by Wickhambrook History Society
We were very pleased to welcome back Martyn Roper, a popular speaker on many subjects. His talk this time was ‘A Voyage round East Anglian Place Names’ and with clever use of maps and photographs we did just that. Like most places in Britain, the conquerors and migrants have left their mark on our land and influenced what we call our fields, villages and towns and we are all familiar with the Roman suffixes –caster, -chester, etc and the Anglo-Saxon -ton, -bury,-ford, -ham but there were many interesting facts which we had not considered until Martyn pointed them out. ‘Vicus’, Latin for hotel was suggested as the first part of the name of our village. Did we have a Roman villa? No, but there is one in nearby Lidgate!
The Drift is a common Suffolk street name. It means a place where animals were driven.
The Belchamps villages are thought to have connections with Roman Colchester as the word derives from ‘a place where animals were trained.’
‘Tye’ as a place name means ‘where three roads meet’.
Bradfield Combust got its name when it was set on fire during the Peasants’ Revolt.
A Pightle is a small piece of land from’ piccolo’.
At the end of his talk, Martyn urged us to do a bit of research around Wickhambrook. He had been looking at the local map and was intrigued by the names Genesis Green, Gesyns, Australia Farm and the Duddery. Local knowledge is that The Duddery was where wool was treated and made into clothes ( Duds – for all the young dudes, perhaps). Australia Farm was the furthest outpost possibly. A debt collector looking for a Wickhambrook man was told he had gone to ‘Australia’. Very convenient!
Anyone who has further knowledge of our local place names would be very welcome to get in touch with the Society.