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Some Roman Place-names in Lancashire and Cumbria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Ian G. Smith
Ian G. Smith
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36 Featherhall Avenue, Edinburgh
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Britannia , Volume 28 , November 1997 , pp. 372 - 383
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Copyright © Ian G. Smith 1997. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

140 W. Camden, Britannia (1586). J. Horsley's comprehensive early study of the subject, Britannia Romana (1732). For a less considered debate see, for example, the acrimonious exchange between Messrs Ferguson and Nicholson in the third issue of the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, CW1 iii (1877), 64-94, 167-74, 182-9.

141 A.L.F. Rivet and C. Smith, The Place-names of Roman Britain (1979), 141-2, 170-2, 209-11, 220-3, 232-3.

142 Throughout this paper, distances are given in Roman miles; 1 Roman mile = 1.48 km.

143 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 170-2.

144 Richmond, I.A., ‘The Sarmatae, Bremetennacum Veteranorum and the Regio Bremetennacensis’, JRS xxxv (1945), 15–29; RIB 583.Google Scholar

145 Haverfield, F., ‘The Romano-British names of Ravenglass and Borrans (Muncaster and Ambleside)’, Arch. Journ. lxxii (1915), 77–84.Google Scholar

146 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 367.

147 ibid., 243-4. W.F.H. Nicolaisen, Scottish Place-names (1976), 186-7.

148 E. Ekwall, English River-names (1928), 226-8. The meaning of the name remains obscure; see also Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 328.

149 ibid., 171.

150 Rivet, A.L.F., ‘The British section of the Antonine Itinerary’, Britannia i (1970), 54.Google Scholar

151 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 171. Wilson, T.. ‘The Roman road over Whinfell’, CW1 vii (1884), 90–5.Google ScholarBirley, E., ‘The Roman fort at Low Borrow Bridge’, CW2 xlvii (1948), 16–8Google Scholar , endorses Wilson's route.

152 R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, 1: Inscriptions on Stone (1965), RIB 600.

153 Shotter, D.C.A., ‘The Roman name for Lancaster’, in Jones, G.D.B.et al, Roman Lancaster, Brigantia Monograph 1 (1988), 220–2.Google Scholar Repeated in D. Shotter and A. White, The Roman Fort and Town of Lancaster (1990), 12-15.

154 D. Shotter, Romans and Britons in North-West England (1993), 105-9.

155 Hildyard, E.J.W., ‘Excavations at Burrow in Lonsdale. 1952-53’. CW2 liv (1955). 88–9, 93.Google Scholar Also a summary in D. Shotter and A. White, The Romans in Lunesdale (1995), 40-5.

156 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 172. Camden. op. cit. (note 140), 431-4, also proposed this sequence.

157 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 150-3.

158 E. Ekwall, The Place-names of Lancashire (1922), 167-8. Ekwall, op. cit. (note 148), 270-1. Early forms of the name are Loin, Lon, Loon, Lonn (twelfth century), Lone (thirteenth century), Loone (fourteenth century) and Lune (sixteenth century). The currently preferred derivation of Lune is from Welsh llawn, equivalent to Old Irish slan, meaning ‘health giving’, ibid., 271.

159 Richmond, I.A., ‘Excavations on the site of the Roman fort at Lancaster, 1950’, Trans. Historic Soc. Lanes. & Cheshire cv (1953), 22–3Google Scholar , is also of the view that Contrebis refers to the district covering the lower Lune valley.

160 Birley, E., ‘The Roman site at Burrow in Lonsdale’, CW2 xlvi (1947), 135–7Google Scholar , considers the possible import of Contrebis from Contrebia via the cohors I Celtiberorum (recorded in Britain by CIL xvi.51, 69, 93, and possibly at Caersws in RIB 2471.1) but rejects this because of the association of the name with Gallia Narbonensis, through Ialonus, and because of the probable civilian dedication by Vatta. However, in ‘The Deities of Roman Britain’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 11.18.1 (1989), 67, he maintains an open mind on the subject.

161 A.L.F. Rivet, Gallia Narbonensis (1988), 163, 166 (map). The only remotely comparable river name in the region is the Alzon (*Alisos/*Alisone) at the head of the town's aqueduct.

