Book Review – Essex Place-Names: Places, Streets and People

Kemble, James, Essex Place-Names: Places, Streets and People, (Historical Publications Ltd., 2007), 160pp, £14.95.

Place-names express an attribute of their place of origin. These attributes follow some general formations. Names may relate to habitation; thus Wix is simply derived from the Saxon wic, or dairy farm, the local type of habitation, and maybe records a notably productive farming area. The people who lived in the feld, or open country around Finchingfield, were Finc's people. The derivation frequently relates to animals, maybe those residing locally and probably in uncommonly large numbers; Rettendon is derived from raett dun, a rat-infested hill; Borley from bar leah, a boar wood or clearing. Vegetation is represented in Birchanger, bierce hangar, birch-covered hanging or sloping ground; golde hangra, for a marigold covered slope at Goldhanger; Oakley, from ac leah, oak-tree wood. All these examples are drawn from Essex Place-Names by James Kemble.

A locality becomes associated with a word or expression that once described and now defines the place. Finc's people have long gone, the boar has been extinct in England for over 300 years, until recent reintroduction that is, and the marigolds are doubtless less prominent than in earlier times, but the labels still persist. Place-names acquire their longevity easily. There is an inbuilt disinclination to change the name of a place, when to do so would remove it from maps and render the place itself anonymous albeit temporarily. In England, their persistence must also be aided both by a national adherence to tradition and to a rich history. The study of place-name is an integral aspect of local historical research as well as being an absorbing fascination.

The source, meaning and classification of Essex place-names are the subjects of this book. At its core, the book contains a gazetteer of parish, manor and river names, as quoted above. This is supplemented by a similar list of street, road and local names. These lists do not attempt to be exhaustive but the main themes are illustrated. Preceding these lists, several essays provide background and comment on the main sources and influences on names; influences from the Saxon period; Norman names as recorded, for example, in Little Domesday Book, a source so informative for Essex and East Anglia; those names that refer back to French estates, such as Mountfitchet: estate charters and the Essex royal forests, both estates and forests sometimes being accompanied by descriptive and detailed perambulations of their boundaries; and lesser field and minor place-names. The book is completed by lists, which classify some of the place-names according to their origin, Celtic, Scandinavian and Pagan derivations, and those with natural sources from animals, trees and plants, for example.

So where does the book fit in the literature of place-names? The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names is the authoritative work covering all names in a particular OS road atlas. It is England and it comes at a price. The Place-Names of Essex by Reaney is assiduous in listing in detail the changing representation of a wide selection of Essex names. The works of Margaret Gelling should also be mentioned in passing. However, these books are for the specialist and research purposes. The present volume is aimed at the general reader, and his pocket. The expectation is that he or she on reading will become enthused by the study of place-names, either in a particular locality or more widely in Essex. The essays in the book serve to introduce the issues on which a more advanced interest can be developed. The author has taken an independent approach so there are some discrepancies in interpretation with the Cambridge dictionary, indicating a continuing lively dialogue in the subject. Freely illustrated with Essex photographs and prints the book is a useful contribution to Essex lore.