The Wirral Carrs and Holms

In 2007 Steve published a peer reviewed paper in the Journal of the English Place Name Society (vol 39, pages 46-57) describing the distribution of the Old Norse topological names referring to marshy, wetland areas - namely carrs (Old Norse kjarr - brushwood on a marsh) and holms (Old Norse holmr - island of dry land in a marshy/wetland area) - and then its relevance to the Battle of Brunanburh.

The Wirral Carrs and Holms

Stephen Harding

University of Nottingham

The Wirral peninsula in north-west England (Figure 1) was once home to a vibrant colony of Scandinavian settlers, many of whom were Norsemen expelled from Ireland. The arrival of one group, led by Ingimund in AD 902, has now been well described but there were others, including Danes (Cavill et al. 2000 & refs therein). The intensity of the settlement is borne out by the distribution of major or settlement names in Wirral, such as Arrowe, Caldy, Claughton, Gayton, Larton, Lingham, Mollington Torold, Ness, Neston, Storeton, Thingwall, Thurstaston, Tranmere, the -by names (Frankby, Greasby, Helsby, Irby, Kirkby in Wallasey, Pensby, Raby, West Kirby, Whitby and the now lost Haby, Hesby/Eskeby, Warmby, Kiln Walby, Stromby and Syllaby) and the Norse-Irish Liscard and Noctorum. Some further settlement names, such as Birkenhead, Heswall and Woodchurch, are of Anglian origin but were influenced by theincoming Norsemen. The intensity of settlement can, however, perhaps best be gauged from the minor or field names. The distinguished antiquarian, F.T. Wainwright, stated the following in 1943 (repr. Cavill et al. 2000: 98):

It is known that during the early part of the tenth century there occurred

a large scale Norse immigration into Wirral. How heavy was this influx is

illustrated by the field-names which, even in their modern forms, preserve

ample proof of the intensity of the Scandinavian settlement.

Outstanding examples are brekka ‘slope, hillside’ (e.g. The Breck SJ 297917, Flaybrick SJ 293895, Wimbricks SJ 247879 and the Newton Breken SJ 238875), slakki ‘shallow valley’ or ‘hollow’ (e.g. the Heswall slack at SJ 272818, the Bromborough Slack at SJ 360821, Acre Slack Wood at SJ 339815 and the West Kirby Slack at SJ 216865), the many instances of ærgi ‘shieling, pastureland’ (e.g. Arrowe Park at SJ 270860), þveit ‘clearing’ (e.g. the many thwaites in the Bidston area), klint ‘projecting rock’ (e.g. the Clynsse stone (1642), now the Granny stone, at the Wallasey Breck SJ 297917 and The Clints at SJ 345827 at Brotherton Park, Bromborough), hestaskeið ‘horse race track’ (at Irby SJ 257844 and Thornton Hough SJ 302812) and the >100 instances of the element rák ‘lane’.

Of particular interest are the 51 instances of kjarr (carr / ker) and 24 of holmr (e.g. Lingham) in north Wirral, names associated with marshy land (Table 1): kjarr is an ON word meaning ‘brushwood; marsh; boggy land overgrown with brushwood’ and holmr is ON meaning ‘dry ground in a marsh; island of useable land in a marshy area; a water meadow’. It is notable that there are no instances in Wirral of thecorresponding English names – elements such as mersc ‘marsh’ and ēg ‘dry ground in a marsh’ – for the same features.

Table 1. The Wirral carrs and holms [all names were recorded in the 19th-century tithe map apportionments or earlier].

Name                                                                         Parish/Township                                 Location

Bedestoncarre (1306; now Bidston Moss)                 Bidston                                                 SJ 293910

Wallacre                                                                      Bidston                                                 SJ 293917

Oxholme                                                                     Bidston                                                 SJ 276903

Olucar (1347)                                                             Bidston                                                 SJ 295912*

Holmegarth                                                                 Bidston                                                 SJ 289888

Near Holmes Wood                                                     Claughton                                            SJ 310888

Further Holmes Wood (1824)                                     Claughton                                            SJ 309888

Carr                                                                             Grange                                                  SJ 232881

Carr                                                                             Grange                                                  SJ 224884

Carr Farm                                                                    Grange                                                 SJ 242893

Carr Field                                                                    Grange                                                  SJ 226878

Carr Side Field                                                            Great Meols                                         SJ 232896

Carr Hall Farm                                                            Great Meols                                         SJ 245895

Carr Farm                                                                    Great Meols                                         SJ 242893

Carr House                                                                   Great Meols                                        SJ 248897

