Wars and conflicts continue to rage, but at least one argument stewing for decades has been settled for good.
With or without hyphens? That is the question residents of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire have been mulling over the spelling of the town’s name.
Google has become a hero in a long-standing row after it agreed to remove the hyphens from the town’s name.
It comes after a campaign by locals, who have labelled the hyphen use as a ‘rogue’ accident that has been blamed on railway signs.
The hyphens are said to have first appeared in a 1899 Great Western Railway (GWR) sign, before the ‘wrong’ spelling was adopted by map makers and from there it slipped into common usage.
Residents have insisted for 130 years that the historic town should not be known as ‘Bradford-on-Avon,’ and the town council and local businesses recently launched a fresh campaign.
The ‘great dash debate’ called on the likes of Wikipedia, GWR, the Canal Trust, National Highways, English Heritage and Encyclopedia Britannica to support them and drop the pesky hyphen where it appears.
Councillor Sam Blackwell, mayor of the town, told the BBC that the ‘great dash debate has been rolling on for decades, but as a town council we are clear that our town’s name is perfect without punctuation.’
Tom Vaughton, CEO at SEO experts Varn, started the campaign after spotting that 5,800 incorrect references were appearing online – including on major platforms such as Google Maps.
He explained how the problem has also made its way into artificial intelligence, and ‘bad data’ can spread fast nowadays.
The search and marketing agency based in Bradford on Avon ‘couldn’t just sit back and watch rogue hyphens take over the internet, or our town,’ Tom said.
He continued: ‘We’re on a mission to clean up and set the Bradford on Avon hyphen record straight, once and for all.
‘Together, we can track down the remaining rogue hyphens and help make sure Bradford on Avon is written correctly everywhere; both online and off.’
GWR is said to have added the dashes post 1899 to avoid the name being confused with other similarly named spots.
The rail firm’s spokesperson said the hyphens would remain in place at the station name because any changes would need to go through a ‘raft of industry-wide systems.’
Google said yesterday it will review and take action on the hyphen campaign within 48 hours, BBC News reports.
A Google spokesperson said they had a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.
They said: ‘We have reviewed the request and will remove the hyphens in Bradford on Avon.’
Other companies that have updated or are updating their content to spell Bradford on Avon without hyphens reportedly include Tripadvisor, Visit Bath, Discover Frome and Silver Travel Advisor.
Metro contacted Google for a comment.
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