East Riding place names

Although most Welsh and Gaelic place names are still comprehensible to speakers of those languages,  the meanings of Yorkshire place names are obscure to modern English speakers. But Yorkshire place names have a fascinating story to tell - indeed, they chart the history of the whole of England between prehistoric times and the Middle Ages.

The oldest names are Celtic, for this area was once occupied by Briton tribes like the Brigantes and the Parisi who were first dominated by the Romans and then gradually pushed back into Cumbria and Wales by the Anglo-Saxons, but not without leaving behind a few place-names, especially the names of rivers. Local examples inlcude Roos (Welsh rhos: a moor), Leven (Welsh llyfn: smooth), and the rivers Derwent (‘oak river’), Ouse,  Hull and Humber.  The Romans also left behind a few placenames, primarily military in nature, like Doncaster and Tadcaster

Next came the Angles who vied for domination with the Danes. As the latter eventually gained the upper hand and established their capital in York, Danish (and to a lesser extent Norse) place names predominate in North East Yorkshire.  There are still a good many Anglo-Saxon place names in the area, such as Goodmanham (‘Godmund’s home’, the site of the most important pagan shrine in the Kingdom of Deira), Bridlington (‘Beohrtel’s farm’) and Pocklington (Poca’s people’s farm). Saxon place names can often be identified from elements such as –ham, -ton, - ing, -ley  and –field, and Viking place names by elements such as –by, -thorpe, -dale etc but caution is needed as many mixed place names exist (e.g. Grimston) and because a lot of words were similar in the two languages (e.g. holm which can be a Saxon or Norse element). One important illustration of this is the word ‘wold’ which is an Anglo-Saxon word (c.f the Kent Weald) but the local use of it is probably Norse, as the meaning of the related Norse word vall (rolling upland pasture) better describes the landscape than the meaning of Old English ‘wold’ which means forested uplands.

Common Viking place names elements include -by (village e.g. Willerby, Anlaby, Skidby), thorpe (farm e.g. Fridaythorpe – possibly Freya’s Thorpe, Everthorpe, Foggathorpe. Tibthorpe) and –kirk (church, as in Kirkella, Kirkby Underdale). Ferriby is a particularly interesting example, as our word ferry comes from Norse ferja- meaning to carry across water. This suggests that Ferriby has been a crossing on the Humber since a very early date. Watery place name elements in the SE of the area demonstrate the former topography of the area e.g.  holme (a water meadow,as in Wilfholme), carr (marshy woodland)  and keld (a spring, as in Keldmarsh, Cawkeld and Dunkeld which are all wet places in the Hull valley). A toft was a homestead, as in Langtoft. A burgh was a fort or stronghold, as in Flamborough – Flam’s stronghold. Use of dale rather than valley or vale in the Wolds is Norse (e.g. Thixendale) as it is in Dales and Hebridean placenames. Sea, in the names Hornsea and Skipsea means a lake, as does mere. The common use of beck for a stream in the East Riding is also Viking in origin. another expression which has Norse origin is the use of ‘bottoms/botton’ to refer to a valley bottom (as in Melton Bottoms) and is also found in Dales place names (c.f. Starbotton). Where ‘wick’ occurs inland it is Anglo-Saxon in origin, meaning a field, but on the coast it originates from the Norse vik  meaning bay (e.g. Thornwick) which also occurs frequently in Hebridean placenames as –vaig.

Finally the Normans arrived in 1066 and a number of  French or ‘Normanised’ place names can be seen in the area e.g. Meaux, Wharram le Street, Thorpe le Street, Kirkby Malzeard. 

Monastic houses in mediaeval Beverley

Monastic Houses of Mediaeval Beverley

Beverley had a number of religious houses in mediaeval period. The most important of these was obviously Beverley Minster  A monastery (possibly a minster) called Inderawuda, was recorded as early as 685 and was also mentioned by Bede who explainsthat the name meant ‘In the wood of the Deirans’. The present Minster was a collegiate church of canons built in 1225 on the site of the Early Mediaeval minster. Until its suppression in 1548, the church served as a college for canons, its status then changing to parish church.

Probably the next most significant was Preceptory of the Holy Trinity of the Knights Hospitallers, remains of which have been found under the car park onTrinity Lane, the station yard and other sites around the station. It was founded soon after 1201, when Sybil de Valloines gave the Order the manor of the Holy Trinity. It became one of wealthiest houses of the Order in England. The preceptory site has been fairly well mapped out. It included residential and service buildings, a church and a burial ground, enclosed by a deep moat and entered by a formal gateway. The moat still existed when the railway was built but was filled in to create sidings. On maps from 1893 part of the moat is still marked on the east side of the station, roughly parallel with the track, and the area around the station is named as Outer and Inner Trinities. Archaeological investigations of the extent of silt in the ditches that the site was probably abandoned following the Dissolution.

