What Happened to Argleton?!

"Welcome to Argleton, the town that doesn't exist"
guardian.co.uk (November 3, 2009)

"The world's eyes are focused on a small village called Argleton just off the A59 near Ormskirk, Lancashire. Camera crews have been dispatched. "Argleton" is fast becoming a popular hashtag on Twitter. There is even talk of merchandising opportunities.

"The reason for all the interest is simple: Argleton doesn't actually exist. It is a phantom village that appears on Google Maps. You can search online for Argleton's local weather forecast (10C yesterday), property prices (not much for sale at the moment) or for the number of a local plumber, but in reality the village's coordinates point to little more than a muddy field. However, just a few hundred metres away stands the very real village of Aughton. So, is this a case of a simple spelling mistake by a cartographer? Or is Argleton evidence of something more conspiratorial afoot in the county? After all, the Ormskirk and Skelmersdale Advertiser has already posed the question of whether the Argleton mystery might indicate the presence of a 'Bermuda triangle of West Lancashire'...."

The Lemming rather likes the idea that a vast conspiracy of space aliens, Elvis and the Knights Templar is involved - and that Argleton really does exist - cleverly hidden by holographic projectors and mind-control rays from the invisible mothership.

None of which are mentioned in the article.

See? That proves there's a conspiracy!

Let's see: Edge Hill University in Ormskirk's head of web services, Mike Nolan, says it's most likely that somebody's fingers skidded when they keyed in "Aughton" - and it came out "Argleton."

Not as cool as the space-alien explanation - but a great deal more plausible.

Or is that what they want us to thing?!

The Lemming has got to get some rest.