You don’t have to look far into the history of Wrekenton to
discover that it appears to have been named by a historian. The famous
antiquarian, Rev John Hodgson – he of the History
of Northumberland fame – is said to have manufactured the word. He wrote, “After
the enclosure of the common (in 1822), Mr Watson, of Warburton Place , Carrhill, founded a
considerable village at this place, which, at my suggestion, he called
Wrekenton.”
Hodgson created the word from the nearby Roman road, the
Wrekendyke, which runs from this spot all the way to South
Shields . Thus, ‘Wrenken-ton’ means ‘the homestead by the
Wrekendyke’. Clever, eh? And so antiquarian-like!
‘Wrekendyke’ itself is an Anglo-Saxon word derived from the
Old English wraecca, meaning ‘fugitive,
or criminal’. So we have ‘the fugitive’s ditch/dyke’. We can just about
recognise the old term in the modern word ‘wretch’.
It is possible that a Roman fort sat hereabouts, too –
perhaps on the local golf course – but no trace of any such structure has yet
been found.
Why not come along to...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment