THEY were stiff words for a vicar’s wife, but when Barbara Hopper goes on about “an outrage, an assault on our heritage and betraying our ancestors”, you have to concede she has a point.

However, when you realise that to pacify her wrath would involve re-naming a considerable part of Worcester you can see that Jesus stood more chance with his five loaves and a couple of fish.

In other words, the good burghers of the Faithful City are unlikely to admit the planners got it wrong half-a-century ago.

Not only that, to go fiddling about with addresses would probably send the beleaguered Royal Mail into meltdown.

Mrs Hopper moved down to Worcester from Yorkshire with her husband, the Rev Peter Hopper, when he retired in 2000 and began immersing herself in her particular passion for local history.

She spent hours poring over ancient documents and maps at the Records Office in County Hall and soon the steam started to rise.

According to the lady – and it’s hard to argue with her because she has the evidence – various districts in the city have been wrongly named.

Tolladine ought be called Portfields. Warndon Villages may be right, but the 1960s council house development should never have been labelled Warndon and now, to the south of the city, Norton is growing more heads than a hydra monster.

To many people the whole subject might be a ship passing in the night but Mrs Hopper is on a mission.

She said: “We mustn’t let this happen. It’s just sloppiness on the part of the authorities. It hasn’t been thought through carefully enough. It’s most annoying.”

To back up her stance she produces a sheaf of ancient maps. The same ones that presumably the planners had all those years ago when they, according to her, committed their gaffes.

The Worcester News was also the recipient of one of Mrs Hopper’s very detailed letters, endorsed by documents, which state the case for the prosecution.

So, a visit was in order to get a first-hand account.

As it happens, the Hoppers live at Warndon Villages and it was research into the district that first set Barbara off.

Mr Hopper sensibly keeps out of things. He spent my entire visit in the garden while his wife and I pored over maps spread across on the dining room table.

We began with Tolladine, an ancient name in Worcester dating back to 1182. The settlement stood at the end of Tolladine Road where there were two farms. In fact, Tolladine Wood is still there.

About a mile nearer Worcester there was another agricultural holding, Portfields Farm, where the Farmer’s Boy pub is now.

In the 1930s the farmland was sold for the development of Worcester's first council estate.

Mrs Hopper said: “Many houses were built and for a reason which escapes me, the area was called Tolladine. Although another settlement of that name already existed some distance away.

“The map makers at Ordnance Survey were non-plussed and put the name Tolladine in two different places. The housing development should have been called Portfields, the name the district already had.”

The error was repeated in the 1960s when the Warndon council estate was built to the east of the city on land belonging to Astwood Farm.

Again, it was named after a hamlet that was already on the OS map, but a good mile away.

Mrs Hopper said: “A unique new name should have been chosen. It might have been better to have been called Cranham, which was chosen for one of the main roads or, to keep faith with the history of the place, Emussfield, after one of the fields it was built on.”

Other choices could have included Cow Pasture, Norma’s Land, Eight Acres or Sheriff’s Land.

The 1990s development Warndon Villages is much truer to the original location.

Mrs Hopper said: “Now we have another misapplication of names, that of Norton.The village of Norton, of course, lies beyond the motorway. A new estate has been built between it and St Peter’s on the city side of the ring road. The council assures me that the proper name for it is Brockhill Village, after a farm which lay in that area, but estate agents repeatedly advertise houses on the estate as being in Norton. We could have more confusion and annoyance. People won’t know where they are. They think they’re in the right location, when in fact they need somewhere else. It happens all the time at Warndon and Warndon Villages.

“That’s why I think the whole subject needs airing. Worcester is becoming a muddle.”

One solution Mrs Hopper suggests would be to re-name Tolladine Portfields and as for the original Warndon, why not have a readers’ competition?

Answers on the back of a postcard please.