162 The inscription dates to the second century (Birley, op. cit. (note 160, 1947), 136) or third century (Collingwood and Wright in RIB 600). K.H. Jackson, ‘The British Language during the Period of the English Settlements’, in N.K. Chadwick (ed.), Studies in Early British History (1954), 68-9, proposes British au>δ [o:] by the late first century, >ū by the late third century. P.Y. Lambert, ‘Welsh Caswallawn: The Fate of British *au’, in A. Bammesberger and A. Wollman (eds), Britain 400-600, Language and History (1990), 203-15, argues that au>δ[o:] and remained as such.

163 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 244.

164 ibid., 216-25.

165 Jarrett, M.G. and Stephens, G.R., ‘The Roman garrisons of Maryport’, CW1 lxxxvii (1987), 65.Google ScholarDavies, R.W., ‘Cohors I Hispanorum and the garrisons of Maryport’, CW1 lxxvii (1977), 7–16. See also n. 171 below.Google Scholar

166 T.W. Potter, Romans in North-West England: Excavations at the Roman Forts of Ravenglass, Watercrook and Bowness on Solway (1979), 180.

167 Shotter, op. cit. (note 154), 90.

168 An early fourth-century date for the compilation of the Notitia for northern England has been mooted, prompted by the old-fashioned regimental names recorded there, but this possibility now seems unlikely. The debate is summarized in Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 218-25.

169 D.C.A. Shotter, ‘The Roman garrisons at Lancaster’, in Jones et al., op. cit. (note 153), 212-19.

170 This quingenary unit ma y have been at Chesterholm in the second century if the largely illegible RIB 1691 is accepted. On e of the unit's lead seals was also found at Newstead; Richmond, I.A., ‘Roman leaden sealings from Brough-under-Stainmore’, CW2 xxxvi (1936), 125.Google ScholarJarrett, M.G., ‘Non-legionary troops in Roma n Britain: Part One, The Units’, Britannia xxv (1994), 64.Google Scholar Civilian occupation may also have occurred within the fourth-century fort at Lancaster following destruction of much of the earlier vicus. Shotter and White, op. cit. (note 153), 33.

171 Derivation of Alione from Alauna fails to explain the intrusion of-i- which is regarded as a scribal error by Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 245.

172 The absence of the relevant detail is also illustrated in the careless restoration to by W.T. Watkin, Roman Lancashire (1883), 28.

173 Shotter and White, op. cit. (note 155), 101.

174 For the importance of river deities, with British examples, see Alcock, J.P., ‘Celtic water cults in Roma n Britain’, Arch. Journ. cxxii (1965), 1–12.Google Scholar For some place-name examples see also G. Webster, The British Celts and their Gods under Rome (1986), 72-3.

175 A. Campbell, Old English Grammar (1959), 254.

176 In compound names, ea usually, but not always, forms the last element as in Mersey, Waveney, Sweeney and Twineham. A contrasting form is Yeadon/Eaton.

177 K.H. Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain (1953), 195 (sound substitution), 214-18 (Anglo-Saxon ascendancy).

178 ibid., 305-17. British ū was retained in Anglo-Saxon as ū in the fifth-sixth centuries but was rendered as either u or i in words adopted in the sixth-seventh centuries and as u or y in the seventh-eighth centuries.

179 Campbell, op. cit. (note 175), 148. Alne and Allan, from Alauna, are obvious examples of this process.

180 Lambert, op. cit. (note 162), 203-15. The Notitia name Alione, dating to the end of the fourth century, unless a fossilized form, undermines Jackson's third-century δ>ū and supports Lambert's case for a retained δ[o:].

181 Richmond, op. cit. (note 159), 22. Derivation based on G. Dottin, La langue gauloise (1920), in, 262. Examples in Holder, A., Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz 11 (1904), 7.Google Scholar

182 Ekwall, op. cit. (note 148), 124, 161; Jackson, op. cit. (note 177), 345.

183 K. Miller, Itineraria Romana (1916), cols 29-30 (map), 387. Wissowa, G. and Kroll, W. (eds), Paulys Real-Encyclopadie ix.i (1914), col. 545Google Scholar , equate the Iala with Pliny's Iactus (Natural History III.118).

