GUIDE 4 USING PLACE NAMES

by Dave Weldrake – (Former) Education and Outreach Co-ordinator

Introduction name studies had developed. For this The names of places can often tell you a lot reason it is always wise to check your about what your locality was like in the past. interpretations with a modern text book. The names people give to places reflect the Some suggestions for reference works are language of the people who lived there or given in the booklist at the end of this named the place and can indicate who lived article. there, the topography of the area, notable features that once existed in the past, The antiquity of place-names supernatural associations or the kind of work It is also important to remember that names carried out there. For all these reasons a change over time and that the modern study of place-names can help the local spelling of a place-name may not have historian or archaeologist come to a deeper been the same in the past. For example, at understanding of their community in the various times in the past the name past. has been spelled Deusberia, Dewysbir and Dawesberg as well as in Beware of folk derivations several different other ways. Dialect or The process is not always straightforward accent may change. An invading people and care should be taken in analysing the may not understand the words they are material. Sometimes what appears to be hearing or might misunderstand the the obvious derivation is incorrect. Take the answers to the questions which they are name , for instance. Many asking. Such misunderstandings give rise to such names as Penhil (North ). people believe that the name is a reference hill to a battle between the Northumbrians and The two elements both mean - one in Penda of Mercia, when the river ‘ran red the ancient British language which was with blood’. In actual fact the name similar to Welsh, and one in . probably means something like ‘stream by Other factors may cause a name to change. the home of Killi’s people’. Killi is a Viking As it develops, a community might personal name (used by J.R.R. Tolkein as subdivide into East and West (as in Ardsley the name of one of the dwarves in The near ). Alternatively, it might grow Hobbit) and the ing element means and swallow up marginal settlements which followers/family of. Such misinterpretations previously had their own names. and misunderstandings are common in folklore and among early antiquarians who For all these reasons it is necessary to try were writing before the science of place- to trace names within your community back to their earliest known date and spelling

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before you can safely begin to make placenames as they are generally indexed assertions about their significance. by place so that you do not need to read the whole volume to find the one or two items of The easiest way to get started information which you are seeking. In this respect the Wakefield Court Rolls are very The easiest way to start your research will useful. The Manor of Wakefield covered not be to look up the name of your settlement in only Wakefield itself but also about 50 the West Riding section of the Key to percent of the rest of . For English Place-names, but this only gives most villages in West Yorkshire (though not information on larger towns and villages. all) the earliest reference will be in For information on smaller settlements and Domesday. A version of this with a facsimile field names it will be necessary to consult a of the text on one page and a modern more detailed account such as Smith’s translation on the other has been edited by Place-names of the West Riding, which was Faull and Stinson. compiled in the 1960s. Smith is by no means exhaustive, and map references are What sort of thing might I find out? not given. This means it can be difficult to By a constant analysis and checking of the interpret the significance of minor features information, it may be possible to work out in the landscape. how your locality developed and changed Using old maps can also tell you a lot about over several centuries. Here are some the place-names of the area in which you possibilities. live. If you can establish a sequence of The early history of your community maps it may show you how names have might be revealed by the place-names. changed over the past few centuries. There Settlements or field names near Roman should be a sequence of maps going roads may contain the element Stræt as in backwards from the present day to the Streethouses or Street. Old English 1850s when the Ordnance Survey made the place-names often have the element ham¯ first complete large-scale survey of . Norse ones have ing and ton after a Yorkshire. Copies of modern maps and personal name. This is discussed more fully some reprints may be available at your local in the place-name evidence section of our stationers or on the internet. Your local web presentation on Britons, Anglo-Saxons studies library or Archives Office may be and Vikings in West Yorkshire. Norman able to help you with others. Some of these landlords often added their name or title to may go back as far as the 16th century. that of a village to emphasise their Documentary sources ownership. This is the case at Purston Jaglin near , at Earlsheaton near Finding the names of places and their Dewsbury and at outside spellings before the widespread use of maps . can present problems. There is a substantial body of medieval wills, inquests post Otherwise unrecorded archaeological mortem and manorial court rolls. These are sites might be indicated by place-name written in Latin and reading them takes a elements: *ecle¯ sia might indicate the good deal of study. Fortunately many have former presence of a pre-Saxon church in been transcribed through the Yorkshire places such as Eccleshill and Exley. Hlaw¯ Records Series and through the Wakefield is the Old English word for mound and Court Rolls Series. Such volumes can be might suggest there was once a burial particularly useful for the student of mound at Lowe Hill in Wakefield. Burh, on

