Q Can you tell me the origins of the following place-names please - Temple Sowerby and Coatham Mundeville? - W.Sewell, Woodhouse Lane, Bishop Auckland

A THE place-name Temple Sowerby in Cumbria takes its name from a Christian military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 known as the Knights Templar.

Temple Sowerby takes its name from being an early possession of the Knights Templar. The place was recorded as Templesoureby in 1292 but in a previous record in 1179 it was simply known as Sourebi. The name Sowerby occurs elsewhere in Cumbria and also near Thirsk in Yorkshire. The element 'by' in 'Sower-by' is Danish and means 'farm or village'. Sower in place-names means 'foul or muddy'. The name means something like 'farm with sour ground'.

Sowerby is the original name of Temple Sowerby and the word Temple was a later prefix probably given to distinguish it from other places called Sowerby.

In this respect Coatham Mundeville is similar, since Coatham was the original name and Mundeville was added later as a suffix. This distinguished it from other places called Coatham, like Coatham on the Cleveland coast which was an important fishing town in Medieval times. The name of both Coathams comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word 'cot' meaning 'cottage, shelter or hut'.

Usually when a place-name ends in the word 'ham' it comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning homestead. This is not the case with the two Coathams. Both were originally 'Cotum' which means 'cottages, shelters or huts', since the 'um' is a kind of Anglo-Saxon plural. If we still used the old word cot today to mean a hut, we would probably say 'cots' if there were more than one. The Anglo-Saxons said 'cotum'.

The suffix Mundeville has a very interesting explanation. In a nutshell, the word derives from a French surname that comes from a French place-name that takes its name from a Viking who settled in France. The name was attached to the County Durham Coatham because a Norman family called the De Amundevillas once owned the settlement. In 1344, the name was recorded as Cotum Maundevill. The family was called De Amundevilla because they came from a place called Emondeville in Normandy. The name De Amundevilla simply means 'of Emondeville'.

Now this is where we get the Viking connection. The Vikings who settled in France gave particular names to the places they settled and in France they often called these olaces 'villes' adopting an old word of Roman origin. Emondeville, where the Amundevilla family, originated took its name from a Viking called Amundi.

The Vikings (or Normans) who settled in France came from Denmark, Norway, England and Ireland but over time they adopted the French language and had done so completely by the time their descendants invaded England in 1066.

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Published: 11/11/2002