Rhodeswood.
Place names on a map; what do they mean, how were they arrived at, and how do they describe the feature they are applied to? To answer these questions it is easiest to look at the names as if they are the names of people. This means we can split them into the categories of first name and surname.
Let us start by looking at the surnames of places, finding the word that the name is derived from, and defining the feature.
Beds A smooth or level tract of land bearing vegetation.
Bower Old English bur; a shady recess.
Brook Old English broc; small stream.
Brow Old English bru; the projecting edge of a cliff or hill.
Clough Old English cloh; a ravine or a valley.
On the maps, the words clough and brook are often used in a confusing manner. In a valley the water is named in blue, e.g. Arnfield Brook, the clough is named in black e.g. Arnfield Clough.
If a feature is called, for example, Cat Clough, then the water in the feature is Cat Clough Brook. Conversely if a ravine is shown to hold a stream, e.g. Greenfield Brook, then the ravine is Greenfield Brook Clough.
Common Unenclosed or waste land.
Cote Old English; a shed or stall for cattle or fodder.
Covert Old French; covert, a hidden or sheltered place. used locally to mean a small wood or plantation.
Croft Old English; croft, arable enclosed pasture land.
Dean Old English; denu a wooded valley.
Den As above.
Dene As above.
Dike Old Norse dik; a water course or channel.
Edge Middle English; a brink or verge on a projecting hill or precipice.
Flat Middle English; without curvature, indentation or projection.
Ford Old English ford; a shallow place in a river or water where man and beast can cross by wading.
Grain Old Norse grein; a valley or stream branching off another.
Green Middle English grene; common grassland close to, or in a village.
Grough A local word for a watercourse worn into a peat moss.
Gully Water worn ravine or channel on a hill side.
Gutter Old French gotiers; a water course, brook or channel.
Head Old English heafod, source of a stream or river or a hill.
Heath Old English hette, open country covered with shrubs.
Hey Old English hege, a hedged enclosure.
Hill Old English hyll, a natural elevation on the earths surface.
Hole Old English hol, an animals burrow or a depression in the ground.
Holme Middle English holme, flat low lying land by a river.
Hurst Old English hyrst, a wood or thicket.
Intake A local word for rough moorland intaken for pasture.
Knarr Middle English knarre, rugged stones or rocks.
Knoll Old English cnoll, the rounded summit of a hill.
Knowl As above.
Lane Old English lanu, narrow way between banks or hedges.
Low Old English hlow, a tumulus.
Moor Old English mor, waste land on hills and mountains.
Moss Old English mos, wet spongy soil or peat bogs.
Nab Old Norse nabbr, a projecting peak.
Naze Old Norse naess, a cape or headland.
Ness As above.
Peak Old English peac, a pointed summit.
Pike Old English pic, a pointed summit.
Plantation A wood of planted trees.
Ridge Old English hrycg, the crest or top of a hill.
Rocks Middle English roche, boulders and exposed stone outcrops.
Scar Old Norse Sker, rocks or crags on a hillside.
Sike Old English sic, a stream or water course.
Shaw Old English sceacga, a small wood.
Slack Old Norse slakki, a dell or valley or a depression on a hillside.
Spring Old English, source of a river or stream.
Stone Old English stan, rocks, crags or cliffs.
Twistle Old English twisla, land at the junction of streams.
Top Old English topp, a summit or high point.
Vale Middle English, land between hills traversed by a river or stream.
The first name of places printed on the maps can be further divided into the following categories:-
Animals that have lived, or still live in the wilds;
Plants and trees that grow or have grown;
Names of proportion or location;
The colour, texture and use of the land surveyed.
Firstly we deal with the animals. In one part there is a belt of pig names, starting at Bower Clough Head, going down onto Boar Flat, into the Swineshaw Valley and ending at Bower Fold.
Boar The male pig, the name lives on in Boar Flat.
Boggart A local word for a ghost or spirit.
