I recently came across The Rather Cheeky Map of Great British Bottoms (published by Strumpshaw, Tincleton & Giggleswick). It features nearly 300 Great British place names all involving the word 'Bottom'.

A Deep Seated Feature in the Landscape

Bottoms are well known to those of us who live in the Chilterns. So, one cold, damp winter evening I decided to sink my own bottom into the sofa and scan the Ordnance Survey Map myself for cheeky places in the Chilterns. For practical reasons, I limited my search to the southernmost part of the Chilterns; the land west and north of Henley on Thames bounded by the River Thames and M40 motorway.

The landscape here is one of the most deeply dissected parts of the Chilterns, etched by a network of steep-sided 'bottoms' or narrow valleys that generally flow gently southeast towards the River Thames. These valleys were probably formed by glacial waters a few hundred thousand years ago. The bottoms now are generally dry, being flushed only occasionally by bourne in periods of wet weather.

The term ‘bottom’ has emerged from the Old English botm or bodan ‎meaning “ground, soil, lowest part”. But with similar words found in the Old Norse and Germanic languages, our bottoms are not alone!

So, having got to the bottom of this deep seated feature in our landscape and language of today, I carefully unfolded my well thumbed and frayed OS Explorer map (171) and began my search. I simply followed the contours and found a spread of no less than 28 ‘bottoms’ deep seated within our south Chilterns landscape! With names that charm, entice and lure you there are plenty to explore: Pigstrough Bottom, Twigside Bottom, Blackbird’s Bottom, Bix Bottom, Pishill Bottom and Drunken Bottom to name an intriguing few.

Then, I could not resist scanning a few more grid squares just to the north of the M40 to reveal another eight, including Winchbottom and Hellbottom!

Hidden from view almost until you start to descend into them, the Chiltern bottoms are secret, magical places. Be sure to believe and, if you are lucky, you may even meet fairies in the bottoms! Remember, in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, it is Bottom who weaves together the fairy realm and human worlds. However, you (or Titania, Queen of the Fairies) do not need to be under the spell of any love potion to experience the magic of the Chiltern bottoms.

With such a spread of bottoms across the Chilterns walking is a great way to explore and experience their magic. One cheeky Chilterns circular walk from Rotherfield Peppard, for example, takes you through the long Stony Bottom with its Greatbottom and Littlebottom Woods, Newnhamhill Bottom, Splashall Bottom and Shiplake Bottom before returning again through Stoney Bottom (8 miles).

If you would like to experience the magic and be guided on foot through the bottoms of the Chilterns, simply get in touch.