SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

cnosni wrote: Mistake on wikipedia regarding the names origin,its not of Saxon origin but of Norse origin.Here is an extract from an article in 1904 by a chap called Edmund Bogg called "Round about Leeds""The place name of Headingley is of Angle coinage and was the only clan station ,in pre Norman times,on the north bank of th Aire,between Swillington and Arthington:this place was probably one of the early divisions of conquered land which the angles designated the "Hundred",that is a division of land shared by a hundred warriors and their families.Under the rule of the Norse,their military provisions included the formation of a strong federation and well belted arms district,making the Angle station of Headingley the headquarters,with the huge oak then at its full strength and beauty,the pride of the forest-rendezvous and beacon point.Here the Norsemen settled the present Wapentake of Scyre-ac,the Shire Oak marking an allotted military and political division.The old Norse word "Vapua" or "vapu means a weapon and "taka" to grasp or touch,hence the Norse "Vapontak"means the touching of weapons" Do you have Bogg's book, Round and about Leeds and the old villages of Elmete? - it is an amazing read, long out of print I'm afraid, but I did manage to get a reproduction copy some years ago.It used to be available as a reference work from the library if any one is interested.

cnosni wrote: tyke bhoy wrote: Given that Wapentake's usually took place at crossroads and river crossings i.e. easy to access from most directions, does that mean Tingley crossroads was the ancient crossroad? I had alway thought it was just so named as the crossroad where the recently modern A650 Wakefield/Bradford Road corossed the Leeds/Dewsbury Road. Very interesting site for those interested in the origins of Yorkshire/Yorkshire folk,this includes an explanation for the difference between ourselves and the rest of the English,though it could well be argued that we in the north ARE the true English as we are descendants of Angles as opposed to the southerners being from Saon stock.Reference to Tingley wapentake appears,plus many interesting facts that relate to the electoral system we have today.http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane ... tml#Angles, Well I know for a fact that my surname is Norse in origin, so I'm certainly not descended from pure Angle stock.    

Edmund Boggs books plus many other excellent local guides are available in scanned pdf format on CD-roms from Family History suppliers.I have the excellent Smiths "Old Yorkshire" series and Mayhews superb "The Annals of Yorkshire" in this format.The excellent Leeds Indexers website has also done scans of early maps of Leeds on CD-Rom.

Leeds Indexers are now called Yorkshire Indexers. here is a link to their ebooks but i can recomend all their stuff:http://www.yorkshireindexers.co.uk/foru ... page_books

Cheers for all the info folks, thats solved a question thats nagged me for a long time!By the way on the subject of the author Edmund Bogg, I did used to have a book of his called 'From Eden Vale to the Plains of York' which was a great guide to North Yorkshire although judging by the age of the book many places listed will have changed beyond recognition by now! Still these old guide books can be good for finding out about old places.Johnny

Chrism wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyrackGood old wikipedia! just read that,so cheers...you have saved me a lot of one fingered typing.

Trojan wrote: cnosni wrote: tyke bhoy wrote: Given that Wapentake's usually took place at crossroads and river crossings i.e. easy to access from most directions, does that mean Tingley crossroads was the ancient crossroad? I had alway thought it was just so named as the crossroad where the recently modern A650 Wakefield/Bradford Road corossed the Leeds/Dewsbury Road. Very interesting site for those interested in the origins of Yorkshire/Yorkshire folk,this includes an explanation for the difference between ourselves and the rest of the English,though it could well be argued that we in the north ARE the true English as we are descendants of Angles as opposed to the southerners being from Saon stock.Reference to Tingley wapentake appears,plus many interesting facts that relate to the electoral system we have today.http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane ... tml#Angles, Well I know for a fact that my surname is Norse in origin, so I'm certainly not descended from pure Angle stock.     Im sure Trojans are from Asia Minor,modern day Turkey Hee hee.

My surname ends with the suffix "son",which is a clear indicator of Norse origin.However,my family research has proved that my surname was adopted in the 19th century,so you have to be careful.The danish vikings who settled and brought about the environs of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were themselve closely associated,geographically,with the Angles and the Jutes,and quite probably had a lot of common understanding forged on the contineant.This probably accounts for the relatively harmonious (in contrast to the rest of the country)assimilation and acceptance of the Danes in the areas populated by the Angles.The Yorkshireman is a product of these two groups coming together,and therefore surnames will have been interchangeable, though this would not have occured until the late middle ages as Yorkshire/Lincolnshire/Northumberland and our very close cousins in Cumberland were the last to adopt surnames.I was reading a book today,called Pies and prejudice,written by a Lanc (sorry Munki),quite funny.Think i will buy it cause it launches into southerners,but also has a chapter dedicated to slagging us (Tykes)off.All the insults though i find are complements ie we are dour,no sense of humour,tight with money etc etc.    

chameleon wrote: cnosni wrote: Mistake on wikipedia regarding the names origin,its not of Saxon origin but of Norse origin.Here is an extract from an article in 1904 by a chap called Edmund Bogg called "Round about Leeds""The place name of Headingley is of Angle coinage and was the only clan station ,in pre Norman times,on the north bank of th Aire,between Swillington and Arthington:this place was probably one of the early divisions of conquered land which the angles designated the "Hundred",that is a division of land shared by a hundred warriors and their families.Under the rule of the Norse,their military provisions included the formation of a strong federation and well belted arms district,making the Angle station of Headingley the headquarters,with the huge oak then at its full strength and beauty,the pride of the forest-rendezvous and beacon point.Here the Norsemen settled the present Wapentake of Scyre-ac,the Shire Oak marking an allotted military and political division.The old Norse word "Vapua" or "vapu means a weapon and "taka" to grasp or touch,hence the Norse "Vapontak"means the touching of weapons" Do you have Bogg's book, Round and about Leeds and the old villages of Elmete? - it is an amazing read, long out of print I'm afraid, but I did manage to get a reproduction copy some years ago.It used to be available as a reference work from the library if any one is interested. No havent got the book,but saw it at aFamily history fair recently for £50,was tempted but upto my eyes in family history and all the local history you learn from it,so probably could not handle it at the moment,definitely a future purchase/read though.

cnosni wrote: I was reading a book today,called Pies and prejudice,written by a Lanc (sorry Munki),quite funny.Think i will buy it cause it launches into southerners,but also has a chapter dedicated to slagging us (Tykes)off.All the insults though i find are complements ie we are dour,no sense of humour,tight with money etc etc.     I've got it at home Cnosni, my southern father in law bought it as a joke but it is a very good book - Stuart Maconie. Although from wigan he is a Leeds fan and doesn't just slag off yorkshire but praises it immensley. He does the same for the whole of the north a bit of praise and a bit of mickey taking.