Let's all move to Godney! Somerset hamlet becomes Twitter sensation after mention from Britney Spears

Situated in the Somerset countryside with a population of just 200, it's unlikely the village of Godney has ever created much of a stir in the Twittersphere.

But the tiny hamlet became an internet sensation in just a few hours - after pop fans used it as a nickname for Britney Spears.

Twitter Fans of the 'Baby One More Time' singer used the word as a name for the star - a mixture of 'God' and 'Britney'.

Meanwhile Mark Hey, landlord of the village's Sheppey Inn, tried using the #Godney hashtag to promote his pub, but found his tweets being swallowed up in a sea of Britney messages.

But when the pop megastar tweeted to her 25 million followers about Godney and even namechecked Mr Hey, the stunned landlord was inundated with messages from Britney fans saying they wanted to move to Somerset.

Britney tweeted on Friday morning: "Show some love to Mr Hey and the Sheppey Inn, in the UK since you guys hijacked the name of his town."

Mark, 52, said: "When we first took over the pub, I thought I’d use the power of social media to promote it.

"It made sense to use the hashtag Godney, but everything I wrote just got lost in tweets from Britney fans."

"It was when Britney tweeted about Godney to her 25 million followers that things got a bit silly.

"And of course, the moment they found out that the village existed, that hashtag was full of people OMGing and saying they were going to move to Somerset.

"It was quite funny, but it meant that everything was getting lost in a mire of nuttiness. It makes me laugh. Sometimes we’ve had some quite convoluted conversations about things."