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Albion
A Celtic god and the River Tees
River names are considered the oldest and most enduring of all surviving place-names in Europe
Tees [Tesa 1026 Knytlinga saga, Tese c 1050, Tesa 1104-8, Teisa c 1090, Taise c 1130]. A Brit river-name related to Welsh tes ‘heat, sunshine’, Ir teas ‘heat’. The name may mean ‘boiling, surging river’. E Eckwall
Young warrior, it was you
made them yield, those Angles,
you toppled them at the Tees,
where the trench with Northumbrian
corpses was cluttered,
then southward the crow’s
sleep was unsettled.
by Svein’s son at Sherston.
Knytlinga Saga: The History of the Kings of Denmark
Condatis
A group of dedications to a god whom we take to be local and indigenous occurs between the Tyne and the basin of the Tees. The name and situation (God of the Watersmeet) would tend to link the deity with the cult of thermal waters…The dedicants all seem to have been members of a rather humble order of society…names are suggestive of healers as a primary function, although we must not forget that war and healing are inextricably linked in the Celtic traditions. A Ross
Inscriptions
Bowes https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/731 discovered in 1900 close to the Roman Fort
High Coniscliffe https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1024 found in 1709 but now lost
Moulton https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/Brit.47.1 found in an excavation pit during A1 upgrade in 2015
Chester le Street https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1045 discovered in 1886 beside the Cong Burn close its confluence with the River Wear
Cramond https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/3500 discovered in 1977 close to the roman fort at a point where the River Almond meets the Firth of Forth
Sources
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Eilert Ekwall. 1974.
Winch Bridge image – From the British Library Archive
Knut’s Invasion of England according to the Knytlinga saga
Pagan Celtic Britain – Studies in iconography and tradition – Anne Ross. 1967
Inscription image – Britannia Romana. J Horsley. 1732
Wharfedale – Otley Parish Church
We called into the parish church to have a look at their display of early stonework fragments.
In the grounds of the church there is a large memorial known as The Navvies Memorial. It was originally erected it commemorate 23 workers who were killed during the construction of the Bramhope tunnel, later records show that the death toll was higher.
The monument has been repurposed to recognise all those who were injured or lost their lives building the 20,000 miles of railway track that covered our islands. It is unusual to find a monument that remembers working people. The ordinary people of our islands often only merit a grand memorial if they have been killed in war.
Wharfedale – Ben Rhydding
A trip to Ilkley normally involves wandering around Rombald’s Moor looking at Prehistoric carved rocks, but not today.
William Mitchell’s 1968 sculptural mural ‘The Story of Wool. The Bronze-faced glass reinforced plastic (GRP) is located on lecture theatre of the former technical centre of the International Wool Secretariat in Ilkley.
Frontland
.“..they have a tradycon that the Danes used to land there, showinge greate heapes of huge Dunes in the sands, in length little exceeding ours, but in strength and bigness gyant lyke, whether they had gotten a cruste or noe, or that there were some charnell-house there I knowe not, wich I suspecte by a reason that a Chapell, one of three built by three sisters, aIong that coaste is neere at hand”. Link
Albion
Beyond the pale
Albion
Winter
Brigit
1st February The planet Venus hangs over the waxing crescent moon.
Today is Imbolc a pre-christian feast day, it is also the feast day of St. Brigid. The saint is thought to be a christianised version of the Celtic goddess Brigid who may also be Brigantia.
In 1985 NASA named a Tholus (a dome shaped mountain or hill) on the planet Venus after the goddess Brigit. All of the Tholi on Venus are named after goddesses.
The Cleveland Dyke – A Frolic of Nature
On a beautiful clear frosty morning I decided to take a walk along the old whinstone quarries at Sil Howe. The skies were cloudless, there was little or no breeze and everything in the quarry that the sun hadn’t touched was frozen.
The quarries are all that remains of a large linear landscape feature that ran across our district known as The Cleveland Dyke. The dyke is an Igneous intrusion, a vertical column of molten rock that was intruded into our local rocks approximately 55 million years ago.
I’ve been fascinated by this formation for many years and have visited many of the sites where it outcrops across Northern England, from the North York Moors down into the Tees valley, across County Durham, up onto the Pennines, and finally in Cumbria.
William Smith, known as the ‘Father of English Geology’ was the first person to produce an accurate geological map of Britain. The section above is part of a map, published by Smith in 1815, it shows the Cleveland Dyke running from the North York Moors to Egglestone Common in Teesdale.
Whenever an outcrop of the dyke is close to or breaches the land surface it has been quarried or mined. The quarried stone is known as Whinstone, it is a very hard, resistant stone. The lower grade stone was crushed for roadstone, the higher grade stone was cut into cobblestones.
