History

[britbox]

Here is another question for you Ann, since I read somewhere that you have interest ij etymology. What is the etymology of the name Wiltshire? I cam across one from the 19th century.

Place names are mix of Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Norman, Viking, Celtic...

Shire... i.e. Wiltshire, Cheshire, Lancashire - Anglo-Saxon
Pool... i.e. Blackpool, Liverpool - Anglo Saxon
cester/chester/caster... i.e. Manchester, Chester, Cirencester - Roman
by... i.e. Formby, Crosby - Viking
bria... i.e. Northumbria, Cumbria - Celtic

So, Shire is the Anglo-Saxon/Olde English name for a county. A county region rather than a town itself.

The counties are then usually named after the country town (the administrative town) in the county.

i.e.

Yorkshire - has the county town of York
Lancashire - has the county town of Lancaster
Cheshire - has the county town of Chester... etc

Wiltshire had the county town of Wilton.

 

[Horsa]

Place names are mix of Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Norman, Viking, Celtic...

Shire... i.e. Wiltshire, Cheshire, Lancashire - Anglo-Saxon
Pool... i.e. Blackpool, Liverpool - Anglo Saxon
cester/chester/caster... i.e. Manchester, Chester, Cirencester - Roman
by... i.e. Formby, Crosby - Viking
bria... i.e. Northumbria, Cumbria - Celtic

So, Shire is the Anglo-Saxon/Olde English name for a county. A county region rather than a town itself.

The counties are then usually named after the country town (the administrative town) in the county.

i.e.

Yorkshire - has the county town of York
Lancashire - has the county town of Lancaster
Cheshire - has the county town of Chester... etc

Wiltshire had the county town of Wilton.

Did you know that Dublin also means Blackpool? I'm thinking that comes from Gaelic though. I didn't get far with learning Gaelic. I know how to wish someone good health, say Good Morning & thank you very much but that's it. Gaelic is hard. Shires are also a breed of heavy working horses which used to do a lot of work at 1 time. In conjunction with Clydesdales, Irish Draughts & Suffolk punches this country would almost have been at a standstill without them at 1 time as well as Gypsy Vanner's in some areas. York was known as Eboracum in Roman times & Jorvik in Viking times.

 

[Horsa]

I've just been reading about the FANY or 1st aid nursing yeomanry who nursed lots of soldiers during W.W.I. Did you know they were initially meant to be on horseback?

 

[Horsa]

Did you know Sir. Winston Spencer Churchill's son Randolph was an intelligence officer for the S.A.S. during W.W.2?

 

[Horsa]

They are filming a new film in Wakefield called The Angel of Passchendaelle (Please excuse the spelling as it's a very hard word to spell.) about the work of Nellie Spindler who was a Q. A. (member of the Queen Alexandra's imperial nursing service) who was working in a nursing tent at Passchendaelle in 1917 when a bomb was dropped & she died in the matron's arms. (I never heard about the Q.A.I.M.N.S. until I started reading Sisters in arms *which I'm still struggling with* & now I keep hearing about them. It's like some other things I never heard of then I read a book about & suddenly I hear a lot about them. Is it just me or do other people have similar experiences?) They're filming in Wakefield because she came from Wakefield. It's due to be released properly on 11/11.

 

[Horsa]

Did you know the Chantry chapel in Wakefield was built between 1342 & 1348 approx. & it was dissolved during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries when it was left until 1848 when it was repaired & started getting used again? It is under repair at the moment but is still in service & is 1 of only 3 Chantry chapels in Britain still in use.

 

[Horsa]

I was surprised today to find out that although Pontefract is the liquorice capital of the World, liquorice wasn't originally from Pontefract but brought over by the De Lacy family (who built the castle) after the crusades. Does anyone know where liquorice originally came from, please?

 

[Horsa]

I was also surprised to learn that Oliver Cromwell's headquarters were in Knottingley.

 

[Horsa]

On this day in history, the storming of the Bastille took place during the French Revolution.