Carr Lane                                                                     Great Meols                                       SJ 244902 to

                         SJ249894

Carr Lane                                                                     Hoylake                                              SJ 217887 to

                         SJ 224885

Carremedowe (1306) now Carr                                  Landican                                              SJ 287865

Bridge Meadow

Carr Bridge Field                                                         Landican                                              SJ 285866

Near Carr Bridge Field                                                Landican                                              SJ 283865

Holme Hays                                                                 Leighton                                              SJ 282803

Carr                                                                              Little Meols                                          SJ 228887

Carr                                                                              Little Meols                                         SJ 223885

Carr Lane Field                                                            Little Meols                                         SJ 225896

Carr Field                                                                     Little Meols                                         SJ 223888

Carr Side Hey                                                               Little Meols                                         SJ 222887

Carr Hey                                                                       Little Meols                                          SJ 223881

Lingham Moreton cum                                                 Lingham                                              SJ 252910

Lingham Lane                                                               Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 252913 to

                           SJ 255903

Dangkers (now Danger) Lane                                       Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 266907 to

                                                                                                                                                   SJ 268903

Bottom o’th’carrs                                                          Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 273910

West Car                                                                        Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 247911

West Carr Meadow                                                        Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 247913

West Carr Hay                                                                Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 252905

Holme Hay                                                                     Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 245905

Big Holme Hay                                                               Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 252908

Little Holme Hay                                                            Moreton cum Lingham                       SJ 254907

Holme Intake                                                                   Moreton cum Lingham                      SJ 253911

Holme Heys                                                                     Neston (Great & Little)                     SJ 292798

Newton Car (1842)                                                          Newton cum Larton                          SJ 225881

Sally Carr Lane (now footpath)                                       Newton cum Larton                         SJ 235878 to

                           SJ 238877

Carr Lane                                                                         Newton cum Larton                         SJ 214877 to

                          SJ 225873

Carr                                                                                   Newton cum Larton                        SJ 228885

Carr Meadow                                                                    Newton cum Larton                        SJ 226884

Holmesides                                                                        Newton cum Larton                        SJ 234881

Banakers                                                                            Newton cum Larton                        SJ 236877

Salacres#                                                                            Overchurch and Upton                  SJ 273879

Salacre# Lane                                                                     Overchurch and Upton                  SJ 272881 to

                           SJ 276877

Lanacre#                                                                             Overchurch and Upton                  SJ 266885

Hough Holmes                                                                   Overchurch and Upton                  SJ 276882

Le Kar (1294)                                                                     Overchurch and Upton                  SJ 265883*

Holm Lane                                                                          Oxton                                             SJ 296866 to

                           SJ 320873

New Home (1831)                                                              Oxton                                             SJ 300870*

Home Field                                                                         Oxton                                             SJ 293866

Home Hey                                                                           Oxton                                             SJ 292868

Little Home                                                                         Oxton                                             SJ 291867

Carr Bridge Meadow                                                           Oxton                                             SJ 289870

Carr Field Hey                                                                     Oxton                                             SJ 291869

Carr House Croft                                                                 Pensby                                            SJ 271841

Five Acre Holme                                                                 Prenton                                            SJ 294863

Bridge Holme                                                                      Prenton                                            SJ 294865

Top Holme                                                                           Prenton                                           SJ 298864

Lower Holme                                                                       Prenton                                           SJ 297865

The Holme                                                                           Prenton                                           SJ 296866

Higher Holme                                                                      Prenton                                           SJ 296864

Carr Farm                                                                            Saughall Massie                              SJ 242893

Carr Houses                                                                        Saughall Massie                              SJ 247906

Carr Meadow                                                                      Saughall Massie                              SJ 239901

New Carr                                                                             Saughall Massie                              SJ 235897

Carr                                                                                      Saughall Massie                             SJ 239902

Carr Hay                                                                               Saughall Massie                             SJ 241899

Old Carr Meadow                                                                Saughall Massie                             SJ 242902

Old Carr                                                                               Saughall Massie                             SJ 245902

Old Carr                                                                               Saughall Massie                             SJ 242900

Carr Lane                                                                             Saughall Massie                           SJ 244902 to

                           SJ 249894

Wallacre Road / Waley-Carr                                               Wallasey                                        SJ 294917 to

                           SJ 297919

Routheholm (1306)                                                            Wallasey                                          not known

Lower Ackers#                                                                   Woodchurch                                     SJ 282866

Higher Ackers#                                                                  Woodchurch                                     SJ 283866

Holmlake (1209)                                                                Great Stanney                                   SJ 419754*

Holmlache (1209)                                                              Stanlow                                            SJ 421756*

