h 



99 



cation, and teaching this lesson, that when the modern English 

 came to live at Hurstwood they did not know that Hurst meant 

 wood, and that which was a wood in old Danish and Saxon times 

 was still a wood when the modern English came to live there. I 

 am told on good authority, that at Church Kirk, near Accrington, 

 reduplication of words having the same meaning is still going on, 

 and in a very likely and simple way. Evidently the old name of 

 the place was Church (there were churches in this part of the 

 County in the 8th century) because there was a church there 

 then came a people who called a church a kirk, both words mean 

 and are, the same, only church is pronounced soft, and kirk hard, 

 the ch-k and k-ch, so that the place became Church, Church, and 

 now, I understand, it is quite common for people who are 

 going to the church there, to say, " I am going to Church Kirk, 

 Church" which is quite equal to Pendle Hill, but one would 

 think the tautology far easier of detection. 



BUBNLEY 



is an old name, it means a field through which the Burn or 

 Brook flows. In the will of Eichard Towneley, Esq., eldest son 

 and successor of Sir John Towneley, born in the year 1499, he 

 describes himself as Rd. Towneley of Brinley, Esqre, other docu- 

 ments call it Brunley, Burn, in the dialect of the district is 

 changed to Brun, just as burnt with fire, is altered to brunt, and 

 as is in some districts of Lancashire a bird is called a brid, we 

 have the same change in " bran new " knife, or clothes, or any- 

 thing that is quite new, bran new was originally said of iron 

 fresh from the fire, that is, newly burnt or brant. The same 

 Burn or brook, is rather more vulgarly made into Brown, as 

 Brown hill, the hill above the Brun, Brown side. Brown street, 

 meaning side or street near the Brun. We have Brunshaw, 

 which I consider has a different meaning, Shaw from which we 

 get our word shade is Danish, meaning a little wood or grove. 

 Members of the Club will know that the late Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, 

 of Burnley, was convinced that the great Danish and Saxon 



Battle op Brunanbueg 

 was fought at Saxifield to the east of Burnley ; now the land at 

 Brunshaw does not slope or shed its water into the Brun, but 

 into the Calder, I make the meaning of this word Brunshaw, to 

 be the shaw or wood where the battle fiercely raged — we yet say 

 the brunt of the battle, therefore Brunshaw is where the battle 

 hotly raged, or where the brunt was. One strong objection to 

 Mr. Wilkinson's theory of the locality of the great battle was, 

 that Saxifield was only a small place, and therefore could not 

 have been the site of a great engagement where three kings were 

 slain. There formerly existed in Burnley Lane, a tenement 



