We were in the car some time ago, driving between villages in Lincolnshire, England, and I saw a sign that said 'Loose Chippings' at the side of the road. For a few moments, I actually thought we were approaching a village called 'Loose Chippings' rather than some roadworks with the risk of debris. Do you know why I thought that? It's because England has some of the silliest place names you can imagine - often twee, usually dirty-sounding, and mostly worth a visit.

One day, I'll tell the tale of Upper Dicker and its neighbouring village ... Lower Dicker, but they're not quite in my wheelhouse. Instead, let me tell you about Kent, aka The Garden of England. Beloved by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for being one of Europe's largest hop-producing regions, Kent is a county on the South East corner of the UK, and encroaches into London. That's where I come in - I live geographically in Greater London, but I have a Kent post code because the administration couldn't keep up with urban sprawl (it's also why I pay council tax to two different places, but I'll save that rant for another day).

Kent has some great place names, and I've found many more whilst looking into it for this article. First, I'll look at some name parts, because when I found a list of all places in Kent from a census taken about a hundred years ago, there were 5 places called Alder Shaw, and about another 30 with one or the other of those words, so let's go:

Alder - Turns out, this is a type of Birch tree, so it's not surprising it found its way into place names.

Shaw - Shaw is an Old English for a wooded area.

Alder Shaw - So this place name means 'Birch Wood.' Hang on a minute, that sounds familiar ... Yes, there are 20 places in Kent alone called Birch Wood. The imagination runs rife around here! Here are some other word parts that crop up lots in local place names:

Hurst - This is appended to many places around here, and means either a hillock (specifically a sandy one) or a wooded grove of noted eminence (old English). There's also the middle English Horst meaning underwood.

Wold - also weald, an actual Kentish word for a wooded upland. There's a theme here. England is covered in two things - trees and hills - so etymology becomes quite predictable!

Bottom - the thing you sit on. Okay, so that's only been true since 1794. Prior to that, it related to ground soil or foundations - essentially, the lowest part of something. Hence, place names ending bottom!

Hole - Yes, you caught me - I did put this straight after 'Bottom' intentionally - I'm an Englishman with an Englishman's love of the puerile! Predictably, hole means exactly that, but in the ground, so caves and carved out spaces - it developed into 'hollow' to mean the excavated habitation of a burrowing animal.

Now you know your bottom from your hole, let's take a look at some specific places in Kent.

Thong - We had to start here, really. Inevitably synonymous with the kind of underwear that makes cheeks blush and turns walking into flossing, no list of amusing place names is complete without Thong. This is a more modern spelling, as its first record is from the year 1200, called Thuange. Some sources believe it comes from the German word dwenge (meaning trap) - the mind boggles!

Babies' Castle - Location of a famous battle where, with all the adults off to war, a team of 300 babies defended their home against the massed forces of Persia by catapulting their used nappies into the enemy ranks, spreading disease and dissent. Yeah, okay, so I made that up. This was actually one of the first children's homes set up by Dr Thomas John Barnardo (founder of the Barnardo's charity). Appalled at the conditions some infants lived in, he set up homes in many locations to provide a roof, sustenance and education. Babies' Castle was a site donated to Barnardo for this specific purpose, and opened in the early 1880s.

Sandwich - when you see an advert demanding 'visit Sandwich!' ... well, who could resist? Sandwich gets its name from the central high street, lined by shops built from bread bricks that have been dried to the point of extreme toughness. The road between them is laid with aged cheddar cheese, and vendors are only allowed to sell sliced tomato. In truth, the name comes from Sand, meaning ... well, sand, and wich (Anglo-Saxon wic), meaning a fortified trade building. Earliest iterations of the name are Sondwic (851) and Sandwic (993), and it's listed in the Domesday Book (1086) as Sandwice. Really, it just means 'trade town built on sandy ground' - but I'd love to walk a cheese roadway someday!

There are so many more, but those are my favourites. For now, I'll take a drive down Knightrider Street and leave you to digest. For those with a hunger, here are some more places to visit in Kent:

Badgers Mount
Ballsdown Farm
Cock Farm
Cradle Bottom Wood
The Devil's Kneading Trough
Dicks Wood
Duckpit
Famine Down
Fifth Quarter
Frogs Bottom
Gaol Wood
Got Eye Wood
Grandson
Hearts Delight
Hell Wood
Knockherdown Hill
Long Nose Spit
World's End