Area History
This area was first populated by PRE-INDO EUROPEANS, Picts or their relatives. The first Celtic people to inhabit the area were the SECARTII, a part of the Brigantine Federation which covered a huge swathe of Northern England.
The name “Secartii” means “Those who dwell by the water”, a reference to the Blakewater and Darwen rivers which run through the area. Due to the Roman road from Mamucium (Manchester) to Bremetannacum (Ribchester) going through what is now the centre of Blackburn, it is believed that the origins of the town ware as rude huts in this vicinity.
On their arrival, THE ANGLES OF DERIA (later a part of “Northanhymbre” or Northumbria, colonised the area, driving out or assimilating the local “Wealisc”, or Welsh (ie: the Celtic Britons), who may have developed the lost language of Cumbrian around here.(see place name origins - the Britons more likely took refuge North of the Ribble; see Aneirin’s “Y Goddodin” or “The Northerners”).
The area was then disputed territory between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, and later became a part of the “Dena Lagu” or “Danelaw”, the part of modern England governed by the Viking kings of Denmark. Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norse, as well as Scandinavian dialects of Old Runic and Old Norse (the Norwegians came mainly in the West of Lancashire, assimilating themselves into North West England) would’ve been widely spoken.
Place Name Origins:
WITTON - Old English: “Witta’s village”
REDLAM - Old English “Red lomme”; “Red pool/pond”
LIVESEY - Old Norse: “Island in the marsh ground”
FENISCOWLES - Old English: “Huts in the marsh”
FENISCLIFFE - Old English: “Outcrop in the marsh”
PLEASINGTON - Old English: “Plessa’s village”
TOCKHOLES - Old English: “Toche’s hollow”
HOGHTON - Old English: “Hilly/high village?” (cf. “Hoch-town”)
MELLOR - Old Brittish: “Meolvre”, “Barren hill”
BLACKBURN - Old English: “Blaec burn”, “Clear river”
DARWEN - Old Brittish: “Derwent”, “River?”
BRINDLE - Old English: “Burnt hill”
BRINSCALL - Old English: “Burnt huts/hall”
OLD ENGLISH - West Germanic language of Anglo-Saxons
OLD NORSE - North Germanic language of Norwegian Vikings
OLD BRITTISH - Celtic language of all British/Welsh/Breton Celts
For greater detail on place name origins see the place name origins page.
