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Saturday , September 19 2026

‘Tripadvisor, Wikipedia and GWR need to drop our erroneous hyphens’

A town which has had its name spelt wrong for more than a century is finally getting a correction thanks to Google agreeing to remove “erroneous” hyphens.

Dubbed the “great dash debate”, people in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, say inaccurate dashes started to appear after Great Western Railway (GWR) added the punctuation to the Wiltshire town’s railway sign in 1899.

Now the town council and local businesses have launched a campaign to claim back their name and are calling on Tripadvisor, Wikipedia and GWR to also support them.

Tom Vaughton, founder and CEO of Varn Search Marketing, began the campaign after spotting there were 5,800 “erroneous hyphens” appearing online.

Councillor Sam Blackwell, mayor of the town, said: “[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.”

When contacted by the BBC with details of the hyphen campaign, Google promised to take action within 48 hours.


BBC News

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