What's in a name?

WARRINGTON
The name of Warrington has created a division of opinion among etymologists who are unable to state the exact definition of its meaning. There seems little doubt however that the name is Old English, and the difference of opinion lies in the interpretation of the first element "Waer". Some people argue that this could be a personal name, so that Warrington could mean "The tun of Waers people", or "The tun of the followers of Waer". Others believe that the first element derives from "waering" meaning weir or dam.

There is a third possibility however, advanced by those etymologists who have studied the Roman name of Warrington, and believe that the Roman name of Veratinum belongs to Warrington. They also believe that the ancient British word variously spelt as "Gweryt", "weryt" or "werid", and meaning "ford" is involved.

ANTROBUS
Antrobus is a hamlet within the lordship of Over Whitley and lies between Stretton and Great Budworth. All those who are named Antrobus take their name from this Cheshire hamlet, which appeared in the Domesday Survey as "Entrebus". The two components of the name "Entre-bus" are derived from the Latin "inter" and the Old French "bus" or "busc" from which comes "bois", meaning "a wood". The name therefore means "Amid the woods".

APPLETON
According to the Domesday Survey, in 1189, Appleton was described as Appleton and Hull. Appleton simply means the "tun where the apples grew", and Hull derives from an Old English word "hulu" meaning "hut" or "hovel".

The Domessday Survey stated that Appleton "was and is waste" and coupled with the meaning of "Hull", a somewhat depressing picture of the district 900 years ago is created, which completely contrasts the delightful countryside of the twentieth century.

Warrington has every reason to be grateful to Appleton for water supplies lasting for more than 100 years.

BANK QUAY
In Lancashire place-names, "bank" mostly means "hill", but it also means "sea-shore" or "bank of a river". In Warrington, "Bank Fyelds", the site of Bank Quay", take their name from the situation on the bank of the River Mersey.

Bank Quay has been an industrialist area for nearly three centuries and it was the first great industrialist of the area.

BEWSEY
Within two centuries of the Norman Conquest of England, Warrington was developing into a prosperous market town and the need for a castle in a castle in a strategic position to guard the ford across the Mersey was no longer necessary. The seventh lord of the manor of Warrington, William le Boteler, therefore decided to build himself a new home nearer to the pleasures of the forest and at a convenient distance from the centre of the growing town.

The site selected was Bewsey, which means "beautiful site" in Burtonwood.

BRUCHE
Bruche is the name of an ancient manor within the parish of Warrington, as well as the name of a family who belonged to that manor for more than 300 years until the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First. In the 13th century the name first appeared as "del Bruch". It was usually spelt "Bruche" but occasionally as "Briche" and on Saxtons map of Lancashire in 1577, it appeared as "Bryche". It is believed that the name is derived from the Old English "bryce" meaning "breaking" in the sense "broken up, new cultivated land".

BURTONWOOD
In the last 25 years the name Burtonwood has been carried out by thousands of American Servicemen to countries all over the world. Therefore, although it is the only place in the British Isles to bear this name, it is possibly known more widely than Warrington, to which it was originally a subservient manor.

The meaning of Burtonwood is the wood by a tun, or farmstead, near a fortified place or burh.

Although the small community of Burtonwood depended on agriculture for centuries, it is noticeable from the registers that other trades especially watch making, began to form a moderate proportion of the trades and skills supporting the inhabitants of the parish in the 18th century.

CULCHETH
The name of Culcheth means "backwood" or "a retreat in a wood". Certainly, Culcheth has for centuries been situated in "backwoods"

DALLAM
Iron and steel, smoke and steam are all more likely to spring to the mind of any Warringtonian at the mention of Dallam, than a vision of a place filled with meadow and the home of a family associated with music. However it is believed that Dallam means "valley meadow".

Small and obscure as the hamlet of Dallam must have been in the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth, it nether the less produced a man bearing the name of Dallam, who not only undertook an important mission for the Queen, but also founded a family of famous organ builders. Thomas Dallam, constructed a highly ingenious organ which Elizabeth sent to the Sultan of Turkey in the hope of securing further concession for English trade, and the help of a Turkish fleet against Spain.

DARESBURY
As the birthplace of Lewis Carroll, Daresbury attracts hundreds of visitors each year, principally to see the stained glass windows in All Saints Church that depicts characters from "Alice in Wonderland".

Daresbury is thought to be unique from the local villages because it possesses a name unconnected with any physical or geographical feature. Instead it takes its name from an ancient family that once lived there. The name indeed is thought to be derived from the words "Deors burg", but the earliest written record containing the name is a Chester Court Record of approximately 1250, where it appears as "Derisbury".

FAIRFIELD
Fairfield was the name of a house, subsequently known as Fairfield Hall, erected in the mid 18th century for Miss Anna Blackburne with a special view to housing her collection of ornithology.

