What’s in a name?

by Mark Lankshear

In reply to our Burnwhere? piece last month Stuart Bolton, our Area Coordinator writes ‘there are no sinister moves to change the identity of Burngreave. The name Burnwood, covering the second phase of the new road safety scheme came from a selection produced from the begining and end of local road names. The Area Panel chose Burnwood, combining the “Burn” from Burngreave, and the “Wood” from Byron Wood. This month we look at the origins of the names we use every day.

The Don and the Sheaf

The names of rivers are some of the oldest words in the language. The Don or Dun is a pre-Celtic name, dating far back into pre-history. As the Don meets the Sheaf at Sheffield or ‘open, treeless country by the Sheaf’ it is thought it formed the boundry between British tribes the Brigantes and the Corieltauvi.

Pitsmoor - digging for iron

First recorded as ‘Ore Pitts’, Pitsmoor was once the site of iron ore quarries and it’s Old English name is evidence of metal working in Sheffield in the pre-roman, iron age days of Wincobank fort. Shirecliffe or ‘the bright hillside’ also dates from this time.

Osgathorpe - a Viking’s corner

There aren’t very many Viking name’s in Sheffield. After the Romans left it was first in the British kingdom of Elmet and then lay on the border of northern and middle England, the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Northumberland and Danish Mercia. ‘Thorpe’ comes from the Danish word for ‘a corner of land’ but ‘Osga’ could come from an Old Norse or an old English name. 

Burngreave - Byron’s Wood

Roe Wood, Burngreave and Wincobank were all spring woods, carefully managed to produce charcoal. Thin wooden poles produced by coppicing would have been used to make charcoal for iron smelting and steel on the Duke of Norfolk’s estates in the 1600s, although records of this use of South Yorkshire woodland go back to 1161. The name Burngreave was first recorded in 1440 as Byrongreve, meaning ‘the wood belonging to Byron’, an Old English name from Anglo Saxon times.