Win Scutt is, of course, an archaeologist, so he will know this story:
I have never had the nerve to discuss with Warwick Rodwell, but in the
Rivenhall (Essex) excavations of the late 1970s (Rodwell & Rodwell) there
was found a substantial late-Roman or post-Roman building, which would still
have been standing, probably in ruins, at the time of the earliest
Anglo-Saxon settlements. Could this have been the 'riven hall'?
Unfortunately, Rivenhall means something like "rough nook" (yes, I know it's
actually a bit more complicated than that!) At this point, Margaret
Gelling, the doyenne of English place-name studies, stood up and declared
that never again should archaeologists be allowed to do their own place-name
interpretation!
John Briggs
Win Scutt wrote:
> I should point out that I have been researching this idea since 2001
> - and you haven't been in discussion with me - yet! I do hope I shall
> not cause distress! There is much we can all learn from such
> discussion, whether the idea turns out to be valid or not.
|