Why does Britain have such bizarre place names
canada goose clearance sale The drive from the town of Much Wenlock to Ashby de la Zouch is 60 miles east across the English Midlands. Once you have crossed the River Severn and passed the Wrekin rising to the left the last of the Shropshire Hills you join the M54 at the Wrekin Retail Park. At Featherstone, you have a choice: north and then east past Lichfield and Tamworth, or southeast past Walsall, Wednesbury and Birmingham, south of Sutton Coldfield, and northeast to cross canada goose outlet new york the River Tame. Either way, once you past Appleby Magna and crossing the River Mease, you almost there. Be sure not to make canada goose outlet kokemuksia a wrong turn and end up in Donisthorpe, Newton Burgoland or Snarestone. canada goose clearance sale
canada goose deals And just like that, in an hour canada goose coats uk and a quarter, you will have covered the great sweep of British history: from the Celts through the Romans, Anglo Saxons, canada goose outlet hong kong Scandinavians, and Normans to modern times all as displayed in Britain place names. (You can check out our map, not meant to be exhaustive, of some of Britain’s stranger names at the bottom of this page). canada goose deals
canada goose store British history didn start with the Celtic peoples (Stonehenge didn build itself, after all). But the Celtic tribes that canada goose outlet orlando arrived during the Iron Age, which canada goose outlet locations in toronto started around 800BC, were the first to canada goose womens outlet give a clear linguistic contribution that has lasted canada goose outlet edmonton to modern times. They came in groups from the continent; those in the north canada goose outlet new york city spoke Goidelic (the source of Gaelic), while southerners spoke Brittonic. canada goose store
Canada Goose Jackets Two thirds of England goose outlet canada rivers take their names from Celtic Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose black friday sale Even today, many hills and rivers have kept their Celtic names especially in the north and west. The Wrekin takes its name from Celtic. So do about two thirds of England rivers: Avon, Derwent, Severn, Tees, Trent, Tyne and Itchen, which later lent its name to the town canada goose outlet online Bishop Itchington. (Some of these names may even have come from the people who were here before the Celts). Often the names just meant or and sometimes no one knows what they originally meant; in the Oxford Dictionary canada goose outlet authentic of English Place Names, AD Mills calls Severn ancient pre English river name of doubtful etymology The River Tame, which we cross on our trip to Ashby de la Zouch, comes from the Celtic canada goose jacket outlet uk for one or as does the River Thames. canada goose black friday sale
canada goose store View image of View from Wenlock Edge, located near Much Wenlock in the Midlands (Credit: Credit: David Lyons/Alamy) canada goose store
cheap Canada Goose There is less Celtic influence in the south and east largely thanks to the Anglo Saxons. When they invaded in the 6th Century AD, they pushed the Britons to the edges and into the hills. Those who stayed in England were gradually assimilated, rather like the name of the town we start https://www.canadagoose-jackets-online.com our drive in, Much Wenlock. It gets its Much is from Anglo Saxon mycel, meaning or Wenlock comes from Celtic wininicas, canada goose outlet canada area and the Anglo Saxon loca, words cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose Outlet The Romans invaded Britain too, even before the Anglo Saxons, first trying in 55 BC but at last succeeding in AD 43. But their linguistic influence, like their culture, left less of a mark: they built towns and garrison outposts, but they never truly made Britain their home. Roman contributions to British place names come mainly through their Latinisation of pre Roman names. A Celtic name that had been rendered by earlier Greek visitors as Pretannik became the Roman Britannia; an ancient name of obscure meaning became Londinium. The other major Roman contribution comes from the Latin castra ( Taken into Anglo Saxon, it became ceaster ( city pronounced rather like which has mutated to chester (Chester, Manchester), caster (Lancaster, Doncaster) and cester (Leicester, Cirencester). Canada Goose Outlet
canada goose coats on sale Unlike the Romans, the Anglo Saxons did not canada goose outlet sale come to establish an outpost or colony they came to move in canada goose coats on sale
canadian goose jacket Unlike the Romans, however, the Anglo Saxons did not come to establish an outpost or colony. They came to move in. The Anglo Saxons did build forts the word burh ( place gives Britain all of its and but what they really wanted to do was farm, build towns and conduct trade. If they encountered a forest (called a wald, wold, weald, holt or shaw) or a grove (graf, now and they might clear it to make a leah (now and They would enclose land to make a worthig ( ham (the source of ‘home’), or tun (now and the source of ‘town’). Since ham was more common in the earlier years and tun later on, there canada goose outlet winnipeg address are more in the south, where the Anglo Saxons first came, and more in the north and west. canadian goose jacket