The moorland and Esk Valley quarries are part of a chain of workings that can be traced across northern England and into south west Scotland.
In his 2006 book, Along the Esk, author Denis Goldring lists 27 local whinstone quarries from Nunthorpe to Blea Hill Rigg on the North York Moors, the earliest of which date to the early 1800s. The earliest quarries were quite small with the stone being used to maintain local roads, the arrival of the railways created the means to export the stone across the north of England. Many of the cobbled streets of the city of Leeds used stone taken from the quarries at Cliff Rigg near Great Ayton, where the quarries were owned by the Leeds Corporation.
Up until recently geologists have described the Cleveland Dyke as being formed, along with many other dykes, by a pulse of magma originating from the Isle of Mull. A 2008 study of the dyke in Scotland now points to the origin of the dyke being from a magma chamber located beneath the Scottish Southern Uplands.
Some Antiquarian accounts of the Cleveland Dyke
At a little distance to the north, a rocky ridge runs east and west, called Langbargh-Ridge; at the end of which, on the left of the road leading to Guisborough, there is a singular quarry of hard, blue whin-stone or granite; which has been found of infinite value to the public, in making and repairing the turnpike roads of this part of Cleveland…
…It is conjectured to be formed of a species of lava, similar to Derbyshire toadstone; or, what Mr. Whitehurst calls Iceland-Lava. John Graves. 1808
But the most singular interruption of the strata is that produced by the whinstone dyke, or basaltic ridge, which traverses our hills, like a vast vein. This is perhaps the most remarkable ridge of the kind in Britain, being 40 feet thick and often more, and being traced on the surface to the extent of 60 or 70 miles, in a straight line…
…In many places it does not reach the surface: in some, the top of it is on a level with the surface, or protrudes only a foot or two above it, as on the moor between Maybecks and Silhoue, and in the descent from Silhoue towards the Mirk Esk: in other places it rises to a great height above the surface, as at Parker’s houe near Lealholm Bridge, and especially in the long and lofty ridges which it forms in Cleveland. George Young. 1817
One of the most remarkable features on a geological map of England is the line of the great trap dyke, from beyond Cockfield fell in Durham to the Sneaton moors in Yorkshire, a distance of sixty miles. That this subterranean wall of basalt is really connected through the whole of this length few will be inclined to dispute who have studied the character of the rock, and observed its bearings at Cockfield fell, Bolam, Langbargh, and Silhoue cross; but it is not traceable between all these points on the surface of the ground. It is a common opinion, that this dyke is united, toward the west, with the “ great whin sill,” or basaltic formation of Upper Teesdale, from the eastern end of which another long dyke appears to arise. On the east it does not reach the sea side, but terminates obscurely, after crossing near its source the easternmost branch of Littlebeck. Its general direction is E. S. E. and W. N. W ; but in several places considerable deviations in this respect are observable. The breadth is commonly about sixty feet, as at Cockfield fell Langbargh quarry and Egton; but it diminishes to less than thirty feet at the eastern extremity…
…As might well be expected, this hard rock has been less wasted by watery currents and the changes of the atmosphere, than the softer strata which bound it, and, therefore, in some places it appears above them in a long crust or ridge. On Clifton rigg its blocks, lying bare on the surface, have been compared to prostrate pilasters half buried in ruins ; near Egton bridge it stands up in a lofty wall, over the waters of the Esk ; and beyond Silhoue cross, it ranges along the moors like an ancient military road ; but in a large portion of its course, especially in the wide vale of Tees, it is concealed by diluvial accumulations. John Phillips 1835
The most surprising “frolic of nature” of all which have yet recorded is the Basaltic Dyke, which rises beyond Cockfield Fell in Durham, crosses the bed of the Tees at Preston Quarry, near Yarm, runs E.S.E. by Nunthorp and Stainton to Langbargh Quarry (where its full dimensions are exhibited), leaves Rosebury Topping on the east, and, passing along Commondale, Lownsdale, and the vale of the Esk, by Danby, Fryop, and Egton, finally terminates between Sleights and Maybeck having run a direct and unimpeded course, through every species of geological formation, a distance of upwards of sixty miles. John Walker Ord. 1846
…Nor could the entire novice in the science of Geology at all suppose that igneous agency from beneath had ever been so operative as it has been in this vicinity, or that there is an example of this subterraneous power having rent our hills, and filled the chasm with protruded basalt, forming at intervals a small ridge on the surface over a space of “60 or 70 miles,” nearly in a straight line…
…This basaltic rock is of a bluish-black colour, having small shining angular crystals interspersed; is coarse in its recent fracture; but at the top or outside of the ridge; the rock is shivered and covered with a ferruginous crust, from the partial de-composition of the stone, while the oxide of iron in it remains, giving to the rock a rusty coating. Its specific gravity is 2·8 nearly; indicating that iron is a component part of this rock. Long before geology was set upon its present steadfast basis, or upon any basis, the farmers through whose vicinities this basaltic ridge; runs knew that rock, which they call sillas steans (sil-houes stones), and used them for making and mending their roads. Indeed, from this rock the Sil-houes (for three of them in a cluster stand upon it) derive their name, which at least is as old as the Conquest, as we learn from the old boundary list of Whitby Strand in the Abbey records. The appearance of this ridge; resembles a landrig in its passage for several miles over the moor from Blea Hill (its eastern termination) to Goadland Dale. Robert Knox. 1855
Section of a map published by Map Robert Knox in 1849
Sil Howe Etymology
Regarding the round barrow of Sil Howe and the orgins of its name. Eckwald suggests that it is from the Old Norse sigla which is a mast used as a boundary mark. Smith suggests an Old Danish origin making the barrow personal to Sile i.e. Siles mound.
