A dispatch from Worcestershire, famous for its sauce – and saucy street names.
Charlotte Shepherd and her family had found the perfect new house in Upton-upon-Severn, a town in Worcestershire on the banks of the river. The house was well-situated, with a garden, plenty of space and kerb appeal. She’d seen it listed for six months, but, until now, had hesitated about booking a viewing. There was a major drawback: ‘We didn’t want to live on Minge Lane.’
‘People would take the mickey,’ Shepherd tells me, ‘and my husband is a potty mouth at the best of times. My 12-year-old daughter was worried she was going to get picked on at school. We just couldn’t do it.’
Minge Lane, though, is an ordinary residential street. It has a mixture of bungalows and social housing. There is a fire station at one end and views of the Malvern Hills. According to residents, its name comes from its former days as the town’s red-light district: in Upton’s bustling trading days, it was where randy sailors would satisfy their wanton desires. ‘It’s not like that anymore – it’s full of families now,’ says resident Bridget McGregor. ‘It’s a nice area to live, considering the name.’
McGregor, 22, has lived on Minge Lane all her life. In that time, the street sign has been cemented into the pavement to prevent it from being stolen. This became necessary after the actors playing the Inbetweeners published a photo with the sign as part of their Comic Relief fundraiser, Rude Road Trip, filmed in 2011. Three years later, Minge Lane topped a list of the UK’s rudest street names, beating rivals Slag Lane, Fanny Hands Lane, Lickers Lane and nearby Bell End. ‘The sign used to go missing at least once every couple of weeks. They’d have to replace it, and it would be gone again within a couple of days,’ says McGregor. ‘We do still get quite a lot of people taking pictures with the sign.’
For residents, it seems that living on Minge Lane can be both a blessing and a curse.
On other lewdly named streets, some locals have clearly felt that it’s been more of a curse. In 2009, residents of Butt Hole Road in South Yorkshire clubbed together to change their street name to the more palatable Archers Way. ‘We’ve had people flashing their bottoms for photographs by the drive,’ resident Peter Sutton told the Daily Mail at the time.
‘I just can’t see why they didn’t call it Butt Hall Road, or something like that.’
In Bell End, near Birmingham, residents were more divided. In 2018, a petition claimed that the street had become ‘a laughing stock’ and that children could be ‘bullied and teased at school’, putting forward ‘Bells Road’ as an alternative name. Interestingly, the move was trumped by a counter-petition, which denounced it as a ‘pointless change’ and gained almost 5,000 signatures to the original’s 200. Bell End, therefore, stands proud.
‘It’s a bit over the top,’ commented one Minge Lane resident at the time, confirming that no such division existed in Upton. ‘People are happy with the name of the road.’ What does McGregor think? ‘It certainly helps to have a sense of humour with it,’ she says. ‘But yes, I am proud to live on Minge Lane.’
Indeed, in Upton, Minge Lane street signs are sold as souvenirs, and there is even a Minge Lane festival – affectionately called ‘The Minge’ – named in honour of the street, despite not taking place on it. ‘We’ve got collection boxes in the Star Inn [where the festival is held] saying “support the Minge”. Generally, people do stick money in there,’ says Stuart Franklin, one of the festival’s organisers.
But although the festival is growing, there have been hiccups. When Franklin set up the festival website (www.mingelanefestival.co.uk), the domain name was initially flagged as inappropriate. And when he transferred funds into the Minge Lane Festival bank account with the reference ‘MINGE’, the payment was rejected. ‘It’s quite a tricky word,’ he says.
Research has suggested that rude street names can lower property prices – as much as by a fifth, according to one 2014 study. More recently, though, the pendulum has begun to swing the other way. On Minge Lane, the evidence is inconclusive: according to Rightmove, the average cost of a detached house last year was £405,000, compared with £433,876 across Upton.
Despite her initial reservations, Charlotte Shepherd eventually booked a viewing on the Minge Lane house and decided that its charms outweighed the street name. She and her family moved in in July last year – but a concession was necessary first. ‘I had ginger hair, and I did have to dye my hair blonde before we moved. There was no way I was going to be a ginger on Minge Lane and be associated with “ginger minge”.’
The move, naturally, brought with it the admin of updating her address. At the bank, the ‘polite young girl’ behind the counter eyed her steadily when Shepherd told her that she now lived on Minge Lane and that, no, it wasn’t a joke. ‘At the end, she asked: “Is it really called Minge Lane?” When I said yes, she burst out laughing. She couldn’t contain it any longer,’ says Shepherd. ‘I’m a professional 50-year-old woman, so when I say I live on Minge Lane, it’s hilarious. Everyone – delivery people, at the post office, at the bank – tries so hard to stay professional, but they can’t.’
Seven months on, Shepherd and her family have adjusted to life on Minge Lane. Her daughter, thankfully, has not encountered any trouble at school, and the street name has been a bonding point with neighbours. ‘We have become very integrated into town life, and I’m sure that’s because people know where we live,’ she says. At work, Shepherd is now introduced as ‘Charlotte on Minge Lane’ – something she embraces. Best of all, she now has a ready-made answer for ice-breaker questions (‘people never forget me now’). Living on Minge Lane, as far as Shepherd is concerned, is a boon.
‘It’s part of my identity now,’ she says. ‘I never in a million years thought I would live there, and I never thought I would enjoy saying where I live, but it’s fabulous. I am yet to find even the most po-faced person who doesn’t break a smile.’
