The Buddle

 

The Buddle is the name for the mouth of the river Lym in Lyme Regis. You might know Lyme from Persuasion, or from The French Lieutenant's Woman or from the film Ammonite, or because you know a bit about the history of paleontology and remember that the cliffs outside Lyme are where 11-year-old Mary Anning and her brother discovered the first icthyosaurus. 

The Buddle is an unprepossing little bit of water, but I'm extremely fond of it. If you look closely at the photo, you'll see the medieval arch beneath Buddle Bridge; the bridge itself was widened in 1913, but its underpinnings are centuries old. A 12th- or 13th-century arch can be found in one of the adjacent cellars (you can see a picture here), having been bricked in at some point, and the stone arch you can see in the photo at left is from the 14th century.

I love the name because it sounds a bit like what would happen if you combined "book" and "cuddle". 

(Photo by me; I'll replace it with a clearer one at some point.)