I would suggest that Robert Knox gave the correct etymology for mound. Sill is a word that was used by northern quarrymen to describe a body of rock where the strata is more or less horizontal. The word was later taken up by geologists to describe large flat igneous intrusions. Prior to quarrying the dyke, it would have been an obvious large landscape linear feature running across the moorlands. I’d suggest that Knox was correct and Sil Howe was named after the dyke.
Resources
Along the Esk – A guide to the Mining Geology & Industrial Archaeology of the Esk Valley. Denis Golding 2006
The History & Antiquities of Cleveland. John Graves. 1808
A History of Whitby. George Young. 1817
Illustrations of the geology of Yorkshire, or, A description of the strata and organic remains: accompanied by a geological map, sections and plates of the fossil plants and animals. John Phillips. 1835
The History & Antiquities of Cleveland. John Walker Ord. 1846
Descriptions, geological, topographical and antiquarian in Eastern Yorkshire. Robert Knox. 1855
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Eilert Ekwall. 1974
The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire. A.H. Smith 1928
Nine – a megalithic magic number?
The Nine Stanes, a beautiful Recumbent Stone Circle in Aberdeenshire.
The number nine seems to be a significant number to whoever named the groups of megaliths that litter our islands. Megalithic groups labelled The Nine (fill in the gap) can be found throughout mainland Britain from Cornwall to the Moray coast. However, despite the name the number doesn’t always reflect the actual number of stones in a specific group e.g. there are eleven in this circle.
Aubrey Burl tells us that it could be predicted that rings of four, eight, twelve and sixteen stones would be quite common and they do represent one in three of all sites in Britain and Ireland.
We will never know what the people who erected the stones named them and it’s a possibility that the word nine is a corruption of another word, the names of many sites have changed over time. If this isn’t the case then perhaps the number nine itself had a special meaning to the people who came later and gave the stones their current names.
We know that the number nine was significant to many cultures including the pre-christian people of northern Europe, their languages provided the roots of our modern English and Scots languages and their mythologies and folklore may have had commonalities with our islands prior to the arrival of christianity.
There are many examples of the use of the number nine, here’s a few.
In mythology from Iceland to Kenya there are a number tales of Nine women or maidens. There are a number of megalithic, and other settings such as wells, that reflect this in their names.
The Anglo Saxons had nine sacred healing herbs.
A snake came crawling, it bit a man.
Then Woden took nine glory-twigs,
Smote the serpent so that it flew into nine parts.
There apple brought this pass against poison,
That she nevermore would enter her house
Norse cosmology tells us of the Nine Worlds
I recall being reared by Jotuns,
in days long gone. If I look back, I recall
nine worlds, nine wood-witches,
that renowned tree of fate below the earth
In the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, the Norse god Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil, the world tree, for nine nights and learned nine magic songs and eighteen powerful charms.
I hung on that windy Tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven...
...Nine mighty songs I learned from the great
son of Bale-thorn, Bestla’s sire;
I drank a measure of the wondrous Mead,
with the Soulstirrer’s drops I was showered.
Whether the number is significant or it’s a case of word corruption over the ages, it’s good to think about these things as it may signify that these places remained within the cultural memory of the people who named them albeit a couple thousands of years after they were first built.
My local Nine Stones site on Thimbleby Moor
Sources
The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland & Brittany. Aubrey Burl 2000
The Smell of Water 
