Welsh Journals

STREAM NAMES OF THE SEVERN BASIN IN MONTGOMERYSHIRE G. G. EVANS. M.A. INTRODUCTORY The aim of this contribution is to attempt to record all the known names of rivers and streams in a defined area, to locate streams and to explain the names. The area chosen is that part of Montgomeryshire which is watered by the Severn and its tributaries. Those parts of Montgomeryshire which lie in the Dyfi and Wye basins are not included in this study. (I write of Montgomeryshire though the shire now has no administrative existence: I do so because the use of the old name will give many readers, and myself, pleasure and satisfaction). The choice was between making an intensive study of a small area, e.g. a few parishes, and a more superficial study of a large area. The first choice would have made possible the locating of every stream, through discussion with local people and reference to every known document concerning the locality. Where in the present study I have been able to do this, e.g. for parishes which are well documented in the Montgomeryshire Collections, the notes are in consequence more authoritive and valid. The arguments in favour of a thorough study of a limited area are well put by Melville Richards in his illuminating contribution in the Montgomeryshire Collec- tions (LIV, 95) on the studying of place-names. (He enumerates the qualities, knowledge and skills required of a student of place-names: in the light of his exposition I felt very much aware of my shortcomings but heartened by the avowal that his was a counsel of perfection.) I chose, nevertheless, to study a large area and also decided, perhaps to compensate for the weaknesses of an extensive study, to include all the names which I could find. The list would not be confined to the names of streams which were of some length or significance or which were etymologically interesting, the criteria on which Ekwall selected names for the standard work on English river names. (E.R.N. p.xxxvi of his Introduction.) It seemed to me that the list by virtue of its completeness would perhaps elucidate the general pattern of names in the defined area and that such a compilation would have a value over and above the value of the details about individual names. Other points in favour of being as comprehensive as possible were that the list could be a starting point for intensive localised studies and serve as a kind of gazetteer and dictionary. In the initial stages of collecting names I had the benefit of being able to refer to the list published in 1871 by D. Silvan Evans (S.E. in Bibliography) and to the wealth of information and suggestions contained in D. Machreth Ellis's thesis on the "Place-names of Montgomeryshire." (M.E. in Bibliography). Silvan Evans lists about a hundred and thirty six streams1 in the Severn basin alone. His introduction to this list is short but highly pertinent. He refers, for example, to the duplication of names and to the development of new names for streams. He also recommended the preparation county by county of complete lists of stream names in Wales, a task that over a hundred years later has not been started. In preparing his list he had the assistance of two local historians, Richard Williams and Edward Hamer, whose contributions to the Montgomeryshire Collections in its early years are of a high order and indicative of the quality of the collaboration which Silvan Evans received. A few errors have been noticed in his list, too minor to be mentioned except in a footnote2. 'For convenience I shall use stream to denote stream. river, brook, afon. nant. ,e.g. Abel and Alan taken to be one and the same stream; Nant Bwlch y Pawl said to flow into Efyrnwy instead of into the Dee Basin: Bon Maen Melyn in the Strata Marcella Charters interpreted as Afon Maen Melyn; Hirddydd listed instead of Hirddu: Teinion listed probably in error for Feinion.