I WAS in a pub the other night where a loud conversation was being conducted at the bar that seemed to invite contributions.

I should have known better.

The statement that prompted my two pennyworth was that hoary old chestnut: Huddersfield is the largest town in the country.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But it isn’t.”

Acrimonious words followed.

“Go on, then. If Huddersfield isn’t the biggest town, which is?”

“I don’t know.”

“You can’t just say Huddersfield isn’t and not know which is?”

This logic floored me for a second. I mean, I know that the moon is not 25 miles away and made of cheese, but I don’t know what the exact distance is or the components of its invariant mass.

I realised I was on a loser and held up my hands in surrender.

Who was I to refute a myth that has persisted for decades?

So I went on to Google and confirmed that, according to the 2001 Census, Huddersfield is the 10th largest town in the UK with a total resident population of 146,234.

Top of the list is Reading with 232,000, followed by Dudley, Northampton, Luton, Milton Keynes, Walsall, Bournemouth, Southend, Swindon and Huddersfield. The 2011 census results will not be released until September this year.

The moon, by the way, is 238,857 miles away and is made of rock with a covering of soil known as regolith made from fragmented rock and dust.

But the next time someone tells me it’s just the other side of Barnsley, I shall not quibble and ask them to bring me back half a pound of cheddar.