Axholme: Place-Names in the Marsh A ten-minute talk for the British Association for Local History Kathryn Bullen, PhD Researcher, The University of Nottingham 23 October 2020 Key: ME = Middle English, ModE = Modern English, OE = Old English, ON = Old Norse Slide 1 - A Journey into bog and moor Welcome to this presentation on Axholme: Place-Names in the Marsh. Today I’m going to take you on journey into the bogs and moors of the Isle of Axholme, a little-known part of northern Lincolnshire lying west of the River Trent, which is my current area of research. For the purposes of this visit we will take this iron paddle steamer which is named ‘Isle of Axholme’; built in 1860 for the Gainsborough to Hull trade along the River Trent. Walter White in his journey through eastern England in 1865 mentions his trip on the paddle steamer, describing the islanders at the beginning of the 19th century rather unsympathetically as: ‘rude and boorish, retaining the characteristics of the ancient fen-dwellers. Their bread was made of coarse flour and ground horse-beans. And such was the difficulty of travelling across the lowlands that numbers of the people never left home between the times of the October mart and the Easter mart at Gainsborough.’ (White 1865, 33) Slide 2 - Isle of Axholme – background The Isle of Axholme is the only part of Lincolnshire west of the River Trent. Originally bounded by the River Don in the north, River Torne in the west, River Trent in the east and River Idle in the south, Axholme measures about 16 miles from north to south by just 6 miles east to west, with a land area of about 38,000 acres. Axholme is defined as ‘the island by Haxey’, from Old Norse holmr ‘island, water-meadow’ and became known as an island because of the surrounding network of these interconnected waterways. Slide 3 - 1626 map from the ‘Manuscript in a Red Box’ The outline of the Isle of Axholme is shown on this 1626 map from the Manuscript in the Red Box, a book about life on the Isle in the early 1600s. The map shows the former watercourses prior to substantial alterations to the landscape which occurred due to drainage and land reclamation in the late 1620s, led by the Dutch drainage engineer Vermuyden, changing from a predominantly marshy area liable to flooding into productive agricultural land. Consequently, contemporary place-names may not now reflect their original meanings at the time of place-name coinage, but meanings may well become more relevant in the future following likely environmental changes. Slide 4 - 1838 map from Stonehouse’s History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme In this 1838 map created for Stonehouse’s History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme the 8 parishes are indicated in colour; the main settlements tend to be situated on higher and drier grounds in what would have been predominantly marshland: • Haxey, Wroot, Epworth to the south; • Owston, Althorpe, Luddington situated alongside the River Trent; and • Crowle and Belton to the north. The major sixteenth century drainage works changed the courses of some of the rivers. However, the drainage work was imperfect and left previously navigable land sometimes almost impassable, as water stood for miles at ankle length, leading to subsequent remedial work over many years, with varying results (Cory 1985, 82-88). Following disastrous severe summer floods in 1828, steam- powered pumps began to be installed, the earliest on the Isle being in 1837 at West Butterwick (Cory 1985, 90); these pumps helped to provide a more reliable method of keeping the Isle dry. Slide 5 - Modern Digimap Looking at a modern map, it becomes quite challenging to make out the shape of the Isle of Axholme and you might be forgiven for thinking that the concept of an island is long forgotten. However, residents still have a relationship with their island environment, which is known locally as 'The Isle’ and there is a strong sense of independence from the rest of Lincolnshire. This legacy probably dates back to the rights of hunting and farming given to islanders by the landowner, John de Mowbray in a deed of 1359. Islanders were allowed to take turves and wood for fuel and building repairs, sods and clay to manure their arable lands, hay in season, and fish and fowl, as well as rights to use common areas for the retting of flax and hemp. Following Vermuyden’s drainage works there were lengthy compensation claims against the crown for the loss of some of these rights of common, which were in part successful. Slide 6 - Evidence of watery landscape I will now share some of the evidence I have found for this former watery landscape from the names I have collected so far, giving the element, its meaning and an example from Axholme. The most obvious of these watery names is, of course, demonstrated by the ON element ey ‘island’ at