Both the Franciscans and Dominicans had a presence in the town; Greyfriars (Franciscan) was probably founded pre-1267 at a site within the town boundaries, but moved to land granted to the friars around the chapel of St Elena on the Westwood in 1297. It probably stood somewhere near Albert Terrace, where remains relating to the Friary, including burials, have been found during development work. Remains including over 300 inhumations and associated mediaeval objects were also found on the Westwood in the 19^th Century and were thought to be associated with the Franciscan friary. Greyfriars is not to be confused with the Dominican Friary, simply referred to as ‘The Friary’ today and now a YHA hostel. ‘Blackfriars’ was founded before 1240 and dissolved in 1539. Near to it was located the mediaeval St Nicholas hospital for the poor, which may have been somewhere between the Friary and the mediaeval St Nicholas church. 

Beverley also had several monastic hospitals. The oldest was the Augustinian St Giles Hospital which was located outside Newbigin Bar around where Minster School stands today, its existence commemorate in the street name St Giles’ Croft. In the Victorian period the fields in this area were marked on maps as ‘St Giles Crofts’ It was a pre-Conquest foundation by someone called Wuse. In 1277 it was in a delapidated state and was united with Warter Priory for priests and `conversi' to be in the hospital. It was disolved in 1538.  A leper house originally stood well away from the town on Humbergate (now Queen’s gate) but was replaced by St Mary’s Hospital in 1402 which was in North Bar Without (possibly somewhere around beginning of New Walk).  Two late mediaeval additions were the Trinity Hospital and Hospital of St John the Baptist. Trinity Hospital was founded in 1397 and had a chapel on the Cross Bridge (see map in the previous post). It became the Corporation Almshouse after the dissolution and was later used as the town gaol until it was demolished in 1805. The Hospital of St John the Baptist (c1444 – 1547) was on the west side of Lairgate to the south end.  It was suppressed in 1547 but continued as a maison dieu into Elizabeth's reign.  It had a chapel and associated chantry.)

Street map of mediaeval Beverley

Molescroft's Moated Manors

In the Mediaeval period, there were scores of moated manor houses across the East Riding. (In the Hull Valley alone, there were Storkhill, Pighill, Barf Hill,Skerne, Scorborough, Leconfield, Grovehill, Little Kelk, Hall Garth, Cranswick, Heigholme Hall, Parkhouse, Cranswick, Meaux, Leconfield and Woodall) Partly this was probably a feature of the marshy land, and partly for defensive purposes. Of those around Beverley, only Leconfield, which belonged to the powerful Percy family, could really be described as a castle and most were manor houses.

Molescroft (Anglian ‘Mul’s Croft’) consisted of just two households at the time of the Domesday Book and the overlords were the Archibishop of York and the canons of Beverley Minster. By the late Middle Ages, the village had grown up around the cross roads which became the Malton Road roundabout, and there were four moated manors in the area. None of these survive today but a small distance away there are remains of two moated enclosures at Parkhouse Farm between Molescroft and neighbouring Cherry Burton.

There is some debate about the exact location of the first two Molescroft manors. Woodhall Manor was probably the site which lay roughly opposite the end of Gallows Lane where the cemetery now stands. It belonged to the Woodhall family from the 13^th century, who took their name from the manor. The 14^th Century Pighill Manor initially belonged to the Roos family and then to a Royalist commander named Marmaduke Langdale. It subsequently passed to owners named Tadman, Nornabell, Marchant, Rigby and Wise who are all commemorated in local street names. Pighill Manor or Hall lay to the east of the road at the point where Manor Road now becomes Woodhall Way and the site has been lost under housing. Today this point marks the official boundary between Beverley and Molescroft, and an old hedge still crosses the road here that once marked the limit of the old Inclosure. A third manor was called Estcroft and was the home in 1448 of a John Bedford but had once been part of the Woodhall estate. Estcroft was partially excavated in the 1960s revealing fishponds, a barn and remains of the house which had stood on a series of stone plinths. Estcroft stood roughly where the recreation ground is now on what was formerly Pighill Lane. (Woodhall Way was formed in the 1940s from Pighill Lane and Mill Sykes Lane/Low Field Road). A fourth manor, Scrubs Manor, was on Scrubwood Lane and the site is now bisected by the railway line and buried beneath housing. It was the house of a Roger Scoter.

Estcroft and Woodhall manors were abandoned by the 1600s; Pighill was demolished in 1759 although the moat was still visible when the estate was built. By the post-mediaeval period, England was a safer place and those with wealth no longer felt the need to live in defensive dwellings and began to build country houses instead. All trace of these sites was swept away in the 20^th century expansion of Beverley and no sign of the manors now remains, nor of those who lived in them except in local street names.