Toponomy
Toponomy is the study of place names and is primarily a linguistic exercise. There are many odd features to the region surrounding and many of these names have intriguing histories. Many thanks to J.J. Kneen of Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Language Society), from whose 1925 work Place Names on the Isle of Man these histories have been derived.
Parish of Kirk Collum
. . . .
Coirrey Colden [ko:l~n].
Coirrey Colden [ko:l~n].
1761 Dioc. Reg. Corrie Coldin.
Scand. Kollrinn, 'the top, summit.'
Moore (Manx Names) gives Coidran as an older form but quotes no authority. The highest peak of the mountain is 1732 ft. The region is known for its salt mines.
. . . .
Glen Ginsderry.
1880 Man. Roll. Glen Unjin S'doree
1881 Man. Roll. Glen Ginsderry
1880 Man. Roll. Glen Unjin S'doree
1881 Man. Roll. Glen Ginsderry
Mx. Glion unjin s'dorree, 'the darkest ash glen.'
Anglicised in 1881 by the Wexham Mining Company, who renamed most of the landmarks in the region to better give their English investors the impression of Tholingchester being "an island of culture amidst an ocean of Manx barbarism"<1>. Named for the Fraxinus excelsior negrissimus, a subspecies of the European ash tree which has dark green leaves, nearly black at dusk, and is only found in Coirrey Colden.
<1> from the Wexham Mining Company pamphlet, pub. 1882
. . . .
Tholingchester
12th cent. Ogham. Tul qog
1545 Lib. episc. Toul cairyn gort
1667 Dioc. Reg. Toula cairogher
1744 Dioc. Reg. Tollacrogher
1826 Man. Roll. Tholt-ny-croagheyder
1854 Man. Roll. Tholt e Crogheyder
Mx. Tholt-y-crogheyder,'hangman's hill' from Ir. tul or tulach, hill.
The town's name was Anglicised by decree of the newly established constabulary which served the Wexham mining company and ran the town government, who considered the literal translation of its Manx name too macabre and utterly unsuited to the purposes of advertising in England. The more recent forms of the name seem to indicate that "hill of the hangman" was the original name of the town, which certainly applies to a hill just outside of modern Tholingchester where criminals were indeed hung, just up the path from the entrance to the ancient Yourniel salt mine, now defunct. However by the seventeenth century we begin to see bizarre variations which break apart the initial consonants. The one name from the early sixteenth century has the bizarre translation 'hill of bitter land-rights', which perhaps indicates that the land-barons of the era did not consider the town to be of value, due to its poor location inside a corrie.
The mystery of the name's origin is solved by the evidence from ogham inscriptions unearthed in Tholingchester in the early twentieth century and the surrounding region which has the name of the town during the Welsh period as Tul qog. The names of the letters q, o, and g in ogham are qeirt or qeir, onn, and gort, meaning rowan, ash, and ivy, which certainly describes the progression of vegetation outward from the cliff face within the corrie out through the rowan glens into the rolling heathland around the corrie. These letter names were apparently spoken separately and then elided into qeirt-onn-gort or somesuch and finally, through folk etymology, into cairyn gort, the new meanings ascribed where they were not before. This happened again when cairyn gort evolved into crogher, roughly meaning "hangman", which grammatical revisionists in the nineteenth century expanded into the full spelling, crogheyder. Interestingly, the "hill" part of the name has remained nearly unchanged for eight hundred years.
. . . .
Yourniel
1880 Man. Roll. Iuriniel.
Mx. Yn Iurinoil, hell-like.
Hell is what this salt mine must have seemed like to the local population when it was named. Tales abound of strange creatures inhabiting the mine, which has been in intermittent use since at least 1000 AD. It was last exploited by the Wexham Mining Company which anglicised the name in 1881 and went out of business in the 1905, due to the death of its owner, Andrew Wexham, the heirs wishing to invest elsewhere.
Anglicised in 1881 by the Wexham Mining Company, who renamed most of the landmarks in the region to better give their English investors the impression of Tholingchester being "an island of culture amidst an ocean of Manx barbarism"<1>. Named for the Fraxinus excelsior negrissimus, a subspecies of the European ash tree which has dark green leaves, nearly black at dusk, and is only found in Coirrey Colden.
<1> from the Wexham Mining Company pamphlet, pub. 1882
. . . .
Tholingchester
12th cent. Ogham. Tul qog
1545 Lib. episc. Toul cairyn gort
1667 Dioc. Reg. Toula cairogher
1744 Dioc. Reg. Tollacrogher
1826 Man. Roll. Tholt-ny-croagheyder
1854 Man. Roll. Tholt e Crogheyder
Mx. Tholt-y-crogheyder,'hangman's hill' from Ir. tul or tulach, hill.
The town's name was Anglicised by decree of the newly established constabulary which served the Wexham mining company and ran the town government, who considered the literal translation of its Manx name too macabre and utterly unsuited to the purposes of advertising in England. The more recent forms of the name seem to indicate that "hill of the hangman" was the original name of the town, which certainly applies to a hill just outside of modern Tholingchester where criminals were indeed hung, just up the path from the entrance to the ancient Yourniel salt mine, now defunct. However by the seventeenth century we begin to see bizarre variations which break apart the initial consonants. The one name from the early sixteenth century has the bizarre translation 'hill of bitter land-rights', which perhaps indicates that the land-barons of the era did not consider the town to be of value, due to its poor location inside a corrie.
The mystery of the name's origin is solved by the evidence from ogham inscriptions unearthed in Tholingchester in the early twentieth century and the surrounding region which has the name of the town during the Welsh period as Tul qog. The names of the letters q, o, and g in ogham are qeirt or qeir, onn, and gort, meaning rowan, ash, and ivy, which certainly describes the progression of vegetation outward from the cliff face within the corrie out through the rowan glens into the rolling heathland around the corrie. These letter names were apparently spoken separately and then elided into qeirt-onn-gort or somesuch and finally, through folk etymology, into cairyn gort, the new meanings ascribed where they were not before. This happened again when cairyn gort evolved into crogher, roughly meaning "hangman", which grammatical revisionists in the nineteenth century expanded into the full spelling, crogheyder. Interestingly, the "hill" part of the name has remained nearly unchanged for eight hundred years.
. . . .
Yourniel
1880 Man. Roll. Iuriniel.
Mx. Yn Iurinoil, hell-like.
Hell is what this salt mine must have seemed like to the local population when it was named. Tales abound of strange creatures inhabiting the mine, which has been in intermittent use since at least 1000 AD. It was last exploited by the Wexham Mining Company which anglicised the name in 1881 and went out of business in the 1905, due to the death of its owner, Andrew Wexham, the heirs wishing to invest elsewhere.
posted by Douglas Henning Jr at 9:00 PM
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