In the Domesday survey of 1086 , the village of Brigeforde ( there as no 'd' - it is from the original Bruggeford ) was part of the Manor of Clifton. The Lord of Clifton Manor was William Peveral who lived in Nottingham Castle.

Clearly both names have an 'e' in them, so is this actually the most accurate spelling of the name of the area? Where did the 'e' go? Who decided all of a sudden to call it West Bridgford? Why was the 'd' missing then that was magically put back in a century later?

Well, in 1239 there was the institution of the first recorded Rector of St Giles Church, Luke de Crophill (Luke of Cropwell) by his patron Sir Andrew Lutterell, Lord of the Manor of West Bridgford. So it seems Sir Lutterell could be blamed for missing out the 'e' - but putting the 'd' back in?

He was known for dislike of vowels in general and often asked friends to call him Sr Lttrll, or simply, 'Ndrw'.

Then in 1774, on the first surveyed map of the area by Chapman ( below ) the spelling became West Bridgeford

We went to find out more.

Prof. Ali Dolsay who is the town naming technician (TNT) at Rushcliff Borough Council said:

'Many town names have been corrupted since the Domesday Book, most well known is Nottingham that was know as Snottingham of course, it's also possible that the 'e' was simply forgotten, much like the modern trend for missing out vowels in forenames and brand names  etc, kind of a forerunner of scl mdia trnds today!.'

Nottinghamshir County Council, who are responsible for road naming across the region were asked to comment on the news, but no-one was available, they did however suggest talking to Lord A S Yopafil, a former linguistics scholar in the county who was renowned for missing letters out of street names.

For example part of Compton Acres is named after areas of Dorset, like Purbeck and Studland, yet Blanford Gardens should be Blandford, after Blandford Forum in Dorset ( this was owing to Lord Yopafil - he missed the 'd' out deliberately  ) anyway, he said:

'There are many precedents for this, like my work in Compton Acrs, but the cost would be astronomical, surely there are better things to spend our money on, on the other side of the coin though, historical accuracy should be honoured, the town got its 'd' back, why can't it have its 'e' back too -  I watch with interest to see how the projct pans out.'

Sign this petition if you want your 'e' back