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descendants of Wadda, the great chief. Whenever ing follows a 

 name, and is followed by another syllable or more, it means the 

 descendants of, the children of — ton of course means a town, a 

 group of houses. Gambleside is Gamelside, Gamel is a Danish 

 name ; Hamble is the same as Gamel, so that Hambleton is the 

 town of Gamel. Ormrcd is the royd, or clearing of Orme. Thurs- 

 den is Thors Valley named after the god Thor worshipped by the 

 pagans; it was with Thor's hammer that the backbone of the victims 

 was broken when human sacrifices were offered in these wild valleys. 

 All these names are Danish, and show the north men settled here. 

 Heasand Ford, foolishly called Pheasant Ford on the ordnance 

 maps, is simply the high sand ford ; high is pronounced hey in 

 this district. In old manuscripts it is written Heysandforthe. 

 There is Sandholme immediately below it. Now, the the Holme 

 means a place, or land liable to be surrounded by water, a sort 

 of marshy place. The name is very expressive, it was a holme 

 where the river had deposited sand and formed an occasional 

 channel round it. There was a ford at Sand Holme Bridge called 

 Lower Sandford. Bishop's Leap, near Heasand Ford, has 

 nothing to do with a bishop's hunting and leaping down pre- 

 cipices, but is simply a weir, or leap, or lope, for fishes, to enable 

 them to surmount some obstacle and get up stream. Fish came 

 through Burnley and went up the Brun in those days in flood 

 time. There is no necessity for a leap now. There was or is an 

 old mill at Heasandford and this leap or lope had something to 

 do with the water being turned into a dam or reservoir. 

 Healey Hall, Laith, Heights, Healey Wood. Healey means the 

 high field, the first syllable hea is just the same as in Heasand, 

 and means high ; ley means a field. The Hall was formerly the 

 seat of a family named Heley, in 1295. In the Ightenhill com- 

 potus there is received a fine of 6s. 8d. for the goods of Adam De 

 Heley, coming to the earl ; that is Adam de Heley died, and what 

 is called the heriot was probably compounded for 6s. 8d. In 

 other documents the name is spelt Helay, Heyleghe, this gives 

 the derivation of the name Highfields. We, in our day, say 

 Healey Heights. The word heights here is superfluous, for it 

 makes the word Highfield Heights. Strange to say, on the lands 

 of Healey there is a Highfield Terrace, which is exactly the same 

 as Healey Terrace. I mentioned the word heriot. 



The Feudal Heriot, 



was the giving of the best beast to the Lord of the Manor when 

 a farmer died. The priest, as well as the lord, in time came to 

 claim a heriot for the Church. The priest's heriot was the next 

 best cow after that given to the Lord of the Manor. The bishops 

 took it out of the priests, for when a priest died his best horse or 

 "mare, bridle, saddle and spurs, his best gown or cloak, hat, 



