Gloucester, Leicester, Worcester

I noted in the description to Andrew Salmon's book in my previous post that the Gloucester men fighting in Korea were referred to as The Gloster Battalion. At Amazon there's much talk of the Gloucestershire Regiment aka "The Glorious Glosters" (see also Tim W's comment). I imagine it's a commonplace designation then, though not being a military historian it's new to me.

So - is this the thin end of the wedge? The start of a move to bring the spelling of Gloucester and the rest into line with the pronunciation? Unlikely, I know, but it'd certainly be a relief to the unfortunate non-English speakers who have to wrestle with these absurd spellings, like the young tourist catching a train from Stansted Airport who tried reading out to me the destination he was after: "Ah, you mean Leicester Square!", I said after he'd been struggling for a while. He looked utterly bewildered. 

Gloster's a reasonable name: like Klosters, perhaps, though with less snow. Lester for Leicester, on the other hand, is not a happy choice: phonetically perfect, yes, but absolutely no class. Worcester doesn't even have a phonetically appropriate simplified spelling: Wooster's nearest, but not near enough, nevermind the Jeeves connection. So no, it's not going to happen.

My personal bugbear is Reading. Why not Redding? Maybe I'll start a petition.

Comments

[Dom]

Well, I'm embarrassed. I've been mispronouncing all those names. I guess I've been mispronouncing "Worcestershire sauce" too.

"Reading" isn't bad, though. You just have to know that it's in the past tense. We have a Reading, PA.

[Bob-B]

The Gloster company was an important British aircraft manufacturer in the first half of the twentieth century, responsible among others for the Gladiator and the Meteor, the only jet used by the Allied Forces during World War II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Aircraft_Company

[Tim Worstall]

I will admit I was just copying the spelling you were using.....

[Bessie]

Hmm. Maybe Towcester could be updated as Toaster. Or not.

[Mick H]

Ha, yes. I forgot about Towcester.

[Mike]

A friend and I once found ourselves sat opposite a bookish-looking woman whose lapel badge proudly proclaimed "Reading is sexy."

We were impressed. Until then, we had no idea that the Berkshire town was such a hotbed of eroticism.

[Marge]

I came across the spelling "Redding" for Reading in a Victorian collection of folk songs.

It also said that in the original version of "Barbara Allen", the first line wasn't "In Scarlet Town" but in "Redding Town". Scarlet Town was a pun on Red-ding. (Totally OTT,I know).