OLD ENGLISH VILLAGE LIFE. 1 55 



extreme ends of a loop in the Trent, two miles apart by road, 

 four miles apart by river, the one Barrow or Barewe, according 

 to the oldest extant document, the other Twyford. Further 

 afield, away from the river and adjoining the moor, is a cluster 

 of houses known as Arleston and Merrybower, and in a line 

 with these half a mile further west, skirting the canal, is the 

 hamlet of Stenson. Away to the north, remote from river, 

 road, railway, and canal, the four great intersecting lines, are 

 a. few farmsteads and cottages on the wide moorland of Sinfin. 

 Barrow, Twyford, Arleston, Stenson, Sinfin, what do these 

 names import ? Three of these are topographical. Barrow 

 refers back to the " barrow " or " mound " under which some 

 chieftain lies buried ; Twyford represents the " two fords " across 

 the river at a given point ; and Sinfin speaks of the " fen," 

 possibly the swine fen, undrained, marshy land with coarse 

 herbage and scattered clumps of trees, where herds of swine 

 might roam at large and batten. In support of this conjecture 

 is the wording " Swinfin," which appears a few times in the 

 Parish Register, and as late as October, 1 740. The two remain- 

 ing names, Arleston and Stenson, Steinston or Stinston, are 

 Anglo-Saxon in origin, as the names of neighbouring villages 

 plainly testify. " Tuns " or " townships " are thickly scattered 

 around us, pointing to a very definite and permanent settlement 

 of these invaders. Osmaston, Chellaston, Swarkestone, 

 Alvaston, Elvaston, and our own Arleston contain the names of 

 individual chieftains, who settled down with their followers 

 after the stress of conquest, to the quieter pursuits of agricul- 

 ture. Weston and Aston are topographical, referring to their 

 position to the west and east, and Stanton and Stenson or Stein- 

 ston geological from the stony nature of their subsoil. As 

 far, then, as our parishes are concerned, we find ourselves, 

 through the evidence of place names, far back in the midst of 

 possibly four Anglo-Saxon communities, if we reckon Twyford 

 with Stenson, each recognizing the lordship or pre-eminence 

 of a chieftain, each representing an industrial group perse- 

 veringly pushing afield against natural obstacles, and bringing 

 the unreclaimed land beneath the yoke. 



