Talking Butts
Anthony Poulton-Smith
- Region:
- West Midlands
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Paid: £75 including expenses (negotiable)
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 21st January 2017
Talking Butts: the many odd ideas, often accepted as a part of history, which have no basis in fact. The title comes from the many minor place names, found most often for fields or narrow lanes, seen as 'The Butts' or similar and commonly thought to show where medieval villagers honed their skills with the long bow. Yet it is easy to see this could never be true as the name nearly always appears several centuries before the law allowing the male villagers to miss church on Sundays in order to practise. Many other 'facts' are given an airing and shown they could never stand up to scrutiny.
Views: 1636 | Enquiries: 0About Anthony Poulton-Smith
A freelance journalist and author, with 94 books, many articles, is a ghostwriter, innumerable crosswords and puzzles published, whilst also compiling and marketing quizzes. These books have mostly been on the subject of the origins of place-names and as part of the publicity Anthony has been interviewed several times on the radio and privileged to be the guest speaker at more than seven hundred events. Fascinated by the development of language and etymology, based in Tamworth Staffordshire and trustee of Tamworth Literary Festival, Tamworth History Group, Friends of Tamworth Castle and Museum, League of Friends of Tamworth Hospitals.
Happy to travel and available at short notice.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Anthony Poulton-Smith
- Origins of Place Names
- Not the Normal Paranormal
- When Nature Called
- Origins of Pub Names
- Animal Myths
- Humorous Etymologies
- The Saxon Era
- Salt Routes
- Watling Street
- The Fastener Industry
- Ancient Ley Lines
- Our Lost Lines
- Know What You're Eating
- An Odd Shopping Basket
- Crime on Canals
- The Daft of Fire
- The Daft of Time
- Gunpowder Plot
- Classic Toys
- Measurements
- Pots and Pans
- Laboratory Literature
- Street Names
- Forgotten Holidays
- Stupid Moments in History
- Wonderful Words
- Tales of Ales
- A Tale of Attire
- Old Wives Tales
- An Author's Errors
- Old English to Modern English
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
- Colloquialisms
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