Very interested to see this topic come up, but no time to comment at length
(SPNS conference coming up!). As I have noted before, we actually farm
(unculled, so far) at Sundaywell in Dumfriesshire. The farm is named for the
spring and various legends attach to it relating to the 'covenanters',
although the name is much older than that. Early forms, however, suggest the
first element is _sund_, an old English word for a watering-hole that game
was known to frequent. Simon Taylor alerted me to another Sundaywell in NE
Scotland, but I don't have the ref. to hand (Aberdeenshire, I think). I'm
rather doubtful about the Francis Jones interpretation of St Sul, etc. Batrum
(WCD) should be consulted. I think it's perhaps another Sawyl who comes into
the _Vitae_. Sul, Sulien etc are also attested names. Isn't there a Sandwell
in Cheshire. I'm raving; I'll stop!!
Cheers,
Henry Gough-Cooper
visit the Scottish Place-Name Society website at
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/institutes/sassi/spns/index.htm
and the Scottish place-name newsgroup at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scotplace
|