There’s a street in the City of London called Sherborne Lane. In the Middle Ages it was known as Shitteborwelane [Shitborough Lane] or Shitheburnlane. We philologists are accustomed to discussing vocabulary that is taboo because of its sexual or scatological references, and this place name is not rare in depending on a word that ‘is not generally acceptable in more formal contexts’, according to the OED.

The House of Commons is a context more formal than most. But last week James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, was accused of calling out, ‘Because it’s a shithole’ in answer to Alex Cunningham, the Labour MP for Stockton North, who had asked why 34 per cent of children in his constituency were living in poverty. The Home Secretary denied he had described Stockton in that way; rather he had accused Mr Cunningham of being a ‘shit MP’.

The coarse word shithole has been in use for 300 years to mean the anus. In the 20th century it has also been applied to places: pubs, towns or cities. I don’t think the metaphor is anatomical, but is taken from the privy. Sherborne Lane is not the only place with excremental credentials. Skidbrooke in Leicestershire derives from the earlier form Shitebroc (‘shit-brook’, the skid– element showing signs of Viking influence). In Warwickshire, Shutwell Farm was in the Middle Ages Schitewellemor.

There is Shitterton in Dorset, and in Charlesworth, Derbyshire, a valley called Shittern Clough. Shitties Croft was to be found at Gnosall, Staffordshire. At Astbury, Cheshire, could be found The Shitlock, or ‘midden-yard’. A field at Wallingford, Oxfordshire, was called Shitehap, ‘shit-heap’. So many places in England have taken their name from this common material of human life and stock-rearing, that Stockton is lucky not to have shared their fate.