Haxey. However, it is from the field-names that we find the greatest evidence of boggy names. For example: ME flasshe ‘swamp’ - Flash Close (Althorpe) ON kjarr 'brushwood, marsh‘ - Thatch Carr Bank (Wroot) The picture taken at Crowle Moor gives some idea of what the landscape might have looked like. A carr denotes low, unenclosed land, subject to flood, sometimes bare, at other times overgrown with willows and alders. At the time of Leland’s tour of England in the early fourteenth century, the watery landscape of Axholme left a distinct impression on him, ‘the soyle by the water is fenny, and morishe, and ful of carres’ but he did qualify this statement with the fact that the land ‘is fertile of pasture and corne’ (Leland 1535-1543, 38). Slide 7 - Plants in the watery landscape - hemp and flax Mowbray’s 1359 deed gave local people the right to use common areas for the retting of flax and hemp, so there is a history of flax/hemp growing on the Isle. Retting involves soaking in water for about 3 weeks to separate the fibres from the bark before spinning and making into linen, and evidence of retting (or ‘line’) pits has been found in Axholme. Related to this, there are a number of field-names which include the elements for hemp and flax, for example: OE hænep ‘hemp’ – Hempland (occurs in many parishes), OE lin ‘flax’- Lincroft (Althorpe). The picture on the left shows flax ready to be spun and then woven into sacking. The process starts with breaking up the inner woody stalk into smaller pieces so that it is separated from the flax. The flax is then hackled to prepare it for spinning by pulling it through various different sized hackles, or spaced nails. The result looks very much like flaxen hair. Slide 8 - Landscape Management The landscape of man-made waterways created to manage the landscape is reflected in numerous uses of topographical labels such as: OE dīc ‘ditch’ - Common Dyke (Wroot) ME drein ‘drain’ - Engine Drain (Haxey) ME seuer ‘trench or ditch used for drainage’ - Snow Sewer (Haxey/Owston) We know that some of these man-made waterway names existed prior to seventeenth century drainage - for example, Snow Sewer is shown on an Elizabethan pre drainage map (1596), and another example of the dyke name at Mere Dyke near Luddington is mentioned in thirteenth century records from Selby Abbey, the local landowner in the area at that time. Slide 9 - Turbaries There is also evidence of a number of peat workings on the Isle in the turbaries at Epworth and Haxey, from ME turbarie ‘a place where peat is dug’. Peatlands were often termed as ‘waste’ in surveyors’ reports, but actually provided fuel and building material for local people; the right to dig peat was one of the rights given to the people of Axholme in Mowbray’s 1359 deed. Crowle Peatland Railway preserves the history and heritage of peat extraction for use as animal bedding, litter and fertiliser from the nineteenth century to the 1960s. Slide 10 - Past and future challenges? So how does what we know about the past help manage future challenges? My research supports the Environment Agency strategy for Axholme, focusing on sustainability and making space for water. Currently the Environment Agency manages a complex network of drains and pumping stations which help to artificially drain the Isle of Axholme; there are over 60 pumping stations at present, many of which are approaching the end of their natural life. The pictures are of South Field Pumping Station, West Butterwick, on the left, and the now disused old steam engines at Owston Ferry Pumping Station, on the right. The steam engines at Owston date from 1910. Each one weighs 20 tons, is 6 feet in diameter and 20 feet long. To provide steam would require three and a half tons of coal and a couple of days’ notice! Slide 11 - A more watery landscape in the future…? I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey today. During our journey we have explored the background to my PhD project, I have demonstrated some of the evidence of Axholme’s watery past from place- names, and finally I asked how what we know of the past can help manage future environmental challenges. When collected, arranged, etymologised and analysed in their context, place-name evidence supports the historical understanding of past watery landscape and how this landscape may change back in the future. This map shows predicted government flood warning information - and a return of a more recognizable island! In order to reduce the risk of flooding to around 28,000 properties, critical infrastructure and over 30,000 hectares of high-grade agricultural land, the 2011 Environment Agency ‘Isle of Axholme Flood Risk Management Strategy’ identified that a capital investment of £204 million into the ageing assets would be needed to continue suitable protection and ensure the long-term economic prosperity of the area.