FEARNHEAD
Although this township is situated in a flat, low lying area which only stands at 45 feet above sea-level, the name is derived from two Old English elements "Fearn" and "heafod", meaning fern and hill respectively. The name of Fearnhead therefore means "a fernclad height".

Originally it was an area of wood and moss, which has been brought under cultivation over many centuries and remains primarily agricultural today.

FIDDLERS FERRY
Considerable argument has always surrounded the origin of the name of this ferry. There are those who believe that the name originated with the name of a former licensee of the Ferry Inn named Fidler. Others believe that a fiddler used to accompany the ferrymen on his journeys across the river. However, a more plausible explanation, in view of the great antiquity of this ferry, is offered in the "Victoria County History of Lancashire", where it says that the name is derived from Adam le Vieleur, the original grantee of the manor of Penketh. Vieleur of course, can easily be construed as viola, a player of the viol or fiddle.

"Go to Fiddlers Ferry" used to be a polite way of consigning someone to Hades.

GRAPPENHALL
The meaning of Grappenhall simply serves to remind all that enjoy the romantic prospect of such a village that the essential elements of life connected with food and shelter must come before beauty and romance. Consisting of three elements - as it did in the Domesday Survey when it was recorded as "Gropenhale" - the first and third elements "grop" and "halh" are Old English and mean respectively "a ditch or a drain" and "a piece of flat alluvial land by the side of a river."

HOWLEY
A bend of the River Mersey forms the southern boundary of Howley and the name is a compound of two Old English words "holh" and "leah" meaning "hollow meadow". As a low-lying area bounded by a river bounded by a river it has been subjected to floods and mists throughout many centuries and would never have been chosen deliberately as a place of residence. However, a small mound, which formerly stood near to the present Parish Church, afforded a strategic position from which to control the passage of the river via the ancient ford at Latchford.

Howley and Church Street house the first school to be established in Warrington that provided elementary education for all comers, and near to this National School there also stood Warringtons first workhouse.

LATCHFORD
An ancient ford, whereby the crossing of the Mersey was made before the first bridge was built, was the origin of the name of Latchford, which simply means "a ford over the Laecc or stream".

Not far from the old Church on Knutsford Road there stood the cotton factory of Peel Ainsworth which in 1787, became the first cotton factory in the North of England to be powered by steam.

LYMM
Lymm possesses great natural beauty and contains attractive features of considerable antiquity. Some writers claim that some of these features are unique, and certainly the name of Lymm itself appears to be undisputedly unique.

The meaning of Lymm, according to the "Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names" is related to the fact that Lymm is situated on a stream.

ORFORD
Brooks running through the town made travel to the north more difficult centuries ago, and there were fords at Longford and Orford. A manuscript of 1465 contains the name of Orford constantly spelt "Overforthe", which simply means "upper ford".

OUGHTRINGTON
A family taking their name from the place resided at Oughtrington Hall as early as the 12th century. This family became extinct through marriage. The name Oughtrington means the "tun" or farm of the people of "Uhtred".

A man called Trafford Trafford rebuilt Oughtrington Hall in 1817.

PADDINGTON
The name of Paddington is the invention of a 19th century manufacturer, Robert hatton, who erected a soap works there in 1820. As the invention of one man, it is not easy to state with accuracy precisely what prompted his choice of name. An obvious guess would be that the name is a combination of Padgate and Warrington, since the man in question had been sued for creating obnoxious smells in Warrington with an earlier soap works, and had been compelled to move to the district next to Warrington. Another suggestion with some local currency is that the same manufacturer had associations with Paddington, London and that this prompted his choice of name.

The Paddington soap works featured in an exciting case of conspiracy to defraud the Government of duty within a few years of establishment. Other soap manufacturers noticed that the Paddington soap was being sold at a price lower than soap of the same quality made elsewhere. A trap door was found by an officer, which led to a large vaulted chamber that contained contraband soap. Manufacturers were forced to pay £6,340 in double duty, and as a result they went bankrupt.

The Paddington works later became the site of a glue works, and the smell from this works at one time was more obnoxious than that which caused the earlier soap manufacturers to move from Warrington.

PADGATE
Padgate as the name of a place did not exist before the 19th century when, in 1838, an ecclesiastical parish was formed from the civil parish of Warrington and called it Padgate. Before that Padgate was the name of a road from Warrington to Bolton. "Pad" is a North Country word for path, and "Padgate" is a well-trodden path.

PENKETH
Penketh is a compound of the Celtic words "pen" meaning "end" or "edge" or "top" and "coed" meaning wood. The name is common in Wales and is also found in Cornwall and Brittany. It means "the end (or edge) of the wood".

RISLEY
The name of Risley is derived from two Old English words "hris" and "leah" meaning "twigs, brushwood" and "tract of open ground" respectively. Therefore Risley means an area of open ground covered with twigs or brushwood.

