Sarah's conclusion is fascinating:

'What is profoundly apparent is that the concept 
of the hearg needs to be rethought – hearg was 
never applied to a Germanic or Anglo-Saxon pagan 
temple structure. The hearg seems to have 
constituted a naturally significant location that 
formed a place of gathering and ritual for many 
generations over a long period of time.'

This is certainly consistent with the modern 
Harrow Farm by the (more suggestive of an older 
origin) pre-Enclosure Arrow Field and River 
Arrow.  According to Barrie Cox the name Horrou 
is recorded in 1212 and Harrowfeld appears in 
1412 (The Place-Names of Leicestershire: Part 3: 
East Goscote Hundred, Barrie Cox (English Place-Name Society, 2004).

Harrow Farm is close to Six Hills (Seggs Hill 
before corruption by the Ordnance Survey) in 
north Leicestershire.  Despite the modern name, 
Six Hills is a plateau-like area at the centre of 
the Wolds, where two Roman roads (one the Fosse 
Way) cross and was the moot site for the Goscote 
Hundred (Barrie Cox has identified the late 
survival of a 'Goose Foot Close' field name).

C18 antiquarians refer to one or more now-lost 
'tumuli' there.  This/these *might* have been 
non-sepulchral moot/motte mounds as at Secklow in 
Milton Keynes (and Seggs Hill / Secklow just 
*might* be cognate - though plenty of other possible origins for Seggs Hill!).

That Six Hills was not a significant Iron 
Age/Roman temple site is suggested by the 
presence of Vernemetum ('Especially Sacred Grove' 
- almost certainly Iron Age in origin - and Roman 
small town) about a mile further north along the 
Fosse Way.  On the basis of a significant number 
of Anglo-Saxon strap ends, Vernemetum probably 
became an early minster site, so the putative 
Roman-British temple must have been 'respected' 
in some way during the A-S pagan era (and a pagan 
inhumation cemetery straddling the Fosse Way lies 
just to the north of Vernemetum).


Getting back to hearg - not only is there a weoh 
(modern Wysall, Notts) a few miles to the 
north-west.  More interestingly an Alfletford 
(containing 'alh', another name for a pagan 
shrine) is recorded somewhere in Wymeswold (the 
same parish as Harrow Farm) in 1292 and 
Alfleethorn at some time in the thirteenth 
century.  *If* an extant spring surrounded by 
thorn bushes at the side of the 'River Arrow' 
(modern name 'River Mantle', and in reality a 
seasonal brook) equates to the alhfleetthorn then 
the close proximity of this putative alh site 
with the hearg helps confirm Sarah's conclusion that heargs were not 'temples'.

I'd be very interested to know what an alh was - 
e.g. in what way was it was distinct from a weoh?

A sketch map of the Six Hills are and a photo of 
the putative site of the alhfleetthorn are 
included in a (non-academic!) article at http://www.hoap.co.uk/who/who43.htm


Bob

>What do people think of this paper? Are the results valid?  There doesn't
>appear to have been any onomastic input!
>
>Sarah Semple (2007)
>'Defining the OE hearg: a preliminary archaeological and
>topographic examination of hearg place names and their
>hinterlands'
>Early Medieval Europe 15(4):364-385.
><http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00212.x>
>Or http://tinyurl.com/3dlmfr
>[pdf, 22 pp, 252 kb]
>
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>
>John Briggs
>
>
>*******************************************
>Dr Carole Hough
>Reader in English Language
>Department of English Language
>School of English and Scottish Language and Literature (SESLL)
>University of Glasgow
>12 University Gardens
>Glasgow G12 8QQ
>Scotland UK
>Tel. +44 (0)141 330 4566
>Fax. +44 (0)141 330 3531
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