💾 Archived View for sdf.org › stug › phlog › 2021 › 20210611.txt captured on 2023-03-20 at 19:30:18.
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
11 June 2021 What is in a place name? I have always found place names rather fascinating. The UK is full of some very odd names which are often pronounced differently. This is due to the mix of Celtic, Pictish, Roman, Saxon, Norman and Danish influence over the country as it formed. There are things such as knowing that places ending in ester were fortified towns and derives from caester. Well Birmingham is essentially the settlement of Beorm's children. I have been reading a fair number of facebook posts about Birmingham's Roman heritage. Essentially a Roman road passes through the area and the names broadly come from that. This road is now known as Icknield Street and passed through Digbeth and past Perry Barr. Digbeth comes from the Saxon 'dican' which means to dig and 'boeth' which means bath. It is the site of a bath which was dug over. In fact, Icknield Street is meant to be a sort of bastardised version of Ack-veld street, where 'ack' is the Saxon for oak and 'veld' is feld. The meaning is essentially fallen oak tree way. The name of a street or an area can often tell you alot about the history of that area. Particularly if you use the local accent. Digbeth sort of sounds like Dig-Bath when a brummie accent is used.