Comb, South Combe, Millcoome, Dewcomb. In Devonshire, we have Ilfracombe pronounced Ilfracoom - and Hollacombe. The former is so named, no doubt, from its finely-sheltered harbour, formed by the semicircular sweep of craggy heights round three of its sides. Hollacombe is, we apprehend, formed, like Holcombe, from the Saxon hol and the British cwm. There are also Holcombe Rogus and Holcomb Burnel, Comb Martin, Challacombe, and others. In Somerset there is a Holcombe, some six miles from Shepton Mallet. In Gloucestershire we find Winchcombe; in Derbyshire, Comb's Moss and Comb's End; in Cumberland, Black Coom or Comb; in Northumberland, Comb Hill, near Haltwhistle, on the South Tyne; and, still farther north, the Teviotdale poet - Henry Scott Riddell - in "Johnnie Nip-nebs," writes, "On Cauldcleuch's wild haggs, roun' the coome steep"-('Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 203). We thus find the old British word cwm still used, along the west, all the way from Cornwall to Teviotdale. Cornwall was "West Wales," and "Strathclyde" stretched from Warwick to beyond the river Clyde. These western regions were longest held by the Britons at the English Conquest. The Angles, from Suffolk to the Forth, invaded from the east. Whitaker says-"The composition of the word Holcombe is one instance among many of the combination of two or more syllables of local names, expressing the same idea in different and successive languages. Thus cwm in British and hol in Saxon-denote a bottom." -('History of Whalley,' vol. i. p. 326.) o' the Hoof, in "Top o' th' Hoof," on which Grant's Tower stands, is the local form of heugh, heuch, or hewch, which means a steep hill or bank, and also a craggy steep. Top o'th' Hoof, therefore, meant top of the steep hill or bank. Similarly, seuch or sewch is sometimes pronounced soof-a ditch or drain. Akin to this is Hay-moof, for Hay-mow. Irwell, from Cambro - British ir, meaning fresh, and gwili, a winding stream. The "g" disappears in composition. Irwell, therefore, means the fresh-winding river. Although hard work has, during the present century, robbed the river of its pristine freshness, yet its windings are no doubt as marked to-day as when the ancient Britons fitly named it the fresh-winding stream. Kibboth Crew. - This curious place-name has been a puzzle to all who have thought about it. Can it have anything to do with the old word croo, which meant a calf's crib? Or must we look further back for its constituent elements? Cridden or Cribden-the finely terraced hill which looks down the Ramsbottom valley from between Haslingden and Rawtenstall according to Dr Whitaker, the historian of Whalley, is Keivudon—the hill of stags. Now knob-like parts of a mountain are sometimes called Kipps, and kippie means a little hill; while, in Celtic, kippen means a promontory.1 Kibboth Crew is just at the extremity of a cape-like piece of land running out to a considerable distance from the base of a steep-wooded eminence on the hillside, and abruptly dipping down into the dell, where now Springwood Mill stands, with 1 Thus we have Kippen in Stirlingshire, Kippenross in Perthshire, and Kippilaw in Roxburghshire; with various "Kips," also, throughout the country. the deeply embanked lodge behind. One or other of these old words, kip, kippie, or kippen - may have been linked with keiru. And Kippie, or Kippen Keiru, might, in the course of centuries, be corrupted into Kibboth Crew, meaning the hill or cape-like resort of the stags. Kip o'th' Keiru, if permissible, would, phonetically, come very near Kibboth Crew. If Crew, as is possible, is a corruption of Keiru, then the name goes back to the time of the ancient Britons, and may have been applied here before the Romans appeared on the scene. Nuttall. De Notogh, transformed through Nuthaulgh, Nutshall, Newthal, Newthall, Nuthall, and Nuttal. Pikelaw, often "Pikelow," is a sub-height of Cribden. From Brit. pic, a point, and law. "Pikelaw," like "Holcombe," is an instance of the original British having an Anglo-Saxon one, of like meaning, added. name Near Chetham Close, Turton, there are, close together, three small round hills. In the village we asked what they were called. One said "Three loaves," another "Three lows"-that is, three laws, from the Anglo-Saxon hlaew, a law or little hill. "Low" for “law" is interesting. It is an instance of the marked and impressive Frisian element which abounds in the Lancashire vernacular. Quarleton. "Querendon." was written In the 13th century it It is most probably formed from the Anglo-Saxon cweorn, a quern-that is, a stone handmill, used in old times for grinding corn; and dun, Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon for a hill or mound. Quarleton stands on the hill-top. Dunse in Berwickshire, and Dunsyre -the hill of the Seer-the termination of the Pentland Hills, in the Upper Ward of Lanark, are also formed from dun; so are Cribden and Hameldon, near at hand; Snowdon, in Wales; and the Eildons, near Melrose. "He cleft the Eildon Hills in three, And bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone." Radisher Wood. The Monkbretton Register, describing the boundaries of Holcombe forest as given to that monastery in the 13th century, has near this locality "the Lane of Robbers," from "Tittleshow towards the west." There may also have been a "Robbers-schaw," which would very easily become Radisher, the name now given to the bold and finely wooded southern slope of Holcombe Hill, as it breaks down into the Holcombe Brook, a mile to the south-west of Ramsbottom. The Ordnance Survey Map gives "Reddy Shore." The Rake, the steep ascent from Ramsbottom to Holcombe Church and village. - Rake is Scandinavian, and signifies a steep slope or declivity, like the slope or rake of a mast. Ramsbottom. This name, in all likelihood, sprang up in the not very remote pastoral era, and means the lowlying ground where the rams grazed-from ram, and the Anglo-Saxon bötm, which means an alluvial hollow. Similarly, across the holm, we find Shipperbottom, which was most likely the holm or bottom where the shepherd lived. The site of the old farmhouse of Shipperbottom is now occupied by the statelier Nuttall Hall. Farther down we have Brooksbottom-the low-lying land where Holcombe and other brooks join the Irwell; and farther up, Alderbottom. Ravenshore. - A corruption of Ravenshaw-the wood frequented by the ravens. Rowlands, - perhaps a corruption of Roe-lands, - the lands pastured by the roe or roebuck in the distant past. Shuttleworth. From Icelandic skutul, or Anglo-Saxon scyttels, a shuttle; and worth, which, like ham, cote, and ton, means a homestead with its enclosure. Stubbins. - Stub, from Anglo-Saxon styb, means the root of a tree; to stub, is to root out stumps; and ing means a meadow. Stubbings, now Stubbins, therefore, signifies the stubbed or cleaved meadows-meadow land cleared from forest growths. Stubby Lee is a kindred name. Tittleshow, Titles-howe, or Titlarks-how, may be from titlark, and how or howe, a hollow-meaning the hollow or low-lying meadow-land where titlarks abounded. Tor. Tor is the Cambro-British twr, meaning a lofty pile, a high pointed rock or hill. Tors abound in Devonshire, especially in the upper reaches of the river Dart -the ancient Royal Forest of Dartmoor. The word is also found in the High Peak, Derbyshire-e.g., Mam Tor, Blakelow Tor. Whittle Pike. - Whittle is probably a corruption of White-hill. The Pike is 1572 feet above sea-level, and snow is frequently seen on its crown when visible nowhere else in the neighbourhood. Pike, as already stated, is from Cambro-British pic, which means a pointed end or beak. The Gaelic peac, peic, means any sharp-pointed thing. We have Thievely Pike near Todmorden, Wardlow Pike in Derbyshire, Langdale Pike in Westmoreland, and, a few miles up the Irwell Valley, Pikelaw on the south side of Cribden. (See p. 25, supra.) |