medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Well, yes, but at the moment we are having trouble coming up with *any* explanation - so plausibility is something of a luxury :-)
John Briggs
---- John Freeman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> John,
>
> > Another suggestion: is "Holywater" a name for the river (the River Leadon?)
>
> Unlikely, because the river at Bromyard is the Frome, so we would be dealing with two rivers called "Holywater", stretching credulity. And Massington, for example, is nowhere near the Leadon.
>
> > if it were "King's Holywater" and "Bishop's Holywater" instead of Lynton's Holywater and Norton's Holywater there wouldn't be any doubt!
> > I am thinking of the analogy wih Monk Sherborne and Dean's Sherborne (now Sherborne St John - the family not the saint!) in Hampshire.
>
> I may be missing a subtlety of your interpretation here, but do we ever find place-names of the form 'township-name + possessive + parish-name' (e.g. 'Linton's Bromyard') to refer to the township? ('King's X' means 'place called X, or that part of X, held by the King', so isn't a real parallel, surely'?) 'Linton Bromyard' might just be possible to refer to Linton, but there remains the question of whether Holywater could be an alias for Bromyard (and Ledbury). I must say that also stretches my credulity. If Bromyard and Ledbury both had these aliases 'Holywater' (odd in itself?), why do they appear in a very restricted time-span, and in a very restricted range of documents (lay at that), and always qualified by the name of a township?
>
> John F.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Briggs" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 6:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [M-R] Holywater in place-names
>
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >
> > ---- John Freeman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>
> >> A possible objection to John Briggs' surmise might be that if Holywater
> >> stands for 'Bromyard' or 'Ledbury', wouldn't a more natural expression be
> >> *Holywaters Lynton (or possibly *Lynton Holywaters) etc.? But I agree that
> >> the possessive seems decidedly odd.
> >
> > Well, yes, but if it were "King's Holywater" and "Bishop's Holywater" instead of Lynton's Holywater and Norton's Holywater there wouldn't be any doubt!
> >
> > I am thinking of the analogy wih Monk Sherborne and Dean's Sherborne (now Sherborne St John - the family not the saint!) in Hampshire.
> >
> > Yes, "Holywater Lynton" and "Holywater Norton" would be more natural.
> >
> > Another suggestion: is "Holywater" a name for the river (the River Leadon?)
> >
> > John Briggs
> >
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