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Presidential Address: The Historical Bearing of Place-Name Studies: The English Occupation of Southern Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

F. M. Stenton
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Extract

There are three main questions relating to the first phase of English history on which the evidence supplied by place-names may be expected to throw a faint ray of light. On the first of them—the fate of the native inhabitants of southern Britain—I offered a few suggestions to the Society in my presidential address last year. I propose this evening to confine myself to place-names of English origin, and to consider them in relation to the two fundamental problems which remain—the credibility of Bede's analysis of the English peoples, and the general chronology of the English conquest.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 22 , December 1940 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1940

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References

page 1 note 1 This year, as last, while taking sole responsibility for the opinions expressed in my address, I wish to express my thanks to Sir Allen Mawer for reading the typescript, and for many valuable suggestions.

page 2 note 1 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, i, 15.

page 2 note 2 As a sea-faring people, the Old Saxons of the eighth century were overshadowed by their western neighbours, the Frisians, but they possessed the coastlands between the Weser and the Elbe where the Saxons of the Migration Age seem to have been most closely congregated.

page 2 note 3 Notably, in a famous letter by Theodbert king of the Franks to the emperor Justinian, which is strictly contemporary with Procopius. The letter also shows that the continental Jutes and Saxons of this period were closely associated with each other. See Chadwick, H. M., Origin of the English Nation, 97–8.Google Scholar

page 4 note 1 On this point, the opening sentence of Bede's preface is conclusive: Historiam gentis Anglorum ecclesiasticam, quam nuper edideram, libentissime tibi desideranti, rex, et prius ad legendum ac probandum transmisi, et nunc ad transcribendum ac plenius ex tempore meditandum retransmitto.

page 5 note 1 Widsith, lines 43–4.

page 5 note 2 Such as the Old English roth, ‘ clearing ’, which occurs in the place-names Rothwell and Rothley, and has been shown by Professor Ekwall to be an exact parallel to the Old Frisian rothe. See Place-Names of Northamptonshire (English Place-Name Society), 119.

page 5 note 3 Ekwall, E., Studies on English Place-Names (Stockholm 1936), 174–5.Google Scholar

page 6 note 1 Englafeld, Chronicle, under 871.

page 6 note 2 See E. Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 466, 490.

page 6 note 3 Place-Names of Worcestershire (English Place-Name Society), 137–8.

page 6 note 4 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, iii, 21.

page 6 note 5 Æt East Seaxnatune, Cartularium Saxonicum, 758. The grammatical structure of the name shows that it means ‘ East Saxons' village ’, not, as has sometimes been supposed, ‘ eastern village of the (West) Saxons’.

page 6 note 6 Cantuaretun, Cart. Sax., 541.

page 6 note 7 Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary, 492.

page 7 note 1 Anderson, O. S., The English Hundred-Names (Lund 1934), 129–30.Google Scholar

page 7 note 2 The connexion between the names is pointed out by Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary, xii, 367.

page 7 note 3 In the same way, movements of this kind probably explain some of the worst complexities of Anglo-Saxon archaeology.

page 7 note 4 For some facts which prevent an absolute generalisation on this subject, see below, p. 12.

page 7 note 5 The stem Mund, for example, seems to have been unusually popular in East Anglia, where it formed the base of the personal names which underlie Mundham, Mendham, Mundesley, Mendlesham, and Mundford.

page 8 note 1 Names were formed from this element by the West Saxon royal family in the sixth century. It was in use as a name-stem throughout the Old English period, and occurs as the first element in at least thirty different compound names, such as Ceolbald and Ceolwio.

page 8 note 2 Hruschka, A., Zur Angelsächsischen Namenforschung (Prag 1885), 25.Google Scholar

page 9 note 1 Materials for a comparison are contained in the English Place-Name Society's volumes on Sussex, Surrey, and Essex, and Kentish Place-Names and The Place-Names of Kent by Wallenberg, J. K. (Uppsala 1931 and 1934).Google Scholar

page 9 note 2 The earliest forms of the name are Fefres hám, 811 (Cart. Sax., 335), and 812 (Ibid, 341), and Febres ham, 815 (Ibid, 353). Each of these charters is written in an early ninth-century hand.

