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Leeds Studies in English Article: John Field, 'Crops for Man and Beast', Leeds Studies in English, n.s. 18 (1987), 157-71 Permanent URL: https://ludos.leeds.ac.uk:443/R/-?func=dbin-jump- full&object_id=123685&silo_library=GEN01 Leeds Studies in English School of English University of Leeds http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lse CROPS FOR MAN AND BEAST JOHN FIELD On 22 May 1959, there appeared in The Times Literary Supplement a review commending a new three-volume addition to the Survey of English Place-Names. The final paragraph began: In conclusion, it should be noted that the work of explaining minor and field names seems to have been carried a good deal further than in some previous volumes of the Place-Name Society; and if many such names still remain without any account of their origin, that was no doubt inevitable unless publi cation was to be unduly delayed; and after all it is in some ways rather a virtue than a fault that a book which makes so valuable a contribution to knowledge as this does should also provide a stimulus to further enquiry. The work being reviewed, Kenneth Cameron's The Place-Names of Derbyshire, undoubtedly offered students of field-names an abun dance of material on which to draw, as well as a perception of details overlooked in the Society's pre-War volumes. The Cumberland survey had been the first to incorporate field-names in the relevant parish sections of the volumes, and this practice was followed (with a much more generous selection of examples) in Dr Gelling's The Place-Names of Oxfordshire.3 Professor Cameron's survey provided a separate glossary of elements occurring in field names, as well as the customary discussion of selected terms found in names of recent origin. These features had been found in some earlier surveys but were here developed to the extent made possible by a larger number of field-names. On the frequent specifier, Big, for example, there had been no particular comment in previous volumes. Cameron's observation on this term may or may not have been among those thought by the reviewer to be likely to "provide a stimulus to further enquiry": "In some instances it is descriptive of the size of the land, but more often it would appear to be from bygg 'barley'" (PN Db 756)."* As this term is of Old Norse origin, it might be thought to be limited to an area of Scandinavian settlement. It is not really significant, however, that there should be no convincing instances of the element in the published field-name lists in the Hundreds of Scarsdale and of Repton & Gresley, noted as being those offering most place-name evidence for such settlement. The term passed into John Field the English dialects of the Midlands and the North, with a special (if not precise) sense, to be discussed later. The more usual term, barley, is found frequently in these and other hundreds of Derbyshire. In addition to four or five examples of Barley Croft and two of Barley Field, the element is combined with Close in Ault Hucknall, with Storth in Pinxton (on record from 1699), and with Bottoms and Close in Netherseal. Another possible example is Berley Butts (sic, in Hasland). Big Hook, in Morton, and Big Field and Meadow, in Walton upon Trent, receive no supporting evidence from early forms to sustain a derivation from bygg. It may be observed that there is a Big Close and a Brewery Close (but no Barley Close) in Derby, and a Big Croft and Malt House Croft (but no Barley Croft) in Dalbury Lees. It cannot be argued merely from this (partly negative) evidence that Big in these places has any other than a quantitative sense. Instances of the cereal allusion can be found, however, in other counties. Yorkshire (West Riding) examples include Bigg Croft (Stirton), Bigcrofte (Horton in Ribblesdale 1534), and the Bigg Croke, among the sixteenth-century fields of Settle. Among the Tithe-Apportionment names of Bentham is Bigbergh, traceable to Bigbergh or Bygbergh in deeds of 1235-55 and somewhat later. In Westmorland there are, among recent names, Biglands (Patton), Bigg lands (Meathop) and Bigham (Barbon); and from fourteenth-century documents, Bigcroft (Helsington Chapelry). Bygg- hus, the ON equivalent of OE bere-&rn, "barley house, barn", occurs in Bighusdal c.1294 (Lowther), alongside Berslak a.1286, which appears to be a derivative of OE bere. The generic, from ON slakki "hollow", is found with other cereal-names in this township: Haverslac 1200-1300, from ON hafri "oats", and Waytslak C.1300, "wheat hollow". Barley Croft has the distinction of an OED citation, in the form Bsrlice croft 996. Most English field-names alluding to this crop have as their first element either Barley (OE b&rllc) or one of the spellings of Bear (OE bere), from which it appears to be formed. Agriculturally, these three terms, bigg, bear, and barley, are not now