184 Nicolaisen, op. cit. (note 147), 177-9, for this formation with numerous examples. Watkins, C., ‘“River” in Celtic and Indo-European’, Eriu xxiv (1973), 80, for an alternative explanation.Google Scholar

185 Nicolaisen, op. cit. (note 147), 186, proposes a -nā extension to a uā- formation. Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 243, Lambert, op. cit. (note 162), 214, and E.P. Hamp, ‘Alauno-, -ā. Linguistic change and proper names’, Beiträge zur Namenforschung2 x (1975), 173-8, discuss alternative etymologies.

186 Nicolaisen, op. cit. (note 147), 186-7. See also Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 243-4, for a discussion of alternative derivations.

187 Pokorny, J., Indogermanisches Etymologisches Worterbuch 1 (1959), 285.Google Scholar

188 See, for example, the distribution map of British Alauna names in Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 243.

189 Jackson in Rivet, op. cit. (note 150), 74.

190 A Roman shield was apparently found near the village in 1800. C. Rothwell, Garstang Town Trail (1983), 2.

191 Shotter and White, op. cit. (note 153), 50.

192 B.P. Hindle, Roads and Trackways of The Lake District (1984), 49-61 (medieval), 62-79 (modern).

193 Ekwall, op. cit. (note 148), 31.

194 Shotter, D., ‘Recent finds of Roman Coins in Cumbria’, CW2 xciv (1994), 293.Google Scholar D. Shotter, Roman Coins from North-West England: First Supplement 1995 (1995), 77-81.

195 Villy, F., ‘A Roman road north-west from Overborough’, CW2 xxxvii (1937), 49–51.Google Scholar

196 Jackson, op. cit. (note 177), 70; Rivet, op. cit. (note 150), 53-4.

197 D.C.A. Shotter, ‘Watercrook and Ravenglass: the names and the garrisons’, in Potter, op. cit. (note 166), 316-17. Shotter subsequently accepts the ‘aquatic’ relationship in P. Graystone, Walking Roman Roads in East Cumbria (1994), 5.

198 Collingwood, R.G., ‘The exploration of the Roman fort at Ambleside: Report on the second year's work (1914)’, CW2 xv (1915), 2–62.Google ScholarLeech, R.H., ‘The Roman fort and vicus at Ambleside: Archaeological research in 1982’, CW2 xciii (1993), 51–74.Google Scholar Shotter, op. cit. (note 154), 35.

199 Richmond, I.A. and Crawford, O.G.S., ‘The British section of the Ravenna Cosmography’, Archaeologia xciii (1949), 35Google Scholar , contemplate the River Rothay ‘bursting’ into Lake Windermere to justify the identification of Galava with Ambleside.

200 The location was first proposed by Horsley in 1732. op. cit. (note 140), 102-4. Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 380-1, reject the identification out of hand.

201 ibid.. 381.

202 Shotter, op. cit. (note 154), 107. Potter, op. cit. (note 166), 42. RIB 2411.94.

203 A.R. Burn, The Romans in Britain: an Anthology of Inscriptions (1932), 111. for the translation.

204 Hassalland, M.W.C.Tomlin, R.S.O., Britannia xxvi (1995), 389–90.Google Scholar This army unit, located in a frontier coastal outpost, may have retained its naval tradition although similar units in Aquitaine (Villeneuve-sur-Lot), Lower Germany (Cologne), and Syria (archers at Beirut) appear to have been regular army regiments. P.A. Holder, Studies in the Auxilia of the Roman Army from Augustus to Trajan, BAR Int. Ser. 70 (1980), 67, 238, 333-4. For a discussion of this issue, see Hind, J.G.F., ‘Agricola's fleet and Portus Trucculensis’, Britannia v (1974), 287 (n.14).Google Scholar If cohors I Aelia classica had operated around the Cumbrian coast in a naval capacity, this might possibly explain the distribution of the two artefacts discussed. Another diploma recording the unit's name has been found at Chesters (RIB 2401.10/CIL XVI.93).

205 Ptolemy's Ituna estuary, from its relative position (Geography 11.3.3), must refer to the Solway Eden and not to the smaller inlet at Ravenglass.

206 D.J. Breeze and B. Dobson, Hadrian's Wall (1976), 272-3, for a typical summary of the evidence.

207 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 408-9.