page 9 note 3 The Jutish occupation of southern Hampshire is proved by the statement of Florence of Worcester that the New Forest had the English name Ytene. The name represents the genitive plural of a tribal name Yte, a late Saxon form of the racial name which lies behind Bede's lutae. See W. H. Stevenson, Asser's Life of King Alfred, 168–9.

page 10 note 1 These names are discussed by Ekwall, English Place-Names in -ing, 1–22, 159–70.

page 10 note 2 Namely, Withering, the old name of the estuary which formed Pagham harbour, in the extreme west of the county.

page 10 note 3 Ekwall, op. cit., 20.

page 11 note 1 A stream called Mydeling, which seems to be another name of this type, is mentioned in two tenth-century charters relating to Drayton in Berkshire (Cart. Sax., 1032 and 1058).

page 11 note 2 Filkins, west of Bampton, seems to be a name of this kind. To the east of the Thames, no example has so far been found nearer than Pillinge in Wootton, five miles south of Bedford.

page 11 note 3 The probability of a Saxon invasion of Berkshire from the south in the sixth century does not affect the interpretation of the archaeological evidence which suggests that bodies of Saxon settlers had previously made their way into the country up the Thames valley or from the northeast. A partial settlement of the county by a number of independent bands may well have preceded its intensive occupation under the leadership of the West Saxon king.

page 12 note 1 Ekwall, , Studies on English Place-and Personal Names (Lund 1931), 54–8.Google Scholar

page 12 note 2 Ekwall, Studies on English Place-Names, 159–63.

page 12 note 3 Cart. Sax., 297.

page 12 note 4 It is a theoretical possibility that some of these names may contain the Old English weorc, ‘ fortification ’. But the genitival form in which this element occurs is strongly against this derivation, as is the fact that in most cases, to say the least, there is no obvious fortress from which the name might have arisen. The use of weorc in English personal-names is proved by the name ‘ Verca ’ borne by a seventh-century Northumbrian abbess (Bede, Prose Life of St. Cuthbert, c. 35). Outside strictly Anglian territory, the name Weorc seems only to occur in the compound Weorces mere in the boundaries of Pershore, Worcestershire (Cart. Sax., 1282)—a district of mingled Anglian and Saxon settlement.

page 13 note 1 There is little to be learned from a mere list of unintelligible names, but Laughterton, Wakerley, Kettering, Threckingham, Panxworth, Misson, Poringland, Torksey, Baildon, and Cammeringham, may perhaps stand as a representative selection of these Anglian cruces.

page 14 note 1 These names have been discussed in detail by Professor Ekwall in his English Place-Names in -ing (Lund 1923)—the first large-scale monograph written on a particular type of English place-name. Since 1923 only a few fresh examples of the type have been discovered, and they do not affect its general distribution-pattern. The most interesting of these additions comes from a passage in the Gloucester cartulary which shows that the site of Ankezwyke hermitage near the Thames in Buckinghamshire had an earlier name, Basingas, identical with Basing in Hampshire (Place-Names of Surrey, xl).

page 15 note 1 Eling, Wymering, Hayling, Basing, and Worting, Hants; Sonning, Reading, and Wasing, Berks. Eling, Berks, is probably a place-name of the type described above, pp. 10, 11. Sonning is an ancient tribal name as, in all probability, is Reading. (Introduction to the Survey of English Place-Names, p. 50.)

page 16 note 1 The distribution of such sites is shown on the map by Mr. J. N. L. Myres which follows his chapters on the English settlements in the Oxford History of England, vol. I. The archaeological evidence for the period is described in these chapters in a series of regional studies which are of the greatest value for the history of the English occupation.

