What makes Black Bank black?
Who was St Aidan?
Who or what was Jervis, and why is it's Lum spelt differently to other Lumbs?
Was there an actual thorn tree/s that gave the name to Arbouthorne? If so, where?

Any ideas? :?: :?: :?: :?:

No idea about those but why call the Wicker such?? Personal interest as everyone wanted me to open up my shop down there what with the religion of Wicca and the Wicker man.

Moon Maiden

I made a small attempt to find out about Wicker while I was looking for the other things. Not much luck, I'm afraid, but if I do find out, I'll post it
:)

Right, had a better look this time. Seems Sheffield has it's fair share of historians. One of them suggests that the Wicker was originally a place of assembly for various celebrations, meetings, etc. This is when it was a big open space overlooking the river, not a great hulking arches.
According to this person, a great many reeds grew along there, and were used by local women to weave baskets, etc. Hence rather than calling it T'Assembly Ground or That Place Where We Go to Fetch the Stuff to Make Wicker Baskets, it fell into being called The Wicker.
Sorry, no wicca.
But there were gypsies, according to the mothers who later constantly told their kiddies to stay away or be stolen away.
If you're desperate, I'll try and make a link to the site I found it at, but I'm a bit crap at stuff like that...

Laura

A wiccan would still love to attach the idea of a village or town meeting place.
They would convert it lovingly to a village meeting place for witches.

Thank you for looking anyway....very interesting even though it doesn't have heathen associations.

how do you get into this stuff......even better how do you find the answers?

Moon Maiden
History Hungry

I've always had an interest in history, especially the local bits and pieces for anywhere I live or spend time in. And especially the mysterious, legendary, esoteric, and odd. I like to know why roads are called what they're called, which group first settled in somewhere, what pieces of the past are lingering on into today.
On a personal level I'm a re-enactor as well, we recreate life as closely as possible to what the Anglo-Dane settlers in this area in the 10th and 11th centuries would have lived. Lots of fascinating tools, clothes, beliefs, and customs...yum...
On a work level, my job has coincidentally taken a turn down the local history route, with an agenda to include the cultures, identity and past of the area into the present regeneration of Norfolk Park and Arbourthorne, sewing together the new and the old to ensure a 'sense of place' for the community. Oh dear, I don't get any better at explaining that...
As for finding things out, I'm stumbling in the dark a bit. But there are loads of local /social history and geneaology pages for Sheffield on the net that lead you on to even more...and more...so many people out there who have spent years researching their fave area or topic. I've got upwards of twenty links in my Faves box on the comp. I'm also a fan of books with titles like Ghosts of Sheffield, Curiosities of Sheffield, The Strange blah blah...stuff with quirky bits of info.
Sorry to go on a bit. :lol:
Blessings,
Laura

Re-enactor eh???

Do you you know Gnome then???? She does Medaevil re-enactment I believe.

Moon Maiden

Prob'ly not.
Our group is part of a national one called Regia Anglorum. Like most Sheffield groups, we're quite insular without meaning to be. I've been trying to get local groups (who cover every time and place imaginable) to speak to each other more often, but am not sure how to go about it.

Laura

Weel I have been trying to get Gnome to come into the forum here for ages, but her work is tying her up at the mo.

If you want to get out to meet them then I will pass on your details.

Moon Maiden

Thanks.
my own E-mail is cosywolf@yahoo.com

Happiness,
Laura

I believe the wicker got its name from the time when Sheffield Castle was nearby and the place which is now the Wicker was used for tournaments and archery practice. In mediaeval times all that area saw festivities and games for the locals.

It was ideal being near to the castle, the centre of social life particularly in the summer and the whole area being flat. In the twelveth century all around there would have been covered by forest.

Thanks, darlin'.
Any ideas on my other place names? :D

Laura

There is an excellent book recently available by, I think, Peter Harvey. He used to write for the Sheffield Star and he's the one that produced a series of photo books about Sheffield which, I'm sure, a lot of people will be familiar with. Anyway, the new book tells the stories behind a lot of Sheffield street names and is a very interesting read. The only trouble is, it takes a while to go through it and the staff in W H Smiths don't like you standing there too long!

