Hello,

I have managed to find an answer of my own. (The original query was prompted
by a question by a third person.) to Slonk (the subject heading was
unfortunate).



*** *** *** Richard Coates writes: (N1.2.5) SLONK in place-names of the
Brighton area: no more slaughter, please Field-names of this form are
recorded in Rottingdean as follows: the Slonkes furlonge 1638 (1655) ESRO
BRD 3/1 The Slonk or Southmost forlong of the Vicurage Laine 1732 ESRO BRD
3/7 The Slonks 1819 ESRO AMS 4952/1/21 Upper and Lower Slonks, Slonks Hovel
1947/1970
Copper map Slonks (also Slonks Corner, Hovel) 1971 Copper, pp. 9, 11, 157
Slonks Laine 1973 Copper, p. 12

The later fields Upper and Lower Slonks are some way from Vicarage Laine,
and we need to assume two places, at different periods, bearing the same
name. Slonk is recorded in Kent (Parish and Shaw 1887) as meaning `a slope,
declivity; a depression in the ground'.

The first meaning is the one relevant here. Upper and Lower Slonks occupy a
smooth slope right on the Rottingdean/Rodmell
boundary. The profile of Slonk Hill in KingstonBuci/Old Shoreham was a
smoothly-descending spur before it was carved up by the cutting which
carries the A27. There also existed land called the Sloncke in Preston
(Court Rolls, 25Sept. 1589; SRS 27), the precise location of which is
unknown; and also in Telscombe, a furlong of Church Laine (document of 1701
(Cornes 1980)). Clearly the word was an authentic local dialect item.

The word may be a variant of slant, which is first recorded as a noun, `the
slope of a hill, piece of ground, etc.; a sloping stretch of ground', in
1655 (OED), and occasionally written with -o-.

Slonk is also discussed by Hartridge (1978: 59), who mentions an opinion of
the place-name scholar John Dodgson's which is
compatible with, but not identical to, the view I have taken here: that a
`tongue of land' may be referred to. Words of a similar shape to this are
sometimes found in place-names with different meanings; but we are not
dealing here with narrow, winding pieces of land (slang) or with hollows or
swallowholes (slank). There is nothing to support the local view that the
name has something to do with `slaughter'; this red herring was first
spawned by the Lewes historian Horsfield (1835; cf. G.N.S., SCM 26
(1952),96). The Anglo-Saxons were not short of words for places of
slaughter, and we don't need to invent another.

References Copper, Bob (1947/1970) Map of Rottingdean, marking field and
minor names. Version of 1947 published in d'Enno (1985: 45); version of 1970
displayed in Rottingdean branch library, The Grange, Rottingdean. Copper,
Bob (1971) A song for every season.
London: Heinemann. Copper, Bob (1973) Songs and southern breezes. London:
Heinemann. Cornes, Barry N. (1980) Telscombe c 1780-c1871: the changing
landownership pattern and its effect on the population of a Sussex village.
MS deposited at ESRO, open shelves.

Hartridge, R. (1978) Excavations at the prehistoric and Romano-British site
on Slonk Hill, Shoreham, Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections 116,
69-141. Parish, W.D. and W.F. Shaw (1887) A dictionary of the Kentish
dialect and provincialisms in use in the county of Kent. London: Trbner (for
the English Dialect Society).

S., G.N. (1952) Letter: Slonk Hill, Shoreham. Sussex County Magazine 26, 96.
SRS = Sussex Record Society

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:mG1_dvNQrNkJ:www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/richardc/locus12.ps+slonk+hill&hl=en&ie=

UTF-8

or

http://tinyurl.com/34gqn




Slonk Hill becomes a quagmire:

I was 15 when War was declared. Very soon, Slonk Hill, opposite Southlands
Hospital, was covered in tents and filled with army recruits. The hill is
now built on but then it was a lovely piece of open downland. It became a
favourite walk to go and see the soldiers.

But how it rained that Autumn of 1914 and soon the poor lads were living in
a quagmire. When it became too impossible they were billeted in homes in
Shoreham and Southwick. We had two corporals of the Seventh Northants
Regiment . Meanwhile a camp of Nissen huts was built on The Green and we
found ourselves literally living in the camp - I had to run the gauntlet on
the way to the station for school and office.

http://www.jrawson.freeserve.co.uk/Southwick100/part1-4.htm

Sussex Archaeological Collectionsvol. 66, 1925, p.243 (Report by Mr EF
Salmon), mentions: "It may be opportune to record now that during the
period of the late Shoreham Camp, Romano-British interments with vessels
were disturbed in December,1914, on Slonk Hill. Mediaeval remains, portions
of mortars, pottrey, etc., by the Royal Engineers, on the hill north of
Portslade, in May, 1915; and in May, 1916, the 15th Middlesex discovered a
Bronze Age interment, a crouched skeleton, also on Slonk Hill. Lastly, when
forming the amphitheatre at the camp, a group of seven Saxon skeletons were
uncovered on the eastern slope of MIll Hill in January, 1918. Most of the
spoils from the above are now to be seen in the Brighton Museum".

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sussexpast/message/1535

PS;  For a very short period of time circa 1960 I lived at Slonk Hill Farm.
It was winter and it was muddy, but I dare say all farms are and there were
pigs, which makes things even muddier.

Cheers

Andy Horton.
[log in to unmask]
History of Shoreham, England
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/History.htm

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