Argleton is a town that often shows up in online map directories in Lancashire in the UK. The problem is, it doesn't really exist.
Argleton appears on Google Maps between Aughton and Aughton Park, in the middle of fields close to the A59 motorway, just south of Ormskirk in Lancashire, UK.
Remarkably the phantom town’s name is also an anagram of “Not Real G” and “Not Large”. This might indicate that it was a joke on the part of the mapmakers or evidence someone cracked Google Maps and played a practical joke.
One theory with roots deep in the history of cartography may be the most plausible. Argleton could have been deliberately added as a "trap street." So-called "trap streets" are often inserted by cartographers to catch companies that violate the map's copyright.
A
spokesman for Google told the
Daily Telegraph:
While the vast majority of this information is correct there are occasional errors. We're constantly working to improve the quality and accuracy of the information available in Google Maps and appreciate our users' feedback in helping us do so. People can report an issue to the data provider directly and this will be updated at a later date.
Roy Bayfield has
blogged about his hike to Argleton. He begins by describing the sense of anticipation that overwhelms him as he hikes to an imaginary place:
Mundane as this may seem, I kept my eyes peeled for signs and portents – not knowing what relevance a strange map created from a faded planning notice, a partial alphabet tool in a closed-down garage, some broken fencing in the shape of a rune or a burning web may have in later stages of the journey. It pays to be prepared.
Roy Bayfield
Roy Bayfield's photograph of the spot Google Maps identifies as Argleton
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Eventually, he turns his attention to the details of this spot now known as Argleton:
The time had come to walk in to Argleton itself. A small copse of trees, with a stream and a tumbledown kissing gate, seemed appropriately fairylandish. I paused to photograph the sky, a dim gesture towards Google’s Brother Eye satellites – watching, distorting, from above the bright skies.
