WHILE the county of Somerset is rather straightforward to pronounce, there are a number of towns and villages within that are quite difficult.

For people travelling to the area for the first and sometimes even for locals, some of the place names are hard to pronounce.

Others cause argument as some say it one way while others say it another way. Locals to each town or village will know best, though.

Sometimes the more confident you are with saying it, the more you flounder with the pronunciation.

It can be straightforward not to pronounce it right - especially if you live nowhere near these locations. 

We have put together what we think are the most commonly mispronounced locations across the county of Somerset, not in any particular order:

  • Frome - which is pronounced to rhyme with broom, not home, was in 2019 named the most mispronounced town in England by a team of linguists...
  • Crewkerne - you would be tempted to say 'crew-kern' however I am led to believe that locals say 'crook-kern'.
  • Huish Episcopi - One of the more unusual names in the county, to pronounce the name of this village it is - 'Hugh-ish A-pis-co-pee'. No 'pie' on the end
  • Shepton Beauchamp - This one is tricky, first word as you'd expect, but for the second say 'Bee-chum', not 'Bowchamp'
  • Hatch Beauchamp - See above for Beauchamp. For Hatch, you should be okay.
  • Huish Champflower - No champs here, sounds more like 'chaum-flower', or so I'm told.
  • Cothelstone - Home to a famous hill but not a stone. Say 'Cothel-ston' instead.
  • Westonzoyland - Not all that difficult, more of a tongue twister.  Officially, it is 'Weh-stuhn-zoy-luhnd'
  • Middlezoy and Chedzoy - These two are grouped because of the confusion. Middlezoy is as you'd expect, however Chedzoy is actually 'Ched-zey'. Go figure.
  • Bishops Lydeard - I have heard this pronounced Bishops 'lie-deared'. Not quite. Bishops 'Lid-eard'. And when writing it down, no apostrophe in Bishops, unlike nearby village Bishop's Hull.
  • Coxley - This small village near Wells is only small in size in one department, apparently. Don't say 'Cocks-lee', instead go for 'Coax-lee'.

I am sure we have missed some more, so please do let us know what place names you find hard to pronounce, or have heard mispronounced before.

On a different note, when it comes to spelling, please stop putting an 'e' in Bridgwater. That is directed at people from outside Somerset, as all us locals have got that figured out by now.