taken to be synonymous, though the distinction between the first two is not always precisely observed. Bigg refers to Hordeum hexastichon, with six rows of spikelets. Though of inferior quality, it grows quickly, and so is more suited to northern areas. Barley, Hordeum distichon, has only two rows. Bear is Hordeum tetrastichon, the name describing its structure and implying also the general regional intermediacy of its occurrence between the others. Sir Walter Scott's dismissive reference to Reuben Butler's not knowing "bear from barley" {The Heart of Midlothian, chap, ix) appears more serious when the failure in visual discrimination is realised. Medieval forms containing bsrlic are not common, one instance being Barlichforlange 13c, in Pitchcombe Gl. Midland and southern examples of field-names derived from bere are numerous, though sometimes disguised in their modern forms. An early instance is Berefurlong 1367, in Tredington Gl. One of the more frequent and transparent examples is Bear Croft, found in Hinstock and in Middleton Scriven Sa, in Fifehead Neville Do, in Gotherington Gl, 158 Crops and in Church Minshull Ch. Berecroft occurs in Foulk Stapleford Ch, in a document dated 1202-29, and in Hurdsfield from the late 13th century, as do Le Berecroftes in Poynton and le Berecroft in Little Budworth, in the same county. Combined with -hill, this element sometimes produces Beryl or Berrill forms. Berryl Close, in Hatton Db may be compared with Bear Hill 1696. There is an even earlier antecedent of Berril Hedge, in Tysoe Wa: Berihul 1284. Other instances are Berrel, in Woodford Halse; Beryl, in Maidford (both Northants) ,- Berril, in Ledbury North Sa; and Berrill, in Burton Overy Lei. The cereal, rye, is alluded to even in a number of major place-names, e.g., Ryhall, Raydon, Rayleigh, and the frequent Roydon. In field-names the element (OE ryge) offers little variation in its appearance. Forms with Ru (y) are not uncommon, e.g., in Gloucestershire, Rulinge 1284 "rye ridge" (Winchcomb), Rufurlange 12c (Alderton) , Rufurlong c.1250 (Swindon), and Ruyforlonge 1286 (Standish). There may sometimes be a possibility of confusion with derivatives of ME atter e or atter ie. Percy Reaney interpreted Rye Field, in Kelvedon Ess (Reyfeld 1318) as "at the island or low-lying land" (OE (st b&re) eg) , and Hugh Smith gives Rye and Crooked Rye, field-names in Leonard Stanley Gl, as "at the stream", with elements atter and ea. Combination with certain generics, e.g., halh "nook", hyll "hill", and leah "wood, glade, clearing" produces such forms as Royal, Ryall, and Ryle, found in various counties, as well as Ryley or Riley, which may be confused with the surname. In Place-Names of Derbyshire, Kenneth Cameron interprets Royle 1535, in Stapenhill, as "perhaps rye clearing", with leah as the second element. George Foxall has recorded the Shropshire examples Royals, in Bedstone and in Rushbury; Royal Bank, in Wrockwardine; and The Riley, in Burford and in Prees. Commenting on Ryecroft as the name of several small localities in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Smith remarks (PNYW 3.31) that this is "a very common field-name", examples of which he records in Long Drax, Great Preston, Hirst Courtney, Wakefield, and a number of other places, as well as compounds with other generics, e.g., Rye Roods (Birkin). Rye Croft is found in other counties at Baddesley Ensor and at Coleshill in Warwickshire; and at Idridgehay, at Clifton and Compton, and at Hognaston, in Derbyshire. John Dodgson records a number of instances among modern names in Cheshire, as well as Ruecroft 1262 (Somerford Booths), Ruycroft 1309-12 (Lower Bebington), and Ruykroft early 14c (Odd Rode). The Tithe Award name Rye Croft in Frodsham Lordship has earlier forms Rucrof 1317, Ruycroft c.1320, 1348, Ricroft(e) 1331, 1362, and Rycroft 1338, 1394. Dodgson also draws attention to ryeland, cited as a common noun in OED and meaning "land, usually of a light and inferior quality, suitable for growing rye". Barbara Kerr9 offers parallel evidence. In Dorset, she observes, "Rye was less frequently sown than white corn crops, yet it appears more often in field names, particularly as Ryelands (North Poorton) and Rye Croft (Whitchurch Canonicorum)" (p.140). It is so used in an entry in a Cheshire charter of 1481, "a parcel of land called a Ryland" (in Aston by 159 John Field Sutton), and Dodgson accepts this term as an independent element, found in Reylonds Hey (Greasby), Rylands Fields (Little Neston), and Ryelands Meadow (Little Sutton). The termination -lance also occurs, for -lands as with other first elements, a Cheshire example of this being Roylance, in Toft. In Warwickshire, Rhine Hill occurs as a minor name in Long Itchington and in Hampton Lucy, earlier forms being Ruynhull 12c for the former and Rynehyll 1536 for the latter.

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