86 PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 
plant was much used for the purpose of wattling fences. In 
Crompton’s account of the Forest Laws, 1594, he says, “ no 
man may cut down heath, whynes, or digge turves within the 
forest, without good warrant.” The modern name is preserved 
in GorsEy, and GorsLeEy.* 
BRACKENFIELD, BRUSHFIELD, and BRramBLey, tell of the 
undergrowth of the forests; and FERNILEE, FERNFORD, and 
FERNHO allude to the ferns which were annually cut down 
and stacked by the Anglo-Saxons to serve as bedding for 
their cattle’ The names of REDDALE, REDSEATs, and REDLEY 
(T.C. Hartington), have no allusion to colour, as might 
naturally be supposed, but are derived from /reod, a reed. 
Risc, a rush, forms the suffix of two Derbyshire place- 
names, RusHap, and RusuHLey, and also of a multitude of 
field-names. Owing to the lack of draining, rushes formerly 
grew most luxuriantly throughout the whole of England. 
Rushes were of the highest value to our ancestors, for 
they not only formed a substitute for carpets, but were 
frequently the sole protection from the damp earth in cottage, 
hall, and church. The rushes for the use of the church 
appear to have been only supplied fresh once a year. The 
day chosen was usually that of the festival of the patron saint 
to whom the church was dedicated. ‘This ceremony was made 
the occasion of a general holiday, and bundles of rushes were 
carried in procession with much pomp ‘The custom has only 
died out within the last fifty years in many parts of England. 
Mr. Rhodes, in his Peak Scenery, has an interesting account 
of this ceremonial as enacted at Glossop. It lingered also 
for some time at Chapel-en-le-Frith, and in other parishes of 
the mountainous region of the High Peak. At Whitwell, 
instead of rushes, the hay of a piece of grass-land, called the 
Church close, was, even in the present century, spread in 
the church on Midsummer eve. Grasmere in the Lake district 
is said to be the only place where the practice still exists. The 
* For the derivation of Winfield Manor see introduction, and for Gorse 
Stone (Stanton Moor), see chapter on Celtic Names. 