Must get round to buying it one of these days.

Jim

Ooh. I wonder if work'll pay for that? I'm all out of pocket money for this month. Do you remember what the book was called? Or will it be fairly obvious if I browse the local section?

Laura

Just read an article in The Gruniad which mentioned that Blonk Street derived from the old English for horse.

:lol: As in 'jump on your blonk and ride out of town, mister' ?

It's something like 'Sheffield Street names' by Peter Harvey - bit obvious really!

There are 3 possibilities for the Wicker - 2 from old words - wic and wicka (or something like that) and one from Norse - viker(?)

wic - a place near a castle
wicka - a place near a bend in a river (Don)

forgotten what the last one was - DOH!

Must buy the book!

Jim

What about ParsonCross then?
Who was this vicar, and why was he angry?

Originally posted by senseofplace
What makes Black Bank black?
Who was St Aidan?
Who or what was Jervis, and why is it's Lum spelt differently to other Lumbs?
Was there an actual thorn tree/s that gave the name to Arbouthorne? If so, where?

Any ideas? :?: :?: :?: :?: google search,jervis lum was ancient woodland,the lum was a shaded walk ..

Archive C D Books
The Sheffield Local Register
This is a wealth of information from A.D 200-1908

St Aidan was an Irish monk and was supposedly the first inhabitant of the island of Lindisfarne. There is no Sheffield connection as far as I know, as you'll find churches bearing his name throughout the country.

A lot of street names in the city centre and some of the areas are quite descriptive but have been forgotten in time. Spital hill did lead to a hospital. fargate was the fargate, the moor was a moor. west bar was a toll bar ect.
I understand that the wicker was called assembly green and then the namegot changed to the wicker due to the amount of ofit growing there.
Assembly green was where the men had to meet to pracitse the long bow which was law at the time.
Salmon pastures is only half a mile on from there and its still called that.
Barkers pool was a pond that had a sluice gate that opened and washed all the crap down the hill to the river don.
Thers loads of books in waterstones about sheffield history and most are quite cheap. well worth a look

Any ideas on how Snig Hill got the name. Suggestions so far are that they used to put a "snig" under the cart wheels to stop it rolling away, a "snig" being a wedge of wood specially shaped, the other one being that at the bottom of the hill was a pond which was full of eels and (apparently) an ancient name for the eel is snig. Any others??

This is probably the oldest place name in Sheffield, dating back to the pre-Saxon, pre-Christian Dark Ages.
Don being a derivative of the name of the Celt's Godess, Danu.
Water was holy environment for the Britons and it's not surprising that many modern river names were acquired all that time ago before Christianity.

Originally posted by jimbol
It's something like 'Sheffield Street names' by Peter Harvey - bit obvious really!

Jim

It's "Street Names of Sheffield" by Peter Harvey £17:95. They have it on the counter at 'Pinders' on Moore St (next to Wickes in town) - read it while you're waiting to be served!

legend has been passed down that Arbourthorne was named for an "arbour" (arch or bower/ posssibly orchard) of thorns or roses that was planted for Mary, Queen of Scots during her time in "captivity" in Sheffield Manor.

RE:- the names of Sheffield streets that end in "gate", such as Fargate, Waingate etc:- the word Gate is from the Norse "Gata" (sp?) which meant "street"

Snig hill was supposedly named for the "snig" that was placed beneath the wheels of the horse-drawn carts to prevent them from slipping on the steep hill. (a bit like placing bricks or wedges beneath a car wheels on a drive to stop it rolling).

As for the Wicker, I had also heard that it was from "wic" , to do with the vicinity of the castle. (which would be quite logical, wouldn't it?) I love the local tongue-twister. the sign of a true Sheffielder is to be able to recite the following, in a comprehensible form...

"T' Wicker, we'er t'watter runs o'er 't weir"

PT