Chapter VII.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

RELATIVE TO THE ANCIENT NAMES OF FIELDS,

&c.

My principal object in marshalling together so large an array of names of fields and places in the different parishes, particularly in the lines or supposed lines of the ancient roads, has been the hope that in many instances these names will tend to throw light upon the etymology of each other, and also upon their own history both in early and later times. The sources to which I am mainly indebted under this head are the surveys and apportionments under the Tithe Commutation Act, the Ordnance Survey Map, and the "Report" and "Further Reports of the Commissioners for Inquiring concerning Charities *."

Although some of these names have become partially corrupted by provincial pronunciation, it seems almost miraculous that so large a number have been accurately preserved through the lapse of so many ages. I have inserted the names of the places, as they appeared in the authorities from which I drew them; and when I knew any such to be erroneous, or that the places also went by other names, such additional information has likewise been given. Should it be asked what evidence we have that such names were given in ancient times, we reply that, for the most part, the evidence is internal, but not the less positive on that account; and that, although the names of some of the places may

* The names of the parishes, vills, and hamlets, have generally been taken from Dr. Nash's "History," Dr. Thomas's " History," Heming's "Cartulary," and the "Codex Diplomaticus."

D D

have been borrowed in after-times from those of an earlier date, while others may have assumed, by a process of corruption, their present form, yet, notwithstanding this, the majority of the names. are, undoubtedly, as they appear to be, of genuine antiquity. I must here remark, that I consider myself particularly fortunate that, at the present time, so many independent circumstances have concurred throughout the length and breadth of the land, as above stated, to assist my scattered gleanings; and, although much that is ancient flies before the advance of the railway, and the spread of more accurate knowledge, still it is consolatory that, in their passage, these vast engines of destruction, alike to traditionary names and legendary superstitions, shed a momentary light upon their victims, by aid of which the friendly antiquary can, at least, write their epitaph.

That land was in early times divided into fields, we know from Saxon grants, which describe hedges and ditches; and, Sharon Turner, in his "History of the Anglo-Saxons," thus remarks upon the subject:

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When the Anglo-Saxons invaded England, they came into a country which had been under the Roman power for about four hundred years, and where agriculture, after its more complete subjection by Agricola, had been so much encouraged, that it had become one of the western granaries of the empire. The Britons, therefore, of the fifth century may be considered to have pursued the best system of husbandry then in use, and their lands to have been extensively cultivated, with all those exterior circumstances which mark established proprietorship and improvement: as, small farms, inclosed fields, regular divisions into meadow, arable, pasture, and wood; fixed boundaries, planted hedges, artificial dykes and ditches, selected spots for vineyards, gardens, and orchards, connecting roads and paths, scattered villages, and larger towns; with appropriated names for every spot and object that marked the limits of each property, or the course of each way. All these appear in the earliest Saxon charters, and before the combating invaders had time or ability to make them, if they

Vol iii., App. No. 2.

had not found them in the island. Into such a country the Anglo-Saxon adventurers came, and by these facilities to rural! civilization, soon became an agricultural people. The natives, whom they despised, conquered, and enslaved, became their educators and servants in the new arts, which they had to learn, of grazing and tillage; and the previous cultivation practised by the Romanised Britons will best account for the numerous divisions, and accurate and precise descriptions of land which occur in almost all the Saxon charters. No modern conveyance could more accurately distinguish or describe the boundaries of the premises which they conveyed."

The following are summaries of the places, in or near the county, called by the names Ridgeway," " Portway," and Street."

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Chapter VIII.

RIDGEWAYS.

THERE are several plots called Ridgeway, in Norton, in Bredon; Little Ridgeway, in Newland; Ridgeway Leasow, and Great and Little Ridgeway, and Rudgeway or Ridgeway Ham or Common Field, in Powick; Ridgeway Meadow, in the parish of St. John, in Bedwardine; Ridgeway, in Feckenham; Ridgeway Close, in Tardebig; Ridgeway, in the hamlet of Northwick, in Blockley; Ridgeway Field, in Doderhill; Big Ridgeway Pieces, in Leigh; Rudgeway Furlong, in Broadway; and Ridgeway, in Eastham ;— all of which are in Worcestershire.

In Herefordshire there are Ridgeway Field and Ridgeway Coppice, in the parish of Ledbury; The Ridgeway, between the Herefordshire Beacon Camp and Eastnor; and Ridgeway Cross and Ridgeway Oak, in Cradley.

In Gloucestershire there are Ridgeway Hill, Ridgeway Piece, and Ridgeway Meadow, in Fiddington, in Ashchurch; and Rudgeway, between Tredington and Walton Cardiff.

is

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With respect to the above-mentioned "Rudgeway Furlong," in Broadway, it is stated, in the " 24th Further Report of the Commissioners for inquiring concerning Charities" for the county of Worcester, p. 574, that a plot of charity land, therein mentioned, a sellion or rudge of arable land, lying in the common fields, in a furlong there, called Rudgeway Furlong," situate at “the upper end of Broadway." Now, Johnson, quoting Ainsworth, gives the word “ sellion" thus,-" Selion. s. [Selio, low Latin] a ridge of land;" therefore it is quite clear, from the above, that Rudge means Ridge.

An account of the main lines and branches of the Ridgeway, or Rycknield Street, will be found at p. 329 to 353.

Chapter IX.

PORTWAYS.

In either Badsey, Aldington, or Bretforton, a piece used to be called Portway Furlong*. There is Portway Piece, in Wolverley; Portway Plat, in Croces in Sychampton, in Ombersley; Porte Fields Farm, and Porte Fields Road, in Claines; The Portway, in Beoley; Portridge Field, Little Portridge, and Portnells in the Berrow; The Portweye, formerly in Kempsey; Portway Field, in Warley, in Hales Owen; Portway, in Fladbury; and Portfield, in Northfield; and there was Port Street, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Lawern, in the parish of St. John, in Bedwardine; the like, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Salwarp; and Portway, on the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Wolverton;-all of which places are in Worcestershire.

Portway, in Over Arley, in Staffordshire. See p. 145.

Portway, Portway Meadow, Upper Portway Meadow, and Lower Portway Meadow, in Monington-on-the-Wye, about four miles west of Kenchester (the site of the ancient Magnat;) Portway Orchard, Portway House, and the Portway, in Orleton, in Herefordshire.

Portway Top, in Dymock, in Gloucestershire.

* See p. 336, title "Badsey."

+ See p. 286, &c., as to this Portway through Worcestershire.