# = last element could be ON kjarr, ON akr; * = estimated position

Plotted on a map (Figure 2), they reveal an interesting trend and most congregate around the Rivers Birket and Fender. They suggest that much of north Wirral was of relatively low-quality farming land subject to flooding and tidal inundation, a feature that persisted through the centuries until the sea defences and embankments were constructed and completed in the late 19th / early 20th centuries. The scene captured in the photograph of Figure 3, taken in 1912 at Kerr’s Field, Lingham, must have been commonplace and indeed appears to have led to the belief amongst locals that the legendary event, when King Knut tried to stem the waves (“I command you therefore not to rise on my land, nor to presume to wet the clothing or limbs of your master”, see Greenway, 1996: 366–8), took place on the north Wirral coast. Wirral was home to the Canute chair, built by the Cust family of Leasowe in the 1820s (see Harding 2000; 2006: 33–5).

 

Persistence of a Scandinavian dialect

Recent studies by scholars such as Kenneth Cameron (1997) have shown that the minor names in an area tell us a great deal about the kind of vocabulary of the community. The distribution of the carrs and holms (Figure 2) taken alongside the distribution of all minor names in Wirral with Scandinavian elements (Figure 4) attest to the persistence of dialect reflecting the intensity of the original settlement, re-affirming Wainwright’s (1943) proposition. Specific distributions of brekka, slakki,

rák and inntak are given in Harding (2000).

Taken alone, individual names describing a landscape feature are limited to the occurrence of that feature – so that the distribution of carrs and holms shows the concentration of boggy areas in Wirral as much as the Norse influence of naming. The original Scandinavian words kjarr and holmr would have been borrowed early into English as ker and holm, and the evidence of the use of these elements in Wirral is all from after the Norman Conquest, the earliest recorded examples being Holmlache (1209) in Stanlow (PN Ch 4: 186; perhaps the same place as Holmlake (1209) in Great Stanney, PN Ch 4: 184), le Kar (1294) in Overchurch and Routheholm (1306) in Wallasey where holmr is compounded with the ON adjective rauðr ‘red’ (PN Ch 4: 335). But perhaps the fact that the normal Old English words for these particular topographical features are completely absent in these areas is of some significance. The Norse[1]derived words had become the normal ones in Wirral when the names were given. The persistence of a Scandinavian dialect through the centuries is reinforced by other evidence. The 14^th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which part of the action takes place in Wirral, is thought to have been written by someone from the area or not far away (Wilson, 1979; Mathew, 1968: 166; Harding, 2002: 181–7). This poem is notable for its use of a large number (amounting to some 10% of its content) of Norse dialect words, such as storr, karp, renk, gata, rendering it very different from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written around the same time.

 

Wirral was not entirely boggy and uninviting. In Bidston, close to the Bedestoncarre and

Olucar, we have evidence of extensive clearing with large numbers of thwaite-names: from the 19th-century tithe apportionments (with earlier forms recorded in 1644 or 1646) we find The Cornhill Thwaite (SJ 79913), The Great Thwaite (SJ 281912), Marled Thwaite (SJ 277914), Meadow Thwaite (SJ 279915), Salt Thwaite (SJ 282916), Spencer’s Thwaite (SJ 281916), Tassey’s Thwaite (SJ 277915), Whinney’s Thwaite (SJ 277913) and the associated Thwaite Lane. Earlier we find Inderthwaite and Utterthwaite (both 1522), the Thwaytes and Oldetwayt (both 1357). Around the centre of the Norse

enclave, moreover (Figure 4), we still find, in the 19th century, the use of ON ǽrgi in its original sense of ‘a shieling, a hill pasture’. From the tithe apportionments for Arrowe we find, for example, Youd’s and Bennet’s Arrowe (SJ 268855), Brown’s Arrowe (SJ 264865), Bithel’s Arrowe (SJ263863), Harrison’s Arrowe (SJ 263860), Widings Arrowe (SJ 263861), Whartons Arrowe (SJ 262857) etc., as well as associated names such as Arrowe Hill (SJ 275873), Arrowe Bridge (SJ 265868) and Arrowe Brook, a tributary of the River Birket. The persistence of this word of Celtic origin, adapted by Viking settlers abroad (PN Ch 4: 262) is not only evidence of a continuing dialect but also of the continuation of a type of farming used (and still used) by the Norwegians, i.e. transhumance (see, e.g., Jesch 2000), whereby cattle and sheep are pastured away from the farmhouse during summer months, saving the nearby pasture for winter fodder.

