I see from your article in last Friday’s Echo (Calls for village to change its name) that the PC brigade is active in the deep south of England.

This time it is under the spectre of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) with a request that the village of Wool be renamed Vegan Wool.

  • Here's the latest on the issue, including Wool Parish Council rejecting the 'ridiculous' request

It is clear that Peta have not bothered to do their homework or, at least, conduct even a smidgeon of research.

If they had then they would have discovered that the name Wool has nothing at all to do with sheep.

Can I suggest that they take the time to read Alan Brown’s history about Wool?

He confirms that the name is derived from water.

In Saxon times the village was apparently known as Wyllon because of the abundance of streams, watercourses and springs in the area.

Sometime after the Norman conquest, it developed to Welle, the name when Woolbridge Manor was utilised by Thomas Hardy as the location of the beleaguered Tess’s ill-fated honeymoon during which she crossed the village’s famous Elizabethan bridge.

Seemingly, at some point during the history of the village the name was abridged to Wool.

Anyway, as members of Peta are driving toward the lovely village of Wool, then why not stop at The Red Lion at Winfrith with a pot of paint and perhaps rename it The Green Lion.

Once in Wool then why not give The Black Bear a bit of a seeing to.

To complete the day’s adventure why not continue to Wareham and do the same to The Salt Pig.

To finish here are few suggestions for other places that are surely a target for renaming:

Catsgore, Cock Green, Pork Lane, Ram Alley, Ham, Mousehole, Swanage, Oxford, Bacon End, Cowdenbeath, Tiger Bay, Partridge Green, Shrewsbury, Ramsgate, Leighton Buzzard.

I am sure that there are many more!

PETER JARVIS

Woodward Place, Weymouth