He said: “The interest has surprised me. I just spent an afternoon walking around taking pictures and messing around on a blog that I thought would interest three or four of my friends.

“But now it’s been twittered all over the world and people in different languages are coming up with all sorts of reasons why Argleton is there.”

But a silly story, in the internet age, has a serious side.

Roy said: “This in itself isn’t a big deal. But you’ve got to worry for those people relying on geographical data, for marketing purposes, for instance, what mistakes like this mean.

“Those who want to journey to fabled Argleton should be warned that, like fabled Atlantis before it, it is soon to be wiped from the face of the Earth.”

A Google spokesperson said: “Google Maps data comes from third party data sources. While the vast majority of this information is correct, there are occasional errors. People can report an issue to the data provider directly and this will be updated at a later date. 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.”