Originally Risley belonged to to Culcheth, and has been the site of a Royal Ordnance Factory, a Royal Naval Station, a Home Office Remand Home and as the Headquarters of three groups of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

RIXTON-WITH-GLAZEBROOK
Glazenbrook takes his name from the Glazenbrook, which flowed from the north into the River Mersey, but now flows into the canal. The first part of its name "Glas" is an old river name although two other meanings of "Glas" are "bright" and "green or blue". Rixton consists of a personal name "Ric" and "Tun".

The main road through the parish is the road from Warrington to Manchester and a bar erected ion this road to increase toll in 1831 was pulled down by the people of the parish.

SANKEY
Sankey is a name so old that its meaning defies definition. The first part of the name is possibly derived from a personal name and the second part means "water", "stream" or "river". Most authorities agree therefore that the village of Sankey took its name from the brook which, under a more popular but less appealing name, still flows through the district and into the Mersey.

Sankey brook was once the source of power required to drive the lord of the manor's water mill. Members of the Sankey family lived at Little Sankey Hall during the same centuries that the Boteler family lived in Bewsey but the last of the Sankeys in Sankey was an Edward Sankey, who commanded a Cheshire regiment in the Civil War, which began in 1642.

STOCKTON HEATH
Stockton Heath first featured modestly as "Stoken" on Molls map of Cheshire in 1739. It was a hamlet of little consequence and no development until the 19th century. However, the name of Stockton is of some considerable antiquity and a family named Stockton dwelt in the hamlet of Stockton from the end of the 13th century until at least the end of the 15th century.

The name is a compound of two Old English elements "Stoc" and "tun", or possibly "Stocc" and "tun". "Stoc-tun" means the tun belonging to a cattle or dairy farm, and "stocc-tun" means a homestead built of logs.

The rapid development of 19th century Stockton Heath, often referred to as a garden city, resulted in the village having the first tramway route to be closed when it was decide to replace trams with buses in 1931.

STRETTON
The Romans road from the South to Wilderspool passed through Stretton and the name of Stretton is derived from this fact, and means the tun on the "stret" or road.

For centuries Stretton has been, and still remains, the home of an agricultural community. This fact is reflected in various entries to be found in the Stretton Town Book from the early 18th century, of annual payments made by the constable for sparrow heads. Sparrows were a great nuisance to farmers and the Constable paid sums of money for their heads and eggs.

THELWALL
Thelwall is the only Warrington district to appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The name consists of two Old English elements meaning "a pool by a plank bridge". There was an ancient ferry across the Mersey until the Manchester Ship Canal was constructed and then a ferry service across the canal was maintained.

WALTON
There are three different meanings of Walton, and more than 60 places in England have Walton as part of their name. The three meanings are: the tun where the Britons live, the tun by a wall, the tun in a wood or on a wold.

Remembering that Walton Cheshire was next to the walled Roman Station of Wilderspool it seems likely that its name derived either from the fact that inhabitants who were British were living there.

WILDERSPOOL
Formerly Wilderspool was a hamlet within the County of Cheshire, and it is often thought that the name is fairly modern. This was disproved by the discovery that the name of Wilderspool appeared in a charter of the reign of Henry II at the beginning of the thirteenth century, where the name is spelt "Wilderspul". The first part of the name is the Old English "Wild doer" meaning "a wild beast, a deer". The second part means "pool, pond, a pool in a river, a creek or a stream". The name therefore means "the pool of the wild beast".

WINWICK
St. Oswalds Church is mentioned in the Domesday Survey but the name of Winwick itself does not appear in this unique record. The name however consists of an Anglian personal name "Wineca", and an Old English element "Wic" meaning "dwelling place". Therefore Winwick means "the dwelling place of wineca". When the name Winwick first occurred in a written record in the year 1170, it was spelt "Winequic", and in another record 22 years later it appeared as "Wynewhik".

At the beginning of the 19th century the Parish of Winwick embraced 26,502 acres, and the benefice was considered to be the richest in the kingdom.

Red Bank, Winwick was the scene of the greatest battle of the Civil War in Lancashire. In August, 1648, Oliver Cromwell persued and fought an invading force of about 24,000 Scots under the command of the Duke of Hamilton. This battle started in Preston and continued for 30 miles until the Scots made their last stand at Winwick. Over 1,000 men were killed at Winwick.

WOOLSTON
The name of Woolston, which first appears in a charter-dated about 1180, consists of two Old English elements. The first of which is a personal name, either "Wulfies" or "Wulfsiges", followed by "tun". Martinscroft similarly means a small place, or croft, belonging to someone named "Martin".

Collated by David Lawrenson from "Warrington and the Mid Mersey Valley" by GA Carter