 

Connection with the battle of Brunanburh

Finally, it is worth commenting on the possible (and perhaps unexpected) relevance of the carrs and holms to the battle of Brunanburh. This battle was fought in AD 937 by a force of Dublin Norsemen led by Olaf Guthfrithsson – known in Old English sources as Anlaf – with Celtic allies, principally from Scotland, against a combined English army led by King Æthelstan of the Mercians and West Saxons, coming from the Midlands and the south. The only contemporary record of the battle is in the form of a poem, recorded in versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 937 (A, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 173; B, British Library Cotton Tiberius A vi; C, Cotton Tiberius B.i; D, Cotton Tiberius B. iv and one manuscript now lost). The poem tells of the battle taking place ymb Brunanburh, i.e. ‘around Brunanburh’ and of Anlaf’s defeated force escaping on Dingesmere, then across the deep waters of the Irish Sea back to Dublin (Campbell 1938: 115):

Gewitan him þa norþmen nægledcnearrum,

dreorig daraða laf, on Dingesmere,

ofer deop wæter Difelin secan,

eft Ira land, æwiscmode. (53–6)

[Then the Northmen, dreary survivors of the spears, went in

the nail-studded ships on Dingesmere, over deep water, to

seek Dublin, went back to Ireland ashamed.]

 

Nobody has been quite sure where the battle took place – the poem only mentions the three place-names Brunanburh, Dingesmere and Difelin – although most scholars accept that Brunanburh is Bromborough on the Wirral (see Cavill 2001: 105–6), Brunanburh being an old form of Bromborough (Figure 5). The other favoured major sites have included Brinsworth near Rotherham or Burnswark near Dumfries, although the arguments for these sites have been subject to severe criticism (see, e.g., Higham 1997; Cavill 2007). One of the mysteries until recently has been the location of Dingesmere. Earlier proposals had suggested Dingesmere meant ‘the [river] Dee’s mere’ (Dodgson 1957; 1967) or ‘the noisy sea’ from the variant spelling Dinnesmere but these have been dismissed on linguistic grounds (PN Ch 4: 240). A more plausible suggestion was made by Cavill et al. (2004) that Dingesmere actually means ‘the Thing’s mere’, i.e. ‘water, or water feature overlooked by, or controlled by, the Thing’. Not far from Bromborough is Thingwall, the centre of the (Wirral) Scandinavian settlement and site of the Thing – its assembly field or parliament. The -mere appears to come from OE mere ‘wetland’ or ON marr ‘marsh’, rather than ‘sea’, and the term was used to warn travellers coming by sea or from the Dee to the Thing, of the presence of this feature. In considering a likely site on Wirral where this ‘Thing’s mere’ might be, Cavill et al. suggested (because of its proximity) a region of wetland/marshland around the coast at Heswall (Figure 5),

approximately 4km from Thingwall, with the caveat that this coastline would have been different in the 10th century. Such a site would not necessarily have been the point of landing of Olaf’s fleet, but might have been a site at which some sort of craft for part of a force to escape from was located, or to which a skeleton fleet could quickly have been moved from where the fleet was moored (possibly Meols, then, with its natural harbour, Hyle Lake, one of the main sea-ports in the Irish Sea region). This present analysis of the existence and distribution of the large number of minor names expressing marshy features reinforces this view, although the analysis is also consistent with the coastal wetland or marshland of Dingesmere being near Meols itself (Figure 5).

 

Conclusion

 

The distribution of topographical minor names tells us as much about the distribution of natural features as it does about the people who named them. In the case of the Wirral carrs and holms, the high density in the former Norse enclave tell us about the distribution of boggy ground before the modern construction of the sea defences. It also reflects the persistence of the Scandinavian dialect throughout the centuries, and the absence of the corresponding English names for the same features is testament to the dominance of this dialect in the medieval period. This conclusion is also reflected in a recent sociolinguistic study (Coates 1998) and further strengthened by evidence from recent genetic studies, which shows a population admixture for the area of around 50% Celtic and 50%

Norse (Bowden et al. 2007).

 

NCMH Laboratories

University of Nottingham

Sutton Bonington

LE12 5RD, UK

E: Steve.Harding@nottingham.ac.uk

 

Acknowledgements

 

The help and advice of Dr. Paul Cavill of the English Place Name Society is gratefully appreciated, as is that of Howard Mortimer (Wirral Council), Peter France and John Emmett (local archaeologists). The help and patience of Paul Newman, Derek Joinson, Margaret Cole, Caroline Picco and John Hopkins of Chester and Cheshire Archives & Local Studies is also very much appreciated.

 

 

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