Anniversaries and names

I was off on a hunt for some information the other day, when I happened upon some dates, which I thought I'd share with you. Not sure how many we'll get through today, but here goes!

The year is: 878
King Alfred (known as Alfred the Great, a name given him by writers from the 16th century), was King of Wessex from 871-899, and during his reign he defended against invasion from the Vikings. So, during the year 878, after winning the Battle of Edington, King Alfred apparently made a deal with the Vikings, and Danelaw (a set of legal terms and definitions) was created in the North of England. Interestingly, King Alfred ceded Loughborough and the area around it to the Danes as part of this Danelaw. Is this why people from the South like to think that we are in the North of the country?! How wrong they are: we're in the Midlands!! In reality, however, the part of the country ruled by Danelaw stretched from Windsor in the South, almost as far as Durham in the North, from half-way between Lichfield and Leicester in the West to the Norfolk coast in the East.

The Vikings brought their language with them, and many of these have been absorbed into English. There's a great list over at Babbel, and the BL website also indicates those place names ending in -by, a word of Viking origin, initially meaning a farmstead, some of which grew into larger villages and towns, but kept the name. There are many villages and towns ending in -by in our area, like Sileby, Ashby, Kirby Muxloe, Asfordby etc..

Then, there's also all those words ending in, or containing -thorpe, a word meaning a secondary settlement, or small hamlet. Places around Loughborough that come to mind are Thorpe Acre, Shelthorpe, Woodthorpe, but should I mention Barkby Thorpe here or under -by!

-toft, again, meaning a small farmstead, however, is not much used in Leicestershire: I can only think of Scraptoft and Knaptoft.

-wick may be Viking, meaning creek, or bay, but might also be an Anglo-Saxon word for port. The only one I can think of locally is Whitwick.

-kirk is a Viking word for church, and indeed, is most often found these days as church - so, Church Langton, Church Greasley. 

-gata, meaning way, or street, is found locally in the form -gate, usually as a suffix in street names, like Baxter Gate, Pinfold Gate etc.. So, Church Gate combines Kirk with Gata and was once known as Kirk Gate.

-borough, finally, King Alfred fortified some of the towns to become defence centres in case the Vikings attacked again. -borough means a fortified place, and is sometimes found as -burgh, -brough, -bury. However, the Anglo-Saxons also used the word -borough in relation to Iron Age and Roman forts they found in Britain when they invaded. There are many -boroughs in our area, not least our own town. Latest thinking is that Loughborough is the fortified place belonging to Lehedes.     

The year is: 918
In 918, Leicestershire, which included Loughborough, was recaptured by the British from the Danes.

I don't know about you, but I think that's enough dates for one day!

Thanks for reading!

Parish boundary marker at Woodthorpe

Church Gate during inner relief roadworks, May 2013

Informative street sign in Heanor, Derbyshire

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Dyer, Lynne (2018). Anniversaries and names. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/01/anniversaries-and-names.html [Accessed 21 January 2018]

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Lynne