COULD you tell me about the origin of bield walls and the nature of their use? In some indexes bield is listed as a Scottish term and in others as of Old English derivation. - Jonathan Grimes, Kirk Merrington.

THE word is used in Scotland to describe some kind of shelter and is occasionally used in other parts of Britain as far south as Northamptonshire where there is a folly described as a bield. Most reliable sources agree the word is Old English (OE) in origin and this means that it originated in the English language sometime before 1066.

Confusion often arises about whether certain words should be described as Scottish words or words of Anglo-Saxon origin. This is because most of the words in the Scottish dialect such as those used in the poems of Robert Burns are actually Anglo-Saxon in origin.

Indeed, as is the case with the North-East dialect, more words of Anglo-Saxon origin survive in the Scottish dialect than in standard English because Edinburgh and lowland Scotland were, for centuries, within the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

In later centuries, when the native Gaelic (Celtic) language of Highland Scotland began to die out, it was replaced by the Anglo-Saxon spoken in Edinburgh and the Lothians. For this reason lots of old Anglo-Saxon words like bield have survived in Scotland. Many of these words are often described as Scottish because they are not used elsewhere or because they were wiped out in England due to the strong influence of Scandinavian and Norman languages.

To the Anglo-Saxons, bield seems to have meant confidence, security or courage and seems to have occurred in the form beldo. There were related words on the continent and in the Old High language (the German spoken before 1200) it was baldi. In Britain in the later medieval period (after 1200) bield as it was now spelled came to be more closely associated with a building of some kind. It came to be most closely associated with a sheltered building in Scotland and Northern England but was largely forgotten elsewhere. In Scotland the word also survived in the senses "to make bold" or alternatively to defend and protect. Both of these meanings are now obsolete and bield now seems to refer exclusively to a building of some kind.

I THINK Bob Hardisty played in three Olympic Games for England. Have you any information on his football career? - W Sewell, Bishop Auckland.

BOB Hardisty, who died in 1987, has often been described as the greatest amateur footballer of all time. He was born in Chester-le-Street in 1921 but is most closely associated with Bishop Auckland, and played football for the Bishops for 20 years, appearing in six amateur FA cup finals. His amateur status qualified him for the Olympics and he appeared in three Olympic Games. In retirement, he often appeared on Tyne Tees Television as a sports analyst alongside George Taylor. A road in Bishop Auckland is named Bob Hardisty Drive in his honour.

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