canada goose deals View image of The name of this Dorset hamlet has Anglo Saxon (and unfortunate) roots (Credit: Credit: Dorset Media Service/Alamy) canada goose deals
Canada Goose online The Anglo Saxons also liked to name things after canada goose outlet price themselves. The suffix (now shortened to referred to the family and followers of some personage: for instance, H folk settled at Hastings. Many a ham and tun was also named for a person, such as Birmingham, the ham of Beorma people (Beormingas). They also named geographical features for themselves, like valleys (denu) such as Rottingdean (the valley of Rota clan). And, canada goose outlet in usa before converting to Christianity, they named some places after their gods Wednesbury is named after Woden. Canada Goose online
canada goose coats The Anglo Saxon word canada goose outlet eu for fort, burh, gives Britain all of its burghs and burys canada goose coats
Canada Goose sale Then the Scandinavians arrived. They started in the 8th Century with raids: Danes from the east and Norsemen, coming around Scotland by sea, from the northwest. In the mid 9th Century, they staged a full scale invasion and began to settle in the areas they controlled. At the height of Scandinavian power in Britain, they controlled an area known as the Danelaw that covered most of England north and east of a line from Liverpool to the Thames a line you cross at Watling Street (an ancient road) canada goose outlet as you drive northeast toward Ashby de la Zouch. Canada Goose sale
canada goose deals View image of Britain has streets like York Whip Ma Whop Ma Gate (Credit: Credit: Paul Rushton/Alamy) canada goose deals
canada goose coats on sale Ashby, like Appleby, bears the quintessential mark of a Danish place name: meaning or Both, however, also canada goose outlet winnipeg bear the marks of the Anglo Saxons who where there first: the apple and ash trees. William took over the government and gave ownership of many places to knights who had supported him. Ashby was given to the de la Zuche family; Newton ( town or enclosed settlement was given to the Burgilons (now Newton Burgoland). The invasion also led to French versions of English originals, such as Rievaulx, translated from Ryedale. There are pure French names that later were shaped by English influence, such canada goose outlet legit as Beamish from beau mes ( mansion Bewdley from beau lieu ( place and Ridgemont from rouge mont ( hill The Normans scribes, educated in Latin, also gave Latin additions such as Appleby Magna and Lyme Regis and even the occasional full name, such as Pontefract (pons fractus, bridge Under the Norman French, the commoners kept speaking English which was still evolving and came to add many French words canada goose coats on sale
buy canada goose jacket But the Norman French did not settle in with the same comfort as the Anglo Saxons and the Scandinavians, and certainly not in the same numbers. The commoners made up of Anglo Saxons, Scandinavians and remaining Celts kept speaking English, which was still evolving and came to add many French words. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose deals View image of Ashby de la Zouch, the ‘ash tree farmhouse belonging to the Norman de la Zuche family’ (Credit: Credit: Ian Dagnall/Alamy) canada goose deals
buy canada goose jacket In time, English again became the language of rule. The court, which had increasingly intermarried with English speakers, resumed speaking English in the 14th Century; parliament returned to it in the 15th Century. Ultimately, the stubbornness of the Anglo Saxon language conquered in the end. How else could a coalfield become Sutton Coldfield? Wet clearings (water leas) at the west clearing (west leah) become Westley Waterless? A muddy place (slohtre) canada goose outlet jackets turn to Slaughter (Upper and Lower)? buy canada goose jacket
Canada Goose Parka And so it is that you can, in 60 miles, go from the Celtic hills, through the Anglo Saxon and old Celtic canada goose jacket outlet toronto towns, across the pre Celtic, Celtic, and Anglo Saxon rivers, past faint traces of the Romans, cross into Danish territory, and find the French nobility. Canada Goose Parka
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cheap Canada Goose This story is a part of BBC Britain a series focused on exploring this extraordinary island, one story at a time. Readers outside of the UK can see every BBC Britain story canada goose outlet official by heading to the Britain homepage; you also can see our latest stories by following us on Facebook and Twitter. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. canada goose outlet website legit Read about our approach to external linking cheap Canada Goose.