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What’s in name? History
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| Billericay they just couldn't say cherry plum |
WHAT do a hill overrun with rats, a herd of greedy she-goats, a bunch of cherry-plum trees, and the man who sounds like Brad Pitt's ancestor, have in common?
More to the point, while the memory of kings and emperors has faded into oblivion, how did this motley bunch all gain immortality?
The answer is each left their mark on the atlas.
The pest-infested hill, or rats' down, became Rettendon. The herd of greedy goats (Anglo-Saxon raege') ate away a clearing (leah') on top of what had been a wooded hill. After the goats had done the work, the humans moved in and built the town of Rayleigh.
The bunch of cherry-plum trees, used for purple dye and sometimes known by the romantic Persian name balilah, was mispronounced as the word Billerica.
Pic was a marshland patriarch whose name was mutated into Pit, as in Pitsea.
The place names we take for granted, words we use and scarcely think about, have their origins deep in the past.
The industrial age, despite all the convulsions it has caused in other spheres, has tiptoed respectfully round topographical titles.
Basildon, for instance, supposedly a new town, has a 1,000-year-old name from the Dark Ages.
Gradually, and painstakingly, the mysteries contained in these names are being unlocked.
Credit for this goes to a dedicated team of unpaid researchers, known in their own circle as the volunteer recorders.
Since the founding of the English Place Names Society in 1923, generations of them have beavered away, developing techniques and knowledge.
The work goes on across the country. But in Essex, this year stands out, thanks to the publication of a definitive volume, Essex Place Names, by James Kemble.
Mr Kemble is the project co-ordinator for the county.
Working with Essex County Council and the Essex Record office, he continues to steer the digging and the delving.
A former surgeon at Barts, Mr Kemble says of his medical career: "That was another life. Place names are a long-term enthusiasm for me. It was an interest before. It is the focus of my life now."
His book is the culmination of decades of passion, and provides the definitive statement on the subject, for now.
But it is not the last word. Mr Kemble freely admits: "New research is throwing up new information all the time. Perhaps in five or six years it will be time for a revised version. It's far from certain that, by then, I will be the one writing it."
The attractively-produced book is a covetable object and anyone interested in Essex history should put it on their Christmas list.
Yet, for an author, Mr Kemble is frank. He discloses the book is a bit of a luxury extra. The information in its pages is openly available on the searchable database for Essex place names.
The database is the real achievement of the place names project, and in this respect, Essex leads the field.
"I can't claim for certain a searchable database is unique, but it is still rare - and we were the first," Mr Kemble says.
Hi-tec IT met the world of ancient place names when the database was set up in 1997.
The project has been a collaboration between Mr Kemble and his team, Essex County Council, the record office and, subsequently, Essex University.
Mr Kemble has nothing but praise for the oft-bashed county council in particular.
"It has been very enlightened in its approach," he says. The system has been so successful Mr Kemble now finds himself invited to other parts of Britain to lecture on his methods.
"Essex has a growing reputation as a vigorous centre of research in this field of study," he says.
Why do it? The shortest answer is because it's there, a compelling, mosaic-like detective story that weaves its way into the daily life of anyone who lives and works in Essex.
But there is another reason, one which becomes daily more relevant - the explosive rise in the passion for family history.
"We provide an additional tool for anyone researching their family tree, and it is one that can produce useful results," Mr Kemble says.
"Family history lists don't tend to deal with land-holdings, but, for instance, the names of fields will often give you the names of the tenants who farmed them."
Mr Kemble corresponds with people from around the world who are tracing their family roots via the ground from which they emerged.
The purpose of Mr Kemble's glossy volume, far from closing the book on the subject, is "to raise the profile of place names and encourage more people to get involved in volunteer research."
The project works on a vermicelli-thin budget, surviving on the odd grant from the likes of the Essex Heritage Trust.
So volunteers remain doubly crucial. "The whole essence of this project is that it is done by non-professionals," says Mr Kemble.
"They get professional input. Specialists are checking up all the time - but the legwork is done by volunteers."
There are still large areas of research to be tackled, both documentary and field work.
"The names of rivers and streams is one area that can still yield up a great deal of new knowledge," Mr Kemble says.
Some much bigger prizes also await bagging. The name Tilbury, for instance, remains something of a mystery.
The bury suffix indicates that this was the site of a burgh, or fort. So far, so routine. But what of the Til? The answer may be locked away in some unexamined document. It could be unearthed by pacing the ground, or by patient archaeological work.
For now, though, one of the best-known place names in Essex, the site of the great Armada speech, remains a work in progress.
Place name work is described by Mr Kemble as "50 per cent pleasure," which begs the question, what is the other half like? As with all research, the work can be a slog, and it can disappoint.
Mr Kemble researched his own home town, Ingatestone, but turned up "rather scanty results, really," Yet the rewards, when something new can be added to the database, are powerful.
Mr Kemble tells the story of three fields, lying side-by-side and all called Oldberry, divided by the Mahury parish line.
Mr Kemble explains: "That indicates the field name is older than the establishment of the parish."
And learning that says Mr Kemble, dropping his reserve just for a moment, "is 100 per cent pleasure."
Essex Place Names by James Kemble is published by Historical Publications at £14.95 ISBN 978-1-905286-21-8
The name game - or how Essex was labelled
Bronze Age (c1000BC): Celtic-speaking tribes left a few markers in Essex, particularly in the names of rivers like the Stour and Lea and ford towns such as Ilford
Roman: Unlike in other counties, the Romans left little mark on Essex place names. For instance, the Roman place name for Chelmsford, Caesaromagus, has vanished completely from memory. However, the chester in Colchester, refers, as always, to a Roman camp
Anglo-Saxon: The name Essex was first documented in the eighth century as part of the Saxon settlement. It means "the land of the East Saxon peoples"
Norman: Posh Norman aristocrats contributed their own names, as in Woodham Ferrers or Tolleshunt D'Arcy
Medieval period: The bulk of modern place names emerge during this period, when Old English was the common language. Place names often refer to topographical features. Names containing dun, down or don like Basildon, Downham and Dunton, refer to a wide, flat-topped upland, hale or hall as in Coggeshall, is a nook
Modern times: Place names are now largely fossilised and modern times have contributed few. One rare example is Castle Point. The district council name was chosen by public competition
The Essex Places database: www.essex.ac.uk/history/esah/
essexplacenames
6:05pm Thursday 3rd July 2008
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CommentPosted by: Vin Harrop, Billericay on 9:06am Fri 4 Jul 08
I read with impassioned interest Tom King's article based on James Kemble's recently published book on place names in Essex. I shall certainly be purchasing a copy. Vin Harrop, Basildon Heritage Director.
I read with impassioned interest Tom King's article based on James Kemble's recently published book on place names in Essex. I shall certainly be purchasing a copy. Vin Harrop, Basildon Heritage Director.
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