the edge of Worcestershire and is another that people seem to have different ways of pronouncing.

Readers have suggested Chucksbree and Jooksbree among other ways of spelling it phonetically. Others say their sat-nav never manages to get it right.

We'll go with Tyooks-bree as a pretty good guide as to how to say it.