Thoresby Society - Curious Place Names

[LS1]

Can't seem to find any info on here about some of the names that are featured on the link from the Thoresby Society.Cripplegate for one I have never heard of and am not sure of it's location. There don't seem to be any info elswhere for this name. The link is http://www.thoresby.org.uk/curious.htmand the list is:BLACK BANK. An area probably between the Bank and York Road. It was also known as Gallows Hill.BOTANY BAY. A location in Armley by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in the vicinity of Canal Road and Armley Mills. It was said that the first wool from Australia was landed here in the early nineteenth century. The name was often corrupted in the area by locals to ‘Botny’.BUTTS LANE. The site of the archery butts of medieval Leeds. In 1826 its name was changed to Basinghall Street. Butts Court still echoes the ancient association, however. There is also a Butt Lane at Farnley.COLD BATH WELL. Sited at Weetwood. Some historians argue it was a relic of the Roman occupation.CRACKNEY. The area in the neighbourhood of Vicar Lane and the Markets.CRIPPLEGATE. The passageway leading from the top of Mill Hill to Albion Street.CUDDY WELL. It was sited on Meanwood Road. It was also know as the Draw Well. Its waters were used to treat eye disorders and for iron deficiency.EYE BRIGHT WELL. Sited on Wellington Street, in 1819 it was developed into a public baths.FEARN’S ISLAND. Named after the owner of Nether Mills . It is an area between Timble Beck and the river Aire. The Royal Armouries Museum overlooks the site. In the twenty-first century many of the mill buildings here have been redeveloped as apartments.HOLY WELL. Sited in Armley, its name is preserved in the pathway Holywell Lane in the district.ISLE OF CINDER. Street near Swinegate.LADY BECK. Name given to Adel and Sheepscar Beck where it enters the river Aire.MABGATE. In all probability the red light district of medieval Leeds. A ‘mab’ was a woman who engaged in prostitution.MAYOR’S NEST. Frequently used name for Mill Hill Chapel. It acquired the sobriquet because of the number of mayors who worshipped there.NEW CUT. A short stretch of the Aire Calder navigation which by-passes Leeds Dam.NEW TOWN. Designation of buildings to the west of Briggate.OLD TOWN. Designation of buildings to the east of Briggate.PAWDMYRE. District at the top of Briggate.NORTH-BURG and WALLFLATT. Other names for Quarry Hill.SANDY LOBBY. A bathing-cum-padding pool situated by Aire Street and used during the nineteenth century.SLAVERING BABY WELL. Sited in the woods of Adel. The water spouted from the mouth of a carved head.THE STEANDER. An area between East Street and Marsh Lane. In 1730 Abraham Powell was executed ‘on the common steander’ for stealing cloth from the local tenter grounds. In the nineteenth century it was later an area used for coal staithes and as a timber yard.

[Steve Jones]

some of the wells have been covered in my holy wells and spas thread.The eyebright well on wellington street was covered in a thread about the building attached to the back of the old wellesley which i thought was it but turned out to be a remnant of the old station in the course of that thread a map is posted showing the position of the well.meanwood well is still there.

[LS1]

Agreed Steve, though was more hoping there would be some ideas on things like:CRIPPLEGATECRACKNEYPAWDMYREWALLFLATTSANDY LOBBYI would suggest most of the other names have good explanations (Mabgate for example) but the ones above are a)strange and b) ones that I have never heard of but think I aught to have!

[Steve Jones]

LS1 wrote: Agreed Steve, though was more hoping there would be some ideas on things like:CRIPPLEGATECRACKNEYPAWDMYREWALLFLATTSANDY LOBBYI would suggest most of the other names have good explanations (Mabgate for example) but the ones above are a)strange and b) ones that I have never heard of but think I aught to have! sometimes you just have to give up.There is an area of Castleford at Spital Hardwick marked as SPAWD BONE on Victorian maps and i have never been able to find out why it was called that odd name!

[uncle mick]

Steve Jones wrote: LS1 wrote: Agreed Steve, though was more hoping there would be some ideas on things like:CRIPPLEGATECRACKNEYPAWDMYREWALLFLATTSANDY LOBBYI would suggest most of the other names have good explanations (Mabgate for example) but the ones above are a)strange and b) ones that I have never heard of but think I aught to have! sometimes you just have to give up.There is an area of Castleford at Spital Hardwick marked as SPAWD BONE on Victorian maps and i have never been able to find out why it was called that odd name! From the middle English ‘spaldbone’ – shoulder boneFrom http://www.knottingley.org/history/spen ... s13.htmAny use ???????

[simong]

There are Cripplegates in other cities including York and the City of London. In fact, the website for the church St Giles Cripplegate in London includes the following explanation:The word "Cripplegate" has nothing to do with cripples, although no doubt there would have been plenty of cripples by the Cripplegate, wanting alms from travellers as they entered and left the City. The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon "cruplegate" which means a covered way or tunnel which ran from the town gate of Cripplegate to the Barbican, a fortified watchtower on the City wall.which explains what it was if not where, but it's probably reasonable to assume that it's under the Bond Street Centre. According to this earlier thread: http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... eadID=3943 it's more or less where the castle (or fortified manor house) was so it may have been a tunnel or path in the lee of the fortifications.The etymology of Crackney could be the same as Hackney in London - an ey, which is an island or raised place in a marsh, owned by someone called Crack or similar.A myre could be as the modern world 'mire', a stretch of swampy or boggy ground (there's a pattern forming here - the mediaeval River Aire was obviously less well managed than in later times so in some places land and water was interchangable). A flatt is more of the same (as in mud flats), so possibly a slightly raised area by the castle/manor wall.The original etymology of 'lobby' is cloister or covered walk, from the Latin laubia or lobia, or entrance hall from German. The Latin is probably more likely. The 'sandy' could be literal (mediaeval Leeds must have been a pretty damp place) but 'sandy' in the 18th century was a colloquial name for Scotsmen (from both 'Alexander' and the old English 'sandig' for the colour of many Scots' hair) which made me have a look at whether there was a Scottish presence in the town in the Civil War period, not to mention the other connections with Scotland which go back further than Billy Bremner.This is all from half an hour's googling but they fit with how names are formed. I rather suspect they've disappeared since the banks of the river were drained and industrialised and the castle area built over.

[tilly]

Well done simong I enjoyed reading that.    

[LS1]

Great work Simon... I wonder why after all the years of Secret Leeds no-one seems to have mentioned them.I know John Harrison is mentioned as living in Pawdmyre, though I wonder why this and the other place names fell out of favour.

[simong]

Names come and go. My guess is that some of those places were outside the boundaries of the mediaeval town, which Wikipedia suggests was between Kirkgate, Briggate and the river with the castle about where the Scarboro Arms is, so in time they just got built over. If you look on the 1850 map on old-maps.co.uk the amount of industry on the riverside by what was then Wellington station is phenomenal.

[Steve Jones]

From the middle English ‘spaldbone’ – shoulder boneFrom http://www.knottingley.org/history/spen ... s13.htmAny use ??????? well at least i now know what it means.i still don't know why.thanks for that one.