 

[Horsa]

History of medicine

Prehistoric medicine

During prehistoric times if anyone had a headache they would have a hole drilled in their head by flint scrapers in a process called trephining or trepanning. Afterwards the bones would be given to you in a little bag by a medicine man. The reason why they did that is because they thought headaches were caused by evil spirits entering your head & if they drilled the hole in your head it would let the evil spirits out & you got to keep the bones as a lucky charm to ward off other evil spirits.

Pagans were big believers in herbalism. There is a lot of truth in some of their beliefs as some of their herbs are still used & work today & some of the herbs they used are used in medicine today. Peppermint is good for the stomach & aids concentration. Willow bark was found to contain salicylic acid which is more commonly known as aspirin which is a good painkiller. Foxgloves although potentially dangerous contain digitalis which is very helpful for sufferers of heart disease.

Although William Harvey is often given the credit for coming up with the true theory of circulation & proving it, it was actually Avicenna who deserves that credit as he came up with it centuries earlier when Europe was in the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages European countries forgot all about the advances made in medicine & went back to the old ways while Muslim countries kept the advances going & developed them. He was way ahead of his time & really advanced medical knowledge. He was absolutely amazing in my opinion. William Harvey rediscovered Avicenna's theory of circulation & proved it during the renaissance (rebirth) period but blood transfusions still could not be done as blood groups weren't discovered until much later. During the Renaissance period in Europe previous advances in medicine were rediscovered & new advances were made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Avicenna

Jenner came up with vaccination.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.

Louis Pasteur came up with the process of Pasteurisation.

Joseph Lister came up with antiseptic surgery.

Some of these discoveries might have occurred earlier if it wasn't for the church as dissections of dead human bodies wasn't allowed for centuries so to find out how bodies worked they had to use animal bodies. When dissections of dead bodies was finally allowed body snatching became a thing because people found out they could sell dead bodies to university students. That is why you see some cages & watchtowers outside some churches. The most famous body-snatchers were Burke & Hare but they didn't just leave it at digging bodies out of graves to supply demand for bodies for medical students to study so they could make money but they murdered people to supply that demand.

 

[Horsa]

If we're talking about the medical advances during the Dark Ages in Europe we haven't got to forget Rhazes. He was also way ahead of his time & an amazing guy.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Razi
http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/alrazi

 

[Horsa]

Did you know that Castleford was originally named Lagentium in Roman times? Its name was changed to Castleford during Norman times.

 

[Horsa]

Did you know that Edward IV led his army into battle at the battle of Ferrybridge on the 27/3/1461 during the wars of the roses? The battle of Ferrybridge took place on both the 27th & 28th of March 1461. The wars of the roses took place between Yorkshire & Lancashire.

 

[Chris Koziarz]

Pontefract is a Roman town. It gets its name from the fact that when the Romans came into Pontefract the bridge was broken. Pontefract is the Latin for bridge broken or broken bridge, ponte meaning bridge & fract meaning broken. I wonder if that's where we get the word fracture meaning break from.

The answer to your wondering question (emphasised above) may be too trivial to your liking: the etymology of "fracture" does have nothing to do with Pontefract.
I know the French word "la fracture" has identical meaning and I did suspect English have borrowed the word sometimes, because the word sounds more Latin rather than Anglo-Saxon. Internet search confirmed it: "la fracture" comes from Latin "fractura" and was subsequently exported verbatim to England in middle ages:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fracture

PS: I like your history thread, Ann. I just stumbled on it and it's a fascinating read. I regret I have time only to skim on it but not to pursue info in it.

 

[Horsa]

The answer to your wondering question (emphasised above) may be too trivial to your liking: the etymology of "fracture" does have nothing to do with Pontefract.
I know the French word "la fracture" has identical meaning and I did suspect English have borrowed the word sometimes, because the word sounds more Latin rather than Anglo-Saxon. Internet search confirmed it: "la fracture" comes from Latin "fractura" and was subsequently exