Canny lass

This could be a tough cookie to crack! According to the site mentioned earlier, www.englamdsnortheast.co.uk an important clue to the early settlement of Anglo-Saxons lies in the place names they left behind. The author claims that most of the place names in the north east region are Anglo-Saxon in their origin and mentions in particular that "almost all places ending in 'ton' or 'ham' are of Anglo-Saxon origin."That would suggest that Bedlington is Anglo-Saxon in origin.However, looking at the ending -ton purely from an etymological angle there are other possibilities. English, German and Dutch together with all the Scandinavian languages belong to the same language family but have developed along two different paths, one toward the west and one toward the north. In all of these languages there has a been a word with a similar meaning to the ending -ton, as in Bedlington. England has been invaded many times and every invasion has left its mark on the English language. If we trace the development of the word town, we find it started its journey meaning enclosure and went on to mean garden, then cluster of buildings on a piece of enclosed land, then farmstead, and finally a cluster of buildings (not necessarily enclosed). All these changes in meaning happened approximately, as far as researchers can demonstrate, between 700 -1100 AD, a period in the history of english language which we call Old English. Where the word came from is difficult to pinpoint but in Old English the word was tun, as was also the word for town in Old Saxon, the forerunner of the present day German language. Old High German also had a word zun with the related meaning fence or hedge and Old Norse, the forerunner of the Scandinavian languages had tún. Just to complicate the matter the latter was thought possibly to have some relationship to the celtic word dun in placenames or even the welsh word din, meaning a fortified place.(Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology: OUP 1996) So I think the best way to go is to find out who Bedla (?Bedel, ?Betla) was and where he originated from. I'm in London for a couple of days from tomorrow and if I get time I'll try and get into the library and see what I can find out.

We certainly do have public libraries but nowhere on the scale of Britain's library system. We are just a couple of million tax-payers keeping this long, oblong country solvent and moving! The network of roads needed to get people to the libraries devours a great deal of the taxes. I have a round-trip of 200 km to the nearest reference library of any quality. Mind you, should i choose to, I can take a taxi to the nearest bus stop for the same price as a bus ticket. The government is very kind!! Then we have a book bus! Comes once a month but you have to know what book you want so that they can have it on the bus. There's no way I can do a computer search on the bus and if it's a work of reference I'm after they can't supply it. I have to go into the library. Uni students have the priviledge of being able to log in to the system and search from home but once your studies are finished that priviledge is withdrawn. I've never understood why the system can't be open to everyone. This is why I said it may take some time.

There was a Twizle Farm Cottage just outside of Morpeth on the way to Stannington in the 60's but I think it was demolished when they built Searles factory. I found a mention of Twizle on one of the sites you pasted a link to (great site by the way): "Other twisels in the north include Twizel near Berwick, Twizle near Morpeth and Twizell between Chester le Street and Stanley". www.englandsnortheast.co.uk www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/PlaceNameMeaningsEtoJ.html Drew a blank on Grubbo though.

What a good idea Pete!

They may well of done Merlin but Ganny Watson in Netherton (she who rewarded my services with a brass shovel when she ran out of sweets) still had one in the 1950's - and she still used ut. They made things to last in the 1800's!

Thanks Malcolm. I'd like to know more about this chieftain Bedla. Can't find anything on the Internet except a mushroom and an Indian clan. Does he pop up in any literature? Was he British or Scandinavian? If he was Scandinavian then the chances are strong that a genitive 's' would have been included in the place name, as in Grimsby which literally means Grim's by (by = village in Swedish or town in Norwegian). The differing practices regarding the retention of the genitive ,s' in English and the Scandinavian languages can be demonstrated more clearly with surnames. The English language removes the genitive as in Peterson, Harryson, Johnson, meaning Peter's son, Harry's son and John's son. In the Scandinavian languages the genitive 's' is retained: Petersson, Harrysson, Johnsson. I'll see what I can find out from the language faculty in Gothenburg next time I'm there. May take a while though.

I can remember another type of flat iron that wasn't heated on the hob. I think it may have been an earlier model. It was hollow but never the less heavy. There was an opening at the back end, by which you filled the iron with glowing coal, and a shutter that fell into a slot rather like the blade on a guillotine.

Nice to see you back Merlin!

Interesting to read that the place name has previously been documented with the ending –tun! I've long suspected that the Geordie dialect stems from Old Norse and, according to the oracle (Wikipedia) 'ton' is usually a corruption of 'tun', which meant farm or hamlet. The oracle is probably right as tún, in icelandic means 'a fenced in piece of land around a dwelling´ (Isländsk/Svensk Ordbok Rabén Prisma 7th edition 1994). The language of Iceland, which has developed from Old Norse, has changed very little since Viking times as they strive to keep the language pure – free from infiltration by other languages and you would be amazed at the number of words from Old Norse that have found their way into the Geordie dialect. I believe therefore that the name Bedlington may have its roots in the old Norse language. In the Scandinavian languages place names very often reflect the surrounding nature. The name of my home, to take a simple example, is Nordlid which means 'north slope', and that's exactly what it is. I live high up on a hill which slopes down towards the north. If we take the name Bedlington and break it down into syllables, the first syllable, bed-, could possibly be derived from an Icelandic word - beð, meaning a flowery meadow (the word lives on in English in flower bed). The second syllable, ling-, isn't too distant from the Icelandic word Lind, meaning Linden, the tree Tilea Europea. Try saying Bedlington quickly or the way most Bedlingtonians say it and the 'g' isn't heard at all. The g almost becomes a d –Bedlindton. The third syllable –ton is most certainly derived from tún, which, as I mentioned earlier means a fenced in piece of land around a dwelling. So Bedlington may well have started off as a solitary dwelling in a flowery meadow with Linden (lime) trees and developed into a settlement during the Viking period in Britain.

Prefer mine!

I'll pretend i haven't read that!

Welcome Chemo-Sabby (No idea how to spell that)!

Who pays for the electricity Keith?

I'm afraid I can't claim to have understood the English translation any better than the original text!

Happy birthday Barton.

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Exactly like that.

... or his reindeers ?

Couldn't have put it better myself Vic! Have a very merry Xmas everybody!

Post another one Keith, just to keep us going over the Xmas.

Like the cow's tail - last as usual. Hope it was a good one.

No, it's not just you Adam. I thought the same thing.

Definitely not preggas! I can remember eating these as a toddler. You must try it. It's lovely. One large slice buttered white bread. One fried pork sausage, hot or cold, cut in half length ways and placed on half the bread. Spread a dollop of orange marmelade on the other half and fold over. Enjoy!

Singing happy Birthday as i write this! That must be one helluva party you have on the 18th Dec every year!

Does this mean we will be hearing you on the airwaves soon?