Brockhole Old English brochol, a badgers burrow.
Buck Old English buc, a male deer.
Cat
Cock
Cow
Crow
Deer
Fox
Hart
Hare
Hern A young heron.
Howlet An owlet, a young owl.
Lamb
Ox Used once in Ox Rake Brow, Rake being Old Norse for pasture.
Pye A magpie.
Ram
Raven
Shepley Sheep Lea, a sheep meadow.
Snail
Swine
Throstle Old English prostle, a song thrush.
Tup Middle English tup, a male sheep.
Secondly, we look at the flora of the region through the names printed on the map.
Arnfield Arn is one of many names applied to the Alder tree it is derived from the Old English alor.
Ashway Old English aesc is the ash tree and way is corrupted from Old English vra a corner in this case on the corner of a hillside.
Audenshaw Again a formation from Alder, this time it implies the wood of alder trees.
Bent Old English beonet, many varieties of grass and reeds are called Bent.
Bilberry A common edible wild berry ofthe genusvaccinium myrtillus.
Birchen Pertaining to the birch tree.
Bracken Middle English braken, the fern pteris auilina.
Brushes Middle English bwshe, a thicket of small trees.
Cloudberry A small plant with a white flower which grows on many northern moors.
Cowbury A corruption of Cowberry, the Red Whortleberry.
Ellentree From Elren tree another name for the alder.
Featherbed The name is applied to many moors where the bog cotton grows in profusion.
Fern Old English fearn, it exists as many varieties.
Flax Old English flaex, linum usitatissimum, plant grown for its linen fibres.
Greave Old English grafa, a thicket or copse.
Herbage Green pastures.
Hollingworth, Old English holeon worp, an enclosure close by holly bushes.
Hollins Pertaining to the holly bush.
Linshaw From the Old English lind, a lime tree.
Oak Old English ac.
Ogden Old English ac-denu, an oak wood.
Peat The remnants of decayed vegetation, of which more will be said later.
Reddishaw Old English hread, reeds, the reedy wood.
Thorncliffe Old English torn, the thorn bush, standing on a cliffe or brow.
Turf Cut sods, or peat cut for burning.
Wimberry A local word for bilberry.
Woodland Tracts of land covered with mixed timber.
Whams Old Swedish reeds, a place covered with reeds.
Names of proportion and location, most of which are commonly used and require little, or no explanation.
Broad
Far
Great
Hades A corruption of the Old English heafdu, a head, used to identify a summit.
Higher
Little
Long
Low
Lower
Middle
Near
Nether Old English nipera, lower or under.
North
Round
Small
South
Upper
West
Lastly, words that describe the colour, texture and use of the land surveyed.
Acre Old English aecer, arable land.
Ancote Old English ana-cot, the lonely hut.
Bare
Black
Blind Obsure or blind.
Bleak
Bord Old English bord, an edge or a coast.
Broken
Brun Old English, brown.
Burnt
Carr Swedish kaer, a fen or morass.
Chew Old English ceo, a gill as on a fish, corrupted to mean a gil, which is a ravine on a hill side.
Dead
Dewhill A wet dewy hill.
Dun Old English dun, a dingy brown colour.
Dry
Green
Grey
Hurling The sound of a rushing wind.
Ing Old Norse eng, meadow land.
Iron No iron deposits exist in the area but many of the sedimentary rocks give the streams and bogs a rusty iron colour.
Laund Old French, untilled ground.
Ley Old English leah, open untilled land.
Lumb Old English lum, a hollow or deep pool.
Marsden Old English mercels-denu, a valley used as a boundary line.
Meadow
Mould Old English molde, boose earth or rock.
Rakes Old Norse, pasture land or the path leading to it.
Rhodeswood Old English rod, a clearing, in this example, a clearing in a wood.
Red
Ruddle Old English rudig, a red clay used for marking sheep.Wet
Wilderness.
From "Pathwise in Longdendale and Glossop"
by kind consent of author the late David Frith