Place Names

[Canny lass]

I've just found a wonderful book on the Internet. It was published as an academic thesis in 1920 and has somehow ended up in the library of Cornell University USA. Despite its age the contents are valid even today.

 

Over a period of 8 years the authors, Alan Mawer M.A. and his professor, Joseph Cowen,(both Durham University) researched the Place names of Northumberland and Durham. This is what they discovered about the changing name of Bedlington.

 

1050  Bedlingtun

1085  Bethlingtun

1104 - 1108 Betlingtun

1150  Bellingtona

1170  Bethlingtone, Betligtun

1175  Betlingetun

1203  Bellingeton

1228  Bellington

1291  Bedelinton

1315  Bedelington

1335  Bellington

1507  Bedlyngton

There was an Old English version "Bedeling(a) tiin of Bedel or of his sons. Bedel is a diminutive of Beda".

 

Mawer goes on to say that those Spellings with double L are probably due to an assimilation that never became fully established. Those Spellings with tl are due to A.N. influence (sorry I don't know what that is as I haven't found Mawer's list of abbreviations too helpfull). And, finally, those Spellings with thl are due to a common interchange of dl in certain Anglian Words.

 

 

[Maggie/915]

All very well but I still like the extra 'e'

The Bedesman connection.

Named in respect of The Venerable Bede.

Bede / ling / ton.

The place to stop off on the pilgrimage route to Lindisfarne from Jarrow.

On foot or even by boat.

Rosary beads, where did Bede get his name.

Where did Bede and his family actually come from?

[Canny lass]

Bede in Old English = Baeda or Beda

Bede in Latin = Beda

 

It's the ing that puts a damper on the theory as it means belonging to.

But it's interesting so don't give up hope!.

 

Bede himself has never noted the exact whereabouts of his birth. He says only "on the lands of the monastry" (meaning Monkwearmouth) However, monasteries owned vast amounts of land so it could have been anywhere. Somewhere on the internet I've also read Sunderland and a Place called Tyne.

[Andy Millne]

Great stuff canny lass, thanks for sharing. I'm thinking A.N. could well be Anglo Norman influence given the period.

[Canny lass]

Anglo Norman it was Fourgee! It became clearer later in the book.

[Smudgeinthebudge]

Of course there is a more modern theory that a Chinese pirate called Ling Tong was the terror of the North Sea until he was ambushed in his junk at a bend in the river Blyth. Over the years the name of the place changed from 'The Bend of Ling Tong' to Bedlington. But I think this this is a bit far fetched because the only source for this is in this post. If you've heard this theory before it's because I told a lot of people when I made it up in 1962. 

[John Fox (foxy)]

Are you sure it was made up Smudge? I heard from a good source that  Ling managed to drop his Granny Kam off at the Dun Cow  Quay and she opened the Kam Tong restaurant in Blyth. I was told that story from Someone who doesn't tell  porkys  in fact the same guy went on to become an MP. In the meantime think we better get back on course.

[Smudgeinthebudge]

Sorry about the non serious comment. But you know me.I can't be serious about anything for too long. Great research Canny Lass. I do not know if we'll ever find out whether the name has anything to do with St Bede or with some Anglo-Saxon farmer. However what a great subject this is. 

[Canny lass]

Get the kettle on! You'll be needing a cup of tea. This might just be a wee bit long.

 

First of all I give my apologies to Mawer. His name was Allen - not Alan, as I previously wrote.

Having now read the complete work I think we have to knock any ideas of the Venerable Bede's involvment on the head. Sorry Maggie! Firstly, it wasn't only he who had the name Bede. It appears to have been quite a common name at the time. Secondly, -ing would appear to be purely genitive in function and monks didn't own anything. Thirdly, as Bede entered the monastery at the age of seven he was unlikely to have set up any homestead and place names of the era were topographical or denoted ownership.

 

Mawer's work is a tough read, not least because of the compositor's interpretation of the original work, which was almost certainly hand written. I give you a synopsis of the relevant points:

 

Mawer, in discussing the -ington names of Northumberland, refers to an article on the early settlement of Northumbria written by one Dr. Woolacott. This appeared in the Geographical Journal (year of publication unknown to me). According to Woolacott the effects of the glacial period had a great bearing on the location of early settlements. Glacial surface deposits, he claimed, lay thickest "along the washes" and "on higher ground escarpments rise like islands from beneath the superficial deposits ". In Northumbria especially, this had considerable influence in determining the location of minor settlements as it was easy to obtain water in these places.

