Welsh Journals

Place Names in the Denbigh District* DR. IFOR WILLIAMS. IN the 1334 Survey of the Honour of Denbigh, edited by Vinogradoff and Morgan and published in 1914, we have scores of place-names which in spite of their being recorded in an outlandish orthography are of considerable value to the student of the modern place names of Denbighshire, preserving as they do in many cases old forms now modified out of all recognition, sometimes by phonetic change, sometimes by false analogy. Both peasant and pedant have an irresistible urge to change the unknown into a word that has some sort of meaning. For instance the Grugor of 1334 (and of the 1491-5 document now known as Cardiff MS. 51) is printed Grugoer on the Ordnance Map, as if it contained oer 'cold.' but the second syllable of the earlier records places it in the same group as Greor from gre (Latin grex), Prysor from prys brushwood grove' (cf. Prys-Llygod), Serior from seri, Penglogor from penglog skull.' The last name is a perfect parallel to the Biblical Golgotha, or Calvary. The old Garthsnodiok is the Crest or Snodrook Park,' mentioned by Williams, Anc. and Mod. Denbigh, p. 296. Dyserth is not from dy-serth very steep,' but Diserth from Latin desertum a desert, a lonely place, a hermit's cell,' and finally burial place.' It occurs frequently as a place name on both sides of the Irish Sea, and as a common noun in the Book of Taliesin, p. 17, 20 for burial place.' The old name for Llansanffraid, Glan Conwy, was Llansanffraid yn y Ddiserth. Llys Fassi preserves the name of one of the early settlers in the Vale of Clwyd; Efenechtyd for instance was sold by the crown to a certain Thomas Massey in 1545, and Llys Masscoys occurs in 1509. Escorebrithl in the orthography of the 1334 Survey stands for Esgor Ebrill; it is now twisted to Esgair Ebrill, probably because the only esgor in common