Hampshire villagers bring street’s apostrophe catastrophe to a full stop.
— Mom de plume 🇺🇦🕷 #FBPE (@NargisWalker) November 17, 2023
St Mary’s Terrace in Twyford has regained its lost punctuation after a row that even drew in local author Jane Austen. https://t.co/YWljN0rv4c
In recent years, there's a tendency for government officials to drop apostrophes from place names, and the residents of Twyford, Hampshire, UK, are having none of it. A year ago, the Winchester City Council posted a new sign for St. Mary's Terrace that said simply St Marys Terrace, with no punctuation at all. The new sign rubbed retired teacher Oliver Gray the wrong way. It was not so much the loss of the full stop after "St,"* but the lost of the apostrophe after "Mary." The apostrophe indicates a possessive, while the lack of one indicates a plural, and in this case, "Mary" is singular. Villagers brought their consternation over the lost apostrophe to the attention of the city council.
Officials argued that place names should not have punctuation, to make deliveries and emergency response easier. While that may be true for computerized services, it is humans who are reading the sign. The controversy over the sign led to a year-long battle in Twyford, but the sign has now been replaced. Read the arguments on both sides at the Guardian. The article has delicious examples of apostrophe misuse from the Apostrophe Protection Society. -via Metafilter
*In the lively discussion at Metafilter, we learn that in British journalism, a period in an abbreviation is only used if the omitted letters are on the back end, so that "St" means saint and "St." means street.