 

With reference to Topley (no information as to who Topley may be) he says that the Northumbrian villages with -ing "are old settlements and either stand on sand and gravel hillocks lying on the boulder clay, or on exposures of sandstone which rise above the uniform level of the surface formations. A large number of the pit villages, which are in many cases merely enlargements of the ancient settlements belong to the latter class".

 

Mawer tested this theory by completing a fresh survey of the topography. The theory, he said, "would appear to hold good for Acklington, Bedlington, Cramlington" and half a dozen other named places. All were situated on high ground where the geology of the area favoured the occurance of springs. However, this could not be applied to Choppington, he said, as it had a nearby stream from which water could be obtained.

 

Taking all the evidence into consideration Mawer concluded that this theory was proved, at least for East Northumberland, where the number of -ington names on this type of ground  was far too large to be due to pure coincidence.

 

As for the genitive (posessive) nature of -ing Mawer names three different types: -inga - genitive plural, -ingas - genitive singular and , by far the most common - simple  -ing.

Various theories, ranging from number of syllables in the personal name to loss of inflectional suffixes have been put forward to explain the differences but all have subsequently been rejected in favour of one Professor Moorman's explanation that -ing denotes posession. According to Mawer the theory has been "confirmed beyond a doubt" by the examination of Old English evidence. Such place names, he says, are simply the farm, clearing or whatever it may be, of or belonging to a man bearing a certain name. 

 

So, there we have it.

 

If you fancy wading through the whole book you'll find it at:

 

http://archive.org/stream/cu31924028042996/cu31924028042996 djvu.txt

Edited April 5, 2015 by Canny lass

[Smudgeinthebudge]

Thanks Canny lass I've just plodged through the book up to Bedlington in the dictionary and what a great resource it is. It's a shame about the lack of the venerable Bede but that was always a very shaky connection anyway. Wishful thinking can always change history if the correct care isn't taken. I learnt that off time team too. 

[Maggie/915]

Good research Canny Lass.

I would love to go back to all his reference books.

Interesting what his research in the 1920's brings to light.

Over the years so much has been lost.

That period before the Venerable Bede is all, in the main , guess work.

We are left with verbal folk tales and place names.

As with Chinese Whispers you wonder just what is right and what is not.

With Cuthbert and then Bede we were on the route to Lindisfarne.

The Holy Island would be the place to visit, similar to a journey to Mecca by Moslems.

Maybe just once in a lifetime.

My feeling is that at Bedlington there was a Holy Mound' in the pre Christian period and then became Christian with Edwin and then Oswald as kings of Northumbria. Benicia .

A place of safety for the Monks to hide the body of Saint Cuthbert.

First from the invaders from the North and then from the Normans in 1069.

The Normans, intent on settlement , invested heavily in Durham but our little place of sanctuary then becomes important too.

Only at that point do we have evidence and it links us firmly to Durham.

The challenge to find why Bede became Bede is possibly never going to be clear.

Similarly Bedlington and Beadnell are worthy of investigation.

It is always a good idea to go back to original source material but that is not available.

The origins of language are disputed our migration from Africa is interesting and often disputed.

Intelligent design or are we all evolved from those first basic cells.

I personally have not got a clue.

All is guesswork given an interest in the subject matter.

Nature or Nurture led me to question everything.

I used to be indecisive and now I am not sure. (As they say)

Whatever or however Bedlington got its name we all know how important the place is in our lives and what a great place it was to grow up. (Past and Present)

Just a few minor details to work out in the present.

[mercuryg]

What a fascinating book!

 

"at Bedlington there was a Holy Mound'"

 

I often wondered about this, Maggie; when I first moved here I bought a house on Hollymount Terrace; how long has there been an area of teh town known as Hollymount, which could certainly be a corruption of 'Holy Mound' or something similar? Or is it simply a recent addition,  thought up by someone or other as a nice name?

[Canny lass]

Most Town and/or County Councils have some sort of planning department that decide on street names for newly built streets, roads, Squares etc.  It should be easy to find out when the name Hollymount was given and maybe even why.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Canny lass

[pilgrim]

all nicely researched - well done and very interesting!!

a lot of the 'Christian' sites were already sites of importance and were merely sequestered. its the same with the 'accepted' dates of all the major 'Christian' festivals. Christmas day is a 'takeover' over the old festival of Saturnalia hence the number of days of celebration. Easter was set by the diet of Whitby - and of course don't forget the change over of the Julian and Gregorian calendars which means any dates are at least 11 days out!!