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the other hand, might signify an early Wellington Street, Victoria Road or fortification. This element occurs in names Waterloo. Amenities may be named after like Dewsbury and Burley. local donors, such as Scatchard Park in Morley or the Tolson Museum in The pattern of settlement may be reflected . A large employer may name a in names relating to the field system. These whole district after himself. The most famous would include names such as Northfields or example of this is on the banks of the Flatts. Areas of secondary cultivation the where Titus Salt established may be indicated by such elements as royd, his model village. Smaller manufacturers intake and thwaite, all of which imply the copied this pattern in a smaller way. One clearing and enclosure of previously such gave his name to Ackroyden in Halifax. uncultivated land. A name such as Stubbing would imply the clearance of woodland. Suggested further reading Indications of former land use can be found in such field names as Cinderhills Faull, M.L., and Stinson, M., 1986, and Coal Pit Close which imply early Domesday Book – Yorkshire, Phillimore and mineral extraction. Names such as Limekiln Company, Chichester Hill, Furnace Hill and Smithy Brook may all Field, J., 1993, A History of English Field be indicative of early industry. Woodland Names, Longmans, Harlow too was exploited as is evidenced by the widespread name Springs, which refers, not Gelling, M., 1997, Signposts to the Past, to water, but to coppicing. In this process Phillimore and Company, Chichester trees are cut down to the root stock and Smith, A.H., 196I, Place-names of the allowed to ‘spring’ up again as thin poles to , eight volumes, be used for broom handles or for charcoal. Cambridge University Press Street Names are also a good guide to when they may have been constructed. Some of them may reflect national events or personalities, and thus give an indication of Updated 02/07/2007 date. Many large towns have such names as

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APPENDIX

Some common West Yorkshire place-name elements The following table gives a sample of some of the more common place-name elements in West Yorkshire.

Abbreviations OD = Old Danish OE = Old English (the language of the Anglo-Saxons) ON = ME = (English as it was spoken in the time of Chaucer)

Place-name Source Meaning Examples Element

bekkr ON stream Killingbeck

bo¯th OD temporary shelter Boothroyd

bra¯d OE broad, wide , Bradley

brycg OE bridge Briggate, Milnsbridge

burh OE earthwork, , Burley, fortification Dewsbury,

-by ON village Sowerby,

da¯l OE valley Dalton

denu OE valley Hebden, Ripponden, Shibden, Yeadon

ing ON water meadow Fairburn Ings

ford OE river crossing , Bradford,

gata ON road , Hungate,

hæg OE enclosure

halh OE nook Elmsall, , Gomersal, Halton, , ha¯m OE homestead , Bramham, Collingham, Manningham

haugr ON (burial) mound, hill Carlinghow (), (Leeds) [4]

hla¯w OE hill, (burial) mound Lowe Hill (Wakefield)

heah OE high Healy, Heaton

hop OE enclosure Eccup, Widdop

Place-name Element Source Meaning Examples

-ing OE belonging to family of Addingham, , Illingworth, Manningham

le¯ah OE clearing in wood , Batley, Bramley, , Healey, Morley, Shelley, Stanley rod OE clearing Boothroyd, , Royds (Rothwell) sta¯n OE stone , , stræt OE paved way (by Streethouses, Ossett implication a Roman Street, Street road) toun ME town (in the sense of Chapeltown, Fartown, town centre) Hightown, Robert Town tu¯ n OE farmstead, village Beeston, Bretton, Carlton, Clayton, Clifton, Colton, Deighton, , Fryston, , Halton, Ledston, Notton, Royston, , Upton, Walton thorp ON outlying village , Gawthorpe, Kettlethorpe, Priesthorpe

thveit ON clearing Linthwaite,

wı¯c OE house, sometimes East Keswick, also a dairy farm ,

Suggested further reading Gelling, M., 1997, Signposts to the Past, Phillimore and Company, Chichester Smith, A.H., 196I, Place-names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, eight volumes, Cambridge University Press.

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