Know your place... by its ancient name

THE good people of Strensall may not know it but they are living in what could once have been one of the most romantic corners of North Yorkshire.

The Old English word "'streon", one possible source for half of the village's name, meant - well, how can we put it most delicately? - procreation. Add that to "halh" (nook, or corner of land) and you have streonhalh, Strensall, "Lover's nook".

If you would rather not believe yourself to be living in the old English equivalent of a bordello, however, there is a less racy alternative. Streon also meant property or treasure - so Strensall could simply have meant "a corner of land given as a reward".

All very respectable, if a little dull. Sadly, if that is where the village's name comes from, the Penguin Dictionary Of British Place Names doesn't go into details about to whom Strensall was given as a reward, or why. Which makes speculating about it all the more fun. Some ancient backhander, perhaps? A spot of Anglo-saxon corporate corruption? Or simply payment for services rendered?

Opening the Dictionary Of British Place names is a dangerous thing to do. Once you start dipping into it, you can't stop - especially if you have a map to hand as well.

Did you know, for instance, that Selby means "village by the willow trees" from the Old English "sele" (willow copse) and the Viking "by" (village or farmstead). Or that Warthill, far from being a hill populated by warthogs, was simply a lookout hill (from the Old English "weard" for watch).

Easingwold was once "woodland belonging to Esa's people" (from the Old English "inga", meaning "belonging to the people of" and "wold", meaning high forest or woodland) while that old favourite Wetwang seems, mysteriously, to have been a place for sorting out Viking legal disputes. It comes from the Viking "voetti" (witness, or evidence) and "vangr" (garden or field) making voett-vangr, the "field where evidence was given".

Viking and Old English influences are scattered throughout the local place names familiar to us all, making a map, with the dictionary's help, a fascinating history lesson.

The Viking word "by" meant either village or farmstead - so Haxby was "Hakr's farmstead" (though who Hakr was, apart from the fact he was a Viking, the dictionary doesn't tell us) and Barlby Beardwulf's farmstead. The Viking "askr", meanwhile, meant ash tree (the same as the old English 'aesc') - so Askham Bryan was Brian's homestead (Old English "ham") where the ash trees grew. Other Viking influences you'll see cropping up again and again are kirkja (church) and dalr (valley or dale).

As you would expect, however, there are also plenty of Old English influences around - "-ham" or "-ton", which both mean farmstead or estate, give Sutton (southern farmstead), and Askham; while "burh", meaning fortified place, has left us with Knaresborough (Cenheard's stronghold) or Beningborough (Beonna's stronghold).

York itself has a name that has gone through a succession of changes. The original Celtic name Eborakon ("the place of Eburos", or "the place of the yew man", so the city's name may originally have derived from a yew tree) turned into the Roman Eboracum, then the Viking Jorvik.

The name in use just before the Norman invasion in 1066, Eoforwic, may also have been influenced by the Old English "eofor", or boar.

Malton appears to have been a meeting place as long ago as Saxon times, if its name is anything to go by.

Malton apparently derives from the Old English "moethel" (assembly) and "-ton", while Norton was simply 'northern farmstead'.

The Poppleton's, Nether and Upper, probably weren't particularly good places to try to scratch a living, because Poppleton means "farmstead on pebbly soil"; but if you lived in Wistow, you could at least have hoped to have the blessing of a higher power, since Wistow meant "Wigstan's holy place" (from the Old English "stow", a holy place).

And what about some of the more exotic place names North Yorkshire is blessed with? The ones that raise a titter whenever a visitor sees them on a map?

Here are a few of our favourites:

Bugthorpe - nothing to do with creepy-crawlies, simply "Buggi's remote farmstead" from Buggi plus "thorpe", the Viking word for "outlying farmstead"

Fangfoss - "place by the ditch used for fishing", from the Viking word "fang" (fishing) and the Old English "foss" (ditch)

Foggathorpe - "Fogga's remote farm" (see Bugthorpe)

Kexby - not a place where underwear is put on public display, simply 'Keikr's farmstead' from Keikr and the Viking '-by'.

Thwing - 'place on the narrow strip of land' from the Viking 'thvengr' or Old English 'thweng' meaning thong or strap.

Yapham - "place by the steep slopes" from the Old English 'geap' for steep place and "-ham". Not an irritating little dog anywhere in earshot, in other words.

The Penguin Dictionary of British Place Names by Adrian Room is published by Penguin, at £9.99.

Updated: 10:39 Wednesday, May 07, 2003