There are 27 places with the word 'eccles' contained in their name in the North and North West. And a cake.

Why??? What is the significance of the word? Was it, perhaps, a person? A past-time? Or a dance maybe? :confused:

It means Church in celtic.

Eccles is a word of Greek origin meaning an assembly

i will never look at a eccles cake the same ever again.......church assembly cake:o

Originally posted by SheffieldLive
i will never look at a eccles cake the same ever again.......church assembly cake:o
Do Bath Buns come out all pink and wrinkly if you leave them in too long?

Originally posted by Agent Dan
There are 27 places with the word 'eccles' contained in their name in the North and North West. And a cake.



And a very famous road in Sheffield.:loopy:

Originally posted by mikey
And a very famous road in Sheffield.:loopy:

Really?! I never would have guessed... :D (but seriously the last thing I wanted to do was mention it (fear of major conflict!))

Also, some people are named Eccles, such as my sons friend at school, known as James Eccles..........so there is an Eccles family, imagine how much they got called Eccles Cakes at school, poor them.

eccles as in ecclesiastical.

Originally posted by back2basics
It means Church in celtic.
That explains why Eccles from The Goons was so revered.

Pictures here for those too young to remember:

Eccles (http://www.soton.ac.uk/~sg3/eccles.htm)

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
eccles as in ecclesiastical.

Never thought of that before, but now it makes sense!

I was brought up to think that Ecclesall is spelt like that without an "h" as that is the Sheffield way but nearly everyone outside Sheffield spells it as "Eccleshall".

Does anyone know of any other Ecclesall's spelt like ours? And is ours just the result of the Yorkshire H dropping 'abit or is there some difference between Eccles-all and Eccles-hall?

BTW on the definition both the Celtic and Greek origins are in a sense correct. The origin is absolutely Greek as Mowith says. It was taken from there into Latin hence all the ecclesiastical type words. It went into Cornish Celtic as Eglos as in Egloshayle and Egloskerry in Cornwall (the k and g sound have a close relationship in Celtic languages). In French it evolves into the word Eglise. It may be that the French transition happened first and then it crossed to Cornwall from Brittany as they spoke the same sort of Celtic for a long time? Need a proper philologist here...

Whether our Eccles is from a Celtic root or an Anglo-Saxon/Danish one I don't know. This would have been a Danish controlled area pre-Norman conquest and I guess that an Eccles type root would have been absorbed into that language as well.

Thanks! I am astounded by the rersponse you've all made! Thank you, and be in no doubt that if I'm ever on who wants to be a millionaire then I'll use my one phone call to dial up the internet instead!!

Incidentally, can you study philology anywhere in Sheffield?

Even got an MP's response (who sounds like history is his passion), now thats service :)

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
eccles as in ecclesiastical.

Or Ecclesiastes - To Every Thing There Is a Season...:)