page 16 note 2 Thus, the early Anglian penetration of the Nene valley, proved by discoveries at Addington, which has yielded a spout-handled jug of fifth-century type, and by the very early cremation cemetery at Kettering, is further illustrated by a number of archaic place-names, such as Oundle, Irthlingborough, and Kettering itself. I have to thank Mr. Myres for my knowledge of the Kettering cemetery.

page 17 note 1 The examples of which Old English forms have survived are discussed by Karlström, Sigurd, Old English Compound Place-Names in -ing (Uppsala 1927).Google Scholar

page 17 note 2 The numerous names, found everywhere in England, which now end in -inglon form a class apart, and raise special problems of interpretation. So far as can be seen, the great majority of them originally ended in -ingtun, not ingatun. -ing in these names seems to have a quasi-genitival force, and should not be regarded as an indication of group-settlement, still less as a criterion of early date. Bynningtun, for example, should be interpreted as ‘ Bynna's tun ’, not ‘ tun of the Byhningas ’.

page 17 note 3 Cart. Sax., 282, Hythwaldan hlau. The name occurs in a charter of Beorhtric king of Wessex (786–802). It is only preserved in a copy of circa 1200, but the boundaries are drawn up in a mixture of Latin and Anglo-Saxon which is characteristic of early West Saxon charters, and they obviously go back to an eighth-century original. The name reappears in a number of later Old English charters in shortened forms such as Hyldan hlaw, Hildan hlew, and Hilda hlæw. For the different forms of the name, and for the identification of the site, see Crawford, O. G. S., The Andover District (Oxford 1922), Appendix E. The hlæw, or barrow, has disappeared, but its position is roughly marked by the Three Legged Cross inn on the main road from Newbury to Andover.Google Scholar

page 18 note 1 See Place-Names of Wiltshire (English Place-Name Society), xiii–xvi.

page 19 note 1 Such as Oving, Halling in Stoke Mandeville, and Wing, in Bucking-hamshire.

page 19 note 2 Such as Faddiley in Cheshire, Fretherne in Gloucestershire, and a place, now lost, near Stratford on Avon, which appears as Fœhha leag in the eighth century (Cart. Sax., 239).

page 19 note 3 Pipe Roll Society, vol. 24, p. 34: “ Et idem Otuel' quietam clamauit de se et heredibus suis totam communam pasturam de bosco de Fetheleecum spineto … predicte Lucie et heredibus suis.” In the original fine (C.P., 25 (1), 187/1/14) the first e of -lee is accented.

page 20 note 1 As Stevenson, W. H. observed in 1902 (English Historical Review, xvii. 637–8), the name Fethanleag is apparently a compound of Old English fē***a, a band or troop, and leah, which here, as in other early names recorded in the Chronicle, probably meant ‘ wood ’. It is an interesting point that the Fethelée of 1196 is definitely said to be a piece of woodland. Stevenson was inclined to regard Fethanleag as a temporary name, which arose to commemorate the battle fought on the site. That the name was connected with the battle is highly probable. But the subsequent appearance of a name corresponding to the late sixth-century Fethanleag in a district which on other grounds is likely to have been the scene of warfare between Britons and Saxons in this period, suggests very strongly that the name was carried down into historic times by local tradition.Google Scholar

page 20 note 2 The significance of this tract is well shown on the map illustrating the article ‘Grim's Ditch in Wychwood’ by Crawford, O. G. S., Antiquity, iv (1930). 313.Google Scholar

page 21 note 1 ed. Th. Mommsen (Monumenta Germ. Hist., xiii, 1898), 206.

page 21 note 2 At least fourteen place-names ending in -ingahām occur in the two counties.

page 21 note 3 Such as Hensingham, Addingham, Whicham (from Hwitingaham), Dearham, Rottington, Workington, Distington, Frisington, Harrington.

page 21 note 4 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, i, 34.

page 22 note 1 Thus, Edwin king of Northumbria who was killed in 632, gave to his youngest son the name Wuscfrea, borne by his own great-grandfather far back in the sixth century.