The Bayeux Tapestry

After seeing The Sun's effort today I'd suggest to Macron that he rescinds his offer and just put the Tapestry in store while the museum is being refurbished. The UK doesn't deserve to get it...

There are, apparently, 155 places in Yorkshire alone which are thorpes!

My personal favourite Yorkshire name is Grimethorpe.

I've never been there but it's famous for its colliery band and I love brass bands

‘Most thorpes are still tiny settlements’ ( Jura) but many are not.Scunthorpe, Cleethorpes etc.Just as a point of interest.
Where I grew up the older generation called a fox a tod ( the meaning of being on your tod, or alone.) Todmorden , a moor where there are foxes, or Guildenmorden, the golden moor.

It wasn't born fully grown.

Scunthorpe is a fair size.

-THORPE Another common Scandinavian suffix in The Danelaw is -thorpe. This can appear in various form, such as -thorp, -throp or -trop. This originally meant a secondary settlement, that is, an additional small hamlet and land established as a sort of 'overflow' from a village as it became overpopulated. It is interesting to note that most Danelaw -thorpes are still tiny settlements.

I understood it came from the germanic Tochter/daughter.
When I did my Degree in Environmental studies, this is the process that was explained to us. Once a settlement became too big, a daughter would be married off and begin a new nearby settlement. And the example given was nearby Barkby and Barkby Thorpe, and a few others- those villages are usually only a few miles away.

Jura2, ‘thorp(e)’ doesn’t mean ‘daughter’ in any Scandinavian language or place name I know about. It means ‘small village’.

Love it - as said, even more interesting if you live on a border which had huge influence- as place names tell you so much about the history- as on the Danelaw border- where Norse, Saxon and Norman all mix.

I live beside a small river called Xburn beck, in other words the X stream stream..
Aren't place names fun

I've got a great and fascinating book on place names and their origins, with often mixed origins thrown together, including geographical features- but it is on the bookshelf in our holiday apartment in East Mids.

The villages in ending in -by are Viking, so are the ones with 'toft' (a farm) and the ones in -thorpe (meaning daughter- so when a settlement got too big, they would marry off a daughter and they would make a new settlement nearby. Like Barkby- and Barkby Thorpe. And geographical features like 'lea or leigh' a clearing, etc.

2011, so not that long ago

www.strangehistory.net/2011/05/04/hill-hill-hill-hill/

That'll be the one, jura2 I was a bit out with the Dun, but not far.

When did Beachcomber write that? It must have been a while ago.

'Beachcombing can’t say goodbye though without referring to the most famous pleonastic placename of them all. Torpenhow Hill in Cumbria.

Tor is Anglo-Saxon and means hill.

Pen is head or peak (e.g. Apennines): another hill.

How comes from Danish haugr, meaning hill.

And then finally modern English hill.

Translated this placename means Hill-hill-hill-hill.

Only it doesn’t.

This is a much repeated linguist legend.

Torr is likely a loan word from Celtic into Anglo-Saxon and Torr Pen would be something like the hill peak, which is boring but not redundant. So we have Hill-peak-hill-hill.'

There is one in East Leicestershire called Houghton (high town)- on-the-Hill

grumpa I believe there is a hill somewhere whose name is "Hillhillhill" in three different languages, where successive occupants or invaders did exactly that. The original occupants called it "The Hill", the next ones thought that was a proper name and called it Hill Hill, the ones who followed called it Hilhill Hill and it is now known as Hillhillhill (modern visitors probably think that it is Hillhillhill Hill)

Unfortunately I can't remember where it is, only that one of the components is Dun

They did - and re-called it the Bye-EU tapestry-

quite sick really- and not very helpful perhpas- depicting Mrs May killing Macron with one in the eye, and decapitating French ... Just can't understand what goes through those people's heads (ooops perhaps not the best phrase)

Just seen that apparently (do confirm, I am not in UK) the Sun has published a spoof version done by ult right Brexiters- showing Mrs May surrounded by decapitated French men. So perhaps Tegan2 was right to think it might become a target.

In a way it would be great for it to go to Hastings, if it comes to UK. But practically speaking- the British Museum is the only place that has the space conditions and security to house it properly- and for the maximum of people to view it.

Same as Tegan2, I am concerned that it could become a symbol to attack by extreme right Brexiters.

It is a beautiful thing to see. It has amazing detail and it's hard to believe it's age. The workmanship is incredible. It will be treated with great care as it is such a rare and valuable piece. I thought it was going to the British museum?
We went to see it and I was amazed by its size. It stretches on and on. Incredible. I have every confidence in its safety as works of great art are often transported so more people are able to see them. Remember the fantastic Tutenkhamen exhibition? People queued for ages. The insurance bill must be phenomenal!

I felt a bit like that, too, loopyloo

What if some rabid English Nationalist attacked it as it's unpatriotically depicting an 'English' defeat by the French?

(And don't all shout at me for inaccurate history - these alt-right folks don't usually have a strong grasp on historical detail...)

It makes me nervous. I think it should stay in France.

If we digress a bit- the names of towns, villages and geographical features tells us so much about who lived there. Our last place of abode in the UK was right on the Danelaw border- so half the names were Saxon with a bit of French mixed in, and Norse- and do represent real features. Really interesting.

And while we're at it, let's remember that the battle was fought not at Hastings but seven miles NW, at Senlac, near what is now Battle.

But since it would be daft, and anachronistic, to call it the Battle of Battle, Hastings it is.

I am reminded of the number of rivers called Avon, which means river (British/Welsh avon/afon). I have this mental image of a Saxon asking a passing Briton what a river is called, and the grumpy Brit thinking he's being asked what the actual physical feature is. "Daft foreign bugger," he says to himself, "can't he see it's a river?" "Avon," he yells, and so it is named.

But I digress. The Tapestry is well worth a journey to see. Vaut le voyage.

I saw it in France when I was still a child, and my parents had a book with a facsimile of the whole thing, so I am fairly familiar with it. I was also struck by its narrowness.

The Norman invasion was one of those historical events that must have seemed bad at the time, but was good in the long run. The effect on our language was very beneficial. Every day we use hundreds of words of French origin, though most people are unaware of this.