208 P.S. Austen, ‘How big was the second largest fort on Hadrian's Wall at Bowness-on-Solway’, in V.A. Maxfield and M.J. Dobson (eds), Roman Trontier Studies 1989—Proceedings of the XVth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies (1991), 6-8. Bellhouse, R.L., ‘Hadrian's Wall: the forts at Drumburgh’, CW2 lxxxix (1989), 35Google Scholar , gives a slightly smaller figure of 2.2 h a (5.46 acres).

209 A tribune, Sulpicius Secundianus, is recorded at the fort in a.d. 251-3 (RIB 2057, 2058), but by this date the title may not be indicative of a milliary cohort command. A naval tribune is recorded in CIL 11.2224.

210 Cowen, J.D. and Richmond, I.A., ‘The Rudge cup’, Arch. Ael.4 xii (1935), 310–42.Google Scholar

211 ibid., 324. Heurgon, J., ‘The Amiens Patera’, JRS xli (1951), 22.Google Scholar

212 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 233, as just one example among many.

213 Cowen and Richmond, op. cit. (note 210), 319 (n. 17), 331, 333.

214 The on-going confusion is more recently illustrated in N. Hodgson, ‘The Notitia Dignitatum and the later Roman garrison of Britain’, in Maxfield and Dobson, op. cit. (note 208), 90-1.

215 Bowness appears to have been occupied into the late fourth century but possibly only with a reduced garrison. Potter, op. cit. (note 166), 323.

216 Mann, J.C., ‘Birdoswald to Ravenglass’, Britannia xx (1989), 76.Google Scholar It is clear, from the largely intact chain of Roma n defences around the north Cumbrian coast, that any coastal changes are unlikely to have been substantial enough to allow for such a lost feature.

217 Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 315.

218 Potter, op. cit. (note 166), 333-4, 337–9, 344-5.

219 I.A. Richmond and J.P. Gillam, ‘Report of the Cumberland Excavation Committee for 1947-49: 3. Milecastle 79 (Solway)’, CW 2 lii (1953), 28-37. They report an absence of ‘carinated bowls, handled mugs and debased rustic ware’ at the MC79 site.

220 Bellhouse, R.L. and Richardson, G.G.S., ‘The Roman site at Kirkbride, Cumberland’, CW2 lxxv (1975), 79–89.Google Scholar

221 Bellhouse, R.L., ‘Roman sites on the Cumberland Coast: Hadrian's Wall. The fort at Bowness-on-Solway, a reappraisal’, CW2 lxxxviii (1988), 33–53.Google ScholarSimpson, F.G., Richmond, L.A. and McIntyre, J.M., ‘The Stone Wall, Turf Wall and Vallum west of Burgh-by-Sands’, CW2 xxxv (1935), 213–20.Google Scholar

222 Accepting the timetable proposed by Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 206), 77.

223 Austen, P.S., ‘Recent excavations on Hadrian's Wall, Burgh-by-Sands’, CW2 xciv (1994), 49–53.Google ScholarCollingwood, R.G., ‘Exploration at the Roman fort of Burgh-by-Sands’, CW2 xxiii (1923), 2 (map).Google Scholar

224 Breeze and Dobson, op. cit. (note 206), 68-9.

225 ibid., 47. Simpson, F.G. and Richmond, L.A., ‘Report of the Cumberland Excavation Committee for 1947-49: 1. The Roman fort at Drumburgh’, CW2 lii (1953), 13.Google Scholar

226 Potter, T., ‘The Biglands milefortlet and the Cumberland coastal defences’, Britannia viii (1977), 149–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Richmond and Gillam, op. cit. (note 219), 17-37. Simpson, F.G., Hodgson, K.S.et al., ‘The coastal mile-fortlet at Cardurnock’, CW2 xlvii (1948), 78–127.Google ScholarJones, G.D.B., ‘The western extension of Hadrian's Wall: Bowness to Cardurnock’, Britannia vii (1976), 236–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

227 Jarrett and Stephens, op. cit. (note 165), 61, date the foundation of Maryport to about a.d. 122–3. Bellhouse, R.L., ‘Roman sites on the Cumberland Coast, 1968–1969’, CW2 lxx (1970), 40–7Google Scholar , established that the coastal chain was set-out from Maryport at the same or later date. Bellhouse, R.L. (Jarrett, M.G.), ‘Roman sites on the Cumberland coast, 1954’, CW2 liv (1955), 40, 49–50Google Scholar , reports the find of a coin in near mint condition and dated to a.d. 119-21 which appears to have been placed in the foundations of Tower 13a and this suggests that the coastal system and fort were contemporary.