In reference to Mawer - its goes back to what I said in another post many moons ago - to seek the basic whys and wheres - strip away the history and look at the geology then the geography and only then  look at the demography and then the history - it gives a much clearer insight.

the 'ton' suffix seems to generally appear to relate to a settlement - the 'ham' suffix to a farm stead - a lot of the place name parts derive from the Danish /Anglo Saxon era and often incorporate a name at the start. (although the Viking influence is much over emphasised in the Northumbria region) as that lot mainly went round the top to Ireland and then came into 'England' from the west, although a lot of the Northumbrian vernacular has roots in the Norse -- cheble- sneck- and many others, but I think derived from trading and settlement, not from raiding which only was very limited

[Symptoms]

Ling Tong, the father of the famous one-legged runner Onesan Shoo.

 

Blame it on Smudge .... he started it.

[Maggie/915]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

[Canny lass]

Pilgrim, just a couple of Points you may find interesting.

You are quite right in thinking that "that lot mainly went round the top of Ireland and came into 'England' from the west". However, the 'lot' you are referring to came from the area which we today call Norway. Those Vikings who came from the areas today known as Sweden and Denmark, entered 'England' from the east arriving mainly at Humberside. Some made the journey via France and arrived in the South of England.

 

They did however leave their mark, and not an insignificant mark, on the English language. One way of assessing such influence is to look at the number of borrowings (loan Words). Scandinavian borrowings are relatively few, when compared to borrowings from Latin, German and French. There is a very good reason for that. Old Norse and Old English are almost mutually intelligable languages. It would not have been difficult to pick up each other's languages. The similarities, particularly in the vocabulary, are so many that should you put two documents, one in either language, in front of any language historian he would be able to read both even though only schooled in one. Lack of borrowings does not, in this case, reflect lack of influence. There was simply no great need to borrow.

 

I support wholeheartedly your theory that most influence came about through the two languages rubbing shoulders on a social and business level rather than through battle. The ON loan words that linger on in English today, some 2 000 of them, reflect domesticity rather than political power, suggesting that the Vikings lived peaceably side by side with the Brits for several hundred years. They also show the closeness of the relationship between the two Cultures as many of the borrowings belong to the central core of the vocabulary- family relationships, body parts etc.

 

Even more interesting is that English has borrowed some grammatical Words from ON. Several conjunctions are ON in origin and so are several pronouns. It's very rare that these are borrowed in any language and therefore a sign of very strong influence. Some of these grammatical words, like they, them and their are first used in the northern dialects.

 

Borrowings may have been relatively few but there were other influences on the English vocabulary brought about by the initial difficulties in daily exchanges.

Sometimes they used an ON pronunciation for an OE word. This is the reason why the English words church and ditch becomes kirk and dike in some areas.

Sometimes they would use an OE Word but with the meaning of an ON Word. Loaf and bread are examples of this. OE hlaf (meaning bread) became loaf. while OE bread  meant fragment. ON braud, on the other hand, did mean bread so we've ended up with an OE word that has taken on an ON meaning.

Last but not least some ON inflections have found there way into English words, having been mistakenly understood as part of the stem. That Little 't' at the end of words like thwart, want and scant or the -sk in bask are both inflectional endings from ON.

 

There is plenty of evidence of this type of influence.

 

So, the number of borrowings is not always the best tool with which to measure influence on a language. The vocabulary of a language changes quite quickly. Today, it's changing at a gallop rather than a trot. For this we can thank the Internet and social media. A newly coined word has done two laps of the globe before you can say Bob's your uncle and the need for brevity in script has increased enormously thanks to text messages and Twitter.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Canny lass

[pilgrim]

canny lass - you are wonderful !!

I know a high up in the 'wee free' who is a linguistic fanatic and says almost the same thing - look at the lliad where the repetition of such things as ' he fell to the earth in a crash of brass' show both the era and the fact that it was a an oral tradition by repetition, before being but to script -- same with beowolf.

we are but a product of what we were in the past and that reflects on our thinking and outlook -- the idea of a 'Viking invasion' does not hold water (sorry York has that destroyed your tourist industry?? lol)- but the gradual merging of cultures through trade and immigration (oops that's UKIP doing a regressive revision of history) makes us what we are -- a bastardised homologation of genes - but thats what all races are and all the better for it!!!

Cornwall had tin trade with the Phoenicians many centuries pre AD and one wonders if perhaps the old Cornish language holds some of the lost language of those people?

[Canny lass]

I don't rule out invasions completely, Pilgrim. I feel quite sure that first encounters with Britain were more in the nature of 'raping, pillaging and plundering' There is evidence of that in both languages. Language development/change is a great mirror of history.

