They should've gone to Specsavers...
Supermarket giant Iceland has poked fun at a Middlesbrough spelling slip on the front of its own town centre store.
Eagle-eyed shoppers spotted the ‘Middlesborough’ blunder - a common misspelling of the town’s name - on a new sign at the Cleveland Centre store this week.
The gaffe has sparked a sea of comments online, with some joking the culprit should be punished with “20 years in prison” and others joking it was “designed by a southerner”.
The error even made Tuesday's episode of Loose Women - but Iceland has frozen out the criticism and is instead taking the misprint in its stride.
On Instagram, Iceland posted a photo of a team member shaking hands with a colleague from the local Specsavers branch with the caption: “Always great to meet fellow local businesses…”
The official Specsavers account quipped back, saying: “Lovely to come and see you today. For no reason at all…”
It’s not the first time Middlesbrough has been spelt incorrectly to the masses, with high-profile errors including on Wembley Stadium tickets for Middlesbrough FC’s play-off final in 2015.
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The reason behind the common misspelling could be down to other nearby locations that have an additional 'o', such as Knaresborough, Guisborough and Scarborough.
Both variations are said to originate from the Anglo-Saxon word burh, a fortified settlement.
It has even previously been said that 'Middlesborough' was once the correct spelling and changed to how it is known today because a “semi-literate, careless clerk misspelt the town’s name when it received its charter in 1853”.
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