228 Bellhouse, R.L., ‘Roman sites on the Cumberland Coast 1966–1967’, CW2 lxix (1969), 69–74.Google ScholarJones, G.D.B., ‘The Solway frontier: Interim report 1976–81’, Britannia xiii (1982), 296.Google Scholar

229 Potter, op. cit. (note 166), 324-35; Richmond and Gillam, op. cit. (note 219), 28-37.

230 Collingwood, R.G., ‘Roman signal-stations on the Cumberland coast’, CW2 xxix (1929), 149–50.Google Scholar The spacing of Collingwood's sites is not consistent, however, with a Wall terminus at Drumburgh nor with an extension of either the milecastle or milefortlet systems. Sites some 200 m west of Milecastles 77-80 would be more suited to a potential Drumburgh-Biglands milefortlet arrangement.

231 Higharn, N.J. and Jones, G.D.B., ‘Frontier, forts and fanners—Cumbrian aerial survey 1974–5’, Arch. Journ. cxxxii (1975), 20–3.Google Scholar

232 Simpson, Richmond and McIntyre, op. cit. (note 221), 214-15.

233 Simpson and Richmond, op. cit. (note 225), 14. Some stones are still located at NY 2625 6027.

234 Frere, S.S., ‘Roman Britain in 1985: 1. Sites explored’, Britannia xvii (1986), 376–8.Google Scholar The conjectural fort outline encloses about 0.85 ha (2 acres) but should probably be larger.

235 Birley, E., ‘The Beaumont inscription, the Notitia Dignitatum, and the garrison of Hadrian's Wall’, CW2 xxxix (1939), 190–4.Google Scholar

236 Birley, E., ‘The Roman fort at Moresby’, CW2 xxxxviii (1949), 55–6.Google ScholarRIB 797, 803, 804.

237 Accepting Davies, op. cit. (note 165), 7-16. Jarrett and Stephens, op. cit. (note 165), 61-6, are inconclusive and depend on dubious identifications for other forts in the region. Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 221, regard the Notitia name Axeloduno as a copying error and rather arbitrarily correct it to Mais (= Bowness). This is based on the need to find a place for Bowness in the list of Notitia commands and to retain the Rudge Cup name for Stanwix as Uxelodunum while arguing that Petrianis, also located by the Notitia Dignitatum at Stanwix, is a ghost name. Mann, op. cit. (note 216), 78 (n. 13), makes a persuasive case for rejecting Petrianis as a ghost name and an alternative explanation for this problem, requiring no re-writing of the Notitia, may be that both Maryport and Stanwix were initially named Uxelodunum. However, the proximity of the two forts and the resulting confusion may have led to the latter being renamed after its garrison which was the premier auxiliary unit in Britain, the ala Petriana.

238 Bellhouse, R.L., ‘The Roman fort at Burrow Walls, near Workington’, CW2 lv (1956), 40.Google Scholar

239 Ptolemy's estuary at Moricambe, meaning ‘curved or crooked sea’ and probably located on the Cumbrian coast, might provide a comparable native name. Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141), 420-1.

240 Richmond and Crawford, op. cit. (note 199), 1-50. B. Jones and D. Mattingly, An Atlas of Roman Britain (1990), 31 (Map 2:14). See also Dilleman, L., ‘Observations on Chapter V.31, Britannia, in the Ravenna Cosmography’, Archaeologia cvi (1979), 61–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

241 Names as restored by Rivet and Smith, op. cit. (note 141) and numbered 110-20 in Richmond and Crawford, op. cit. (note 199), 18.

242 Richmond and Crawford, op. cit. (note 199), 40, see the sweeping landscape there reflecting the name. However, Shotter, op. cit. (note 154), 107, favours the more meaningful association of Mediobogdo with Watercrook.

243 The site will be the subject of a forthcoming report by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust which will be published in Archaeologia Cantiana, the journal of the Kent Archaeological Society.