History of the Fylde of LancashirePorter, John (Writer on the Fylde of Lancashire)
History
History of the Fylde of Lancashire
Porter, John (Writer on the Fylde of Lancashire)
Lancashire (England) -- History
on its banks near to the junction of Wyre, but the distances of Ptolemy,
which agree pretty fairly, as shown above, with the location of the
Portus on the west extremity of the present “Lune Deep,” are incompatible
with such a station as this one for the same harbour. The collection of
coins discovered near Rossall may imply the existence in early days of a
settlement west of that shore, and many remains of the Romans may yet be
mingled with the sand and shingle for centuries submerged by the water of
the still encroaching Irish Sea. Leaving this long-argued question of the
real site of the Portus Setantiorum, in which perhaps the patience of our
readers has been rather unduly tried, and soliciting others to test more
thoroughly the merits of the ideas here thrown out, we will hasten to
examine the traces of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes.
Many, in fact most, of the towns and villages of the Fylde were founded
by the Anglo-Saxons, and have retained the names, generally in a modified
form, bestowed upon them by that race, as instance Singleton, Lytham,
Mythorp, all of which have Saxon terminals signifying a dwelling,
village, or enclosure. The word _hearb_, genitive _hearges_, indicates in
the vocabulary of the same people a heathen temple or place of sacrifice,
and as it is to be traced in the endings of Goosnargh, and Kellamergh,
there need be no hesitation in surmising that the barbarous and pagan
rites of the Saxons were celebrated there, before their conversion to
Christianity. Ley, or lay, whether at the beginning of a name, as in
Layton, or at end, as in Boonley, signifies a field, and is from the
Saxon _leag_; whilst Hawes and Holme imply, respectively, a group of
thorps or hamlets, and a river island. Breck, Warbreck, and Larbreck,
derive their final syllables from the Norse _brecka_, a gentle rise; and
from that language comes also the terminal _by_, in Westby, Ribby, and
other places, as well as the _kirk_ in Kirkham, all of which point out
the localities occupied by the Danes, or Norsemen. Lund was doubtless the
site of a sacred grove of these colonists and the scene of many a dark
and cruel ceremony, its derivation being from the ancient Norse _lundr_,
a consecrated grove, where such rites were performed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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