Scratchy Bottom

Scratchy Bottom (or Scratchy's Bottom) is a clifftop valley between Durdle Door and Bat's Head in Dorset, England.[1] A dry valley in the chalk, it is surrounded by farmland at its sides and landward end, with cliffs at the seaward end.

The name is thought to refer to a rough hollow.[2] Scratchy Bottom has been noted for its unusual place name. The location came second after Shitterton, also in Dorset, in a 2012 poll for "Britain's worst place name" carried out by the genealogy website Find My Past.[3]

Scratchy Bottom was the location for the opening of the 1967 film Far from the Madding Crowd, in a scene in which Gabriel Oak's sheep are driven over a cliff by his sheepdog.[4]

50°37′25″N 02°16′52″W / 50.62361°N 2.28111°W / 50.62361; -2.28111

References

  1. ^ Rude Britain: The 100 Rudest Place Names in Britain by Ed Hurst and Rob Bailey ISBN 0-7522-2581-2
  2. ^ "'Rude' English streets defended". BBC News. 7 January 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
  3. ^ "Scratchy Bottom beats Brokenwind, but Shitterton takes the prize... for unfortunate place names". London Evening Standard. 15 August 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  4. ^ "Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) - Filming locations". Retrieved 13 November 2008.

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