152 



DISCOVERY 



Place-Name Study 



By Allen Mawer, M.A. 



Prolessor of English In Armstrong College, Newcasllc-on-Tyne 



Among recent developments in English linguistic 

 studies, none is more marked or likely to be more fertile 

 in results than that which has taken place in the study 

 of our place-names and, incidentally, of our personal 

 names. 



Interest in the meaning of the names of those places 

 with which we are in daily contact is innate in most 

 of us, and, from the earliest times, attempts have been 

 made to interpret them. Sometimes, as in the modem 

 Bear Park (co. Durham) for earlier Berper (from O.Fr. 

 heaurepeir, " beautiful retreat "), we have simply a 

 case of folk-etymology; but in others more alluring 

 methods of interpretation, by means of some picturesque 

 legend, have been adopted. Thus Dukesfield (near 

 Hexham) is commonly explained as the field where the 

 Duke of Somerset was captured and executed after the 

 Battle of Hexham in 1464, regardless of the fact that 

 it is found as Dtikeslcld in 1296; or Brancepelh, com- 

 monly written and pronounced Brawnspeth in the 

 eighteenth century, is made the final stage of a great 

 hunting of a brawn or boar, which began at Ferryhill 

 and ended here, though Brawnspeth is the perfectly 

 natural development of a twelfth-century Brandes-peth, 

 i.e. Brand's path. 



It was not until the beginning of the present century 

 that deliverance from these fascinating but unscientific 

 methods of explanation first came. In 1901 the late 

 Professor Skeat wrote a little volume on the Place- 

 Names of Cambridgeshire. In it he laid down for the 

 first time, in England at least, what must be the guiding 

 principles of all place-names study, viz. (i) that place- 

 names can only be interpreted in the light of earlier 

 forms; (2) that the interpretation of these forms can 

 only be undertaken satisfactorily by the skilled philo- 

 logist. Thus Cambridge itself is not the " bridge over 

 the Cam," but the " bridge over the Granta." The 

 earliest form is Grante-brycg, and this by a succession 

 of well-estabhshcd sound-changes became Cantebrugge, 

 Canbrigge, Cambrugge, Caumbrege, Cambryge, until at 

 last people began to say to themselves, " Surely there 

 must be some mistake, Cambridge must be named from 

 the river on which it stands ; the proper name of the 

 river is clearly not Granta at all, but Cam"; and so 

 in the end Granlbridge became Cambridge and Granta 

 became Cam. 



The next great advance came when in 191 1 Professor 

 Wyld, working in collaboration with Dr. Hirst, brought 

 out his Place-Names 0/ Lancashire. He developed the 

 principles laid down by Skeat, and put even more stress 

 on the necessity of the work of the trained phonologist 



in interpreting the forms in use from the earliest found 

 in MS. records down to the latest heard locally from 

 the lips of present-day Lancashire people. A good 

 example of his methods of work is seen in his treatment 

 of the name Liverpool. Here we have the crux of four 

 well-established forms of the name existing side by side 

 in the sixteenth century, viz. Liverpool, Leverpool, 

 Lilherpole, Lerpoolc. Wyld shows how the first two 

 and the last are perfectly regular phonological develof)- 

 mcnts of an early Leofhere's pool, while the third is 

 only another example of false analogy. No reasonable 

 interpretation could be offered of Liver-pool ; there is a 

 Lither-land a few miles down the river, which in the 

 si.xteenth century would readily be interpreted as 

 " foul-land," so why not imagine that Liver-pool was 

 a mere blunder for the lilher or dirty pool, and correct 

 it accordingly ? 



Almost at the same time that Wyld's work appeared, 

 the late Dr. Moorman brought out his study of the 

 Place-Names of the West Riding. Here new ground is 

 opened up in the attempt made in its " Historical 

 Introduction " to deal with some of the larger problems 

 which lie at the back of our place-nomenclature, prob- 

 lems of race, settlement, civilisation, etc. Any such 

 attempt was probably premature, for these problems 

 can only be dealt with satisfactorily when the evidence 

 for the whole of England has been collected and sifted, 

 but it is important that this side of the question should 

 be kept alive. Another suggestive book on these lines 

 is the essay on the Place-Names of Berkshire by 

 Professor Stenton, of Reading. It is well worthy of 

 study as a moderate and well-balanced statement of 

 all that the development of place-name study may 

 mean for the student of history. Hengest may or may 

 not have been a real person, but it is well to note how 

 popular this hero must have been when his name, 

 otherwise unknown in historical times, is found, as 

 Stenton points out, as the first element in Hinksey in 

 Berkshire, Hinxston in Cambridgeshire, Endscot in 

 Devon, Hinxworth in Hertfordshire, Hinksford in 

 Staffordshire ; and, we might add, Hingeston Down 

 in Cornwall, and Hinxhill in Kent. 



Of the other writers who have dealt with the place- 

 names of any particular county, and have at the same 

 time suggested new lines of investigation, we may 

 mention three. Baddeley, in his Place-Names of 

 Gloucestershire, includes a good many notes of interest 

 on Middle English names which have now disappeared 

 from the map. Ekblom, in his Place-Names of Will- 

 shire, is one of the few scholars who make any serious 

 attempt to deal with the many problems that arise 

 from a study of Anglo-Saxon Charters. Good;ill, in 

 his Place-Names of South-West Yorkshire, makes a bold 

 attempt to deal exhaustively with the names found in 

 a certain limited area. 



