FIELD NAMES AND DIALECT WORDS

By John Salisbury

During investigations into the earthworks at Nateby, and searching through old records, I became aware of the changing patterns of the local landscape, with the old field systems giving way to the practice of making two small fields into one large one.

Change has now become a common theme in the countryside, soon there will be little of interest left that we can recognise, with the prairie type farming becoming the order of the day.

It is not generally known that most fields have, or had, names some probably dating back for hundreds of years - and are worth recording. I can remember clearly all the field names at "Eskham House Farm" where I worked for many years. "Eskham" is one of the oldest and largest farms in Pilling. I thought it may be interesting to include a map of the farm with the field names as they were sixty years ago; names that were used on a daily basis.

'Heights Hill Pasture' for instance, which is the field immediately to the north of the farm, and fifteen metres above sea level, is regarded as the highest point in Pilling parish. On the lowest slope of the hill there is an adjoining field called 'Stanghills Meadow'. Stang' is an old Saxon word meaning a piece of timber. The field name may well have come from the remains of ancient trees, (moss stocks) occurring just below the surface and causing hillocks in the field.

Another meadow was called 'Garstang Carr'. Carr means marshy ground, but where the name 'Garstang' fits in escapes me. Also, here is a field called 'Long Stitches'! The word 'stitches' is an old word for potato rows. There was also 'Sand Field' where local farmers used to come and collect building sand from a sand pit in the centre of the field. This pit was filled in over forty years ago, but the name persists.

A few dialect words of Norse or Scandinavian origin are still spoken here today by older people, but for the most part, they have all but disappeared. The next generation will almost certainly see their end.

I have included a list of words and their meanings, all of which were in regular use sixty or seventy years ago, and like the field names, I think they are worth recording.