Village street name fails to give pleasure

Villagers are campaigning to change the name of a new street because it translates into 'Masturbation Meadow'.

Julia Newsham has launched a petition to change the name of Cae Onan in her home village of Morda, near Oswestry, Shropshire, on the Welsh borders.

The 48-year-old believes council planners meant to call it Cae Onnen which translates as 'Ash Meadow' but was shocked when friends told her what this version means.

The housewife said: 'It's embarrassing. It has got to the stage when I tell someone its name and check their expression.'

Cae is Welsh for meadow or field – but Onan has no Welsh translation other than the Biblical figure killed by God for 'spilling his seed', instead of impregnating his late brother's wife. That led to the the word 'onanism', an old term for masturbation.

Paul Shevlin, from Oswestry Borough Council, said there were no plans to change the name as it was 'not something that would be generally picked up on'.