Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

Shoulder of Mutton Hill (6″). Professor Swinnerton writes: “This name is used by local people for a sharp rise in the road from Kirkby in Ashfield where it joins the road from Hucknall to Mansfield near Annesley. Turning northwards from this junction the configuration of the country has always interested me because the hill-top, in addition to rising in level, narrows to a steep-sided ridge along the crest of which the road runs.From this point in the road you can look down on to low-lying ground and have magnificent distant views. This ridge could quite appropriately be compared with the bit of leg on a shoulder of mutton. An imaginative and observant native could quite appropriately compare the hill with a shoulder of mutton.”