 Just look at the Word Viking. We find it in both the English and Scandinavian languages today just as we did in OE and ON. The OE Word wicing meant 'pirate'. The ON Word vikingr most probably meant 'Creek-dweller'. What interests me most is that the OE Word is recorded long before the scandivian people set foot in Britain. That these people were then referred to as wicing suggests that somebody saw their arrival as an intrusion rather than a friendly visit for a cuppa and a digestive. And let's not forget that they came very near to conquering the whole of England. Danelaw prevailed everywhere north of a boundary that ran from London to Chester so there was a fair bit of battle going on as well.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Fascinating stuff ivrybody!

When a was at school prior to leaving at 15 yrs old,I hated history and geography[and P.E.!]

I didn't see the point of it all!...I was home-studying electricity and electronics,radio and tv theory and principles,Faraday,Ohm's law etc etc etc!

I could read theoretical circuits ["schematics" we call them now],at the age of 14 yrs,and was building circuits using high-voltages with Valves.

I now wish I had put a bit more effort into studying History!!

Fortunately I can learn from all on this forum,better than I could from my teacher!!,even though I had the best-liked greatest funniest fella for a teacher

at Westridge....Mr Abrahart!![We usually couldn't write down his dictation,cos we were laughing so much,he was very theatrical in his dictation,and used to assume the characters such as Napoleon,Disraeli,Gladstone,etc.]

Keep it up Canny Lass and all the rest of you!

Sorry,apart from Pitwark,a canna contribute ti this one!!.....howld on theor....a just thowt on......

Weren't the Monks actively busy digging smaal bell pits aal owa Northumberland,and a lot in Bedlingtonshire,ti get coal for tha caad drafty abodes?!!

[Canny lass]

What, may I ask, is a "bell pit"?

 

Mr. Abrahart! Great teacher but I hated history in school. I've learned more of Englands history through studying it's language than I ever did from any history lesson!

[pilgrim]

They were originally used by primitive types to extract flint (we don't have flint up here in the far north as it's fossilised sponge in chalk deposits and we have no chalk) All the flint on the beaches is a result of the coal trade to London where flint was used as ballast for vessels returning and then dumped. The higher bit behind Dean Street in Newcastle is called ballast hill.

Anyways - a bell pit was a hole in the ground and the mining operations spread out below it in the shape of a bell. The Tan Hill Inn (highest pub in England) had one in the field behind it. Bell pits were not big things but would be one or two man operations.

Unlike the south side of the river at Plessey where they bored straight in from the riverside cliffs and went in some considerable distance following the seams. The old opencast actually cut into to some of the workings and I seem to recall wooden shovels were found.

[Canny lass]

Thanks for that clarification Pilgrim. Is it likely that monks would have used bell pits for coal? I don't know how true it was but I have vague recollections of hearing stories as a Child of a family in Howard Row, Netherton Colliery who were evicted for doing a bit of 'private mining' underneath the living room floor. Anybody else Heard that?

[pilgrim]

canny lass -- I had heard that rumour many many years ago - but ..... the coal measures were too far down at Netherton for that!!! (they would have been better off just going out at night and helping themselves to the coal from the yard and if they lived there they were prob entitled to free coal anyway!!)- although they might have tried!!! (I do recall seeing a lease from the 50's that said chopping sticks on the hearth was forbidden as well as many other things --) what I found interesting was the bit at Plessey - it wasn't Neolithic etc but def. post mediaeval .,.. there were signs up  on the south bank warning of 'adits' -- there were also def. ingress into the coal seams from opposite Humford Baths (now who can recall them??) and along the Halfpenny Wood. The monks prior to the dissolution were the micro managers of the state. they had about a ratio of 10 to 1 lay workers to manage their lands - and strangely enough were the progenitors of the welfare state.

A challenge for ya Canny lass- since ya are ancient and retired and have nowt better to do ............. (runs and hides..) have a look at the monasterial enclaves in the north -- there is a huge gap atween Tynemouth and Alnwick and Brinkburn, Mitford and indeed the 'Cuthbert' sites. I think there are one or more locations not yet found!!! the D'Veshys ( an irish  norman 1066 family had the land until the Percy's did a dastardly deed with the Bishop of Durham  - in the 'dark ages' not the post roman times but in the the dodgy/dealing - robber baron times -- it seems that Bedlington and a lot of the southern  county had been expunged from the records - although they had protection under the bishopric of Durham - your task if you should accept it is to work that out --btw this message wont self destruct in 30 secs - as this is tinternet and its all on the NSA database for a thousand years (...now where did I hear that phrase? oh yes the third Reich)

[Canny lass]

Interesting theory pilgrim. I'll get my magnifying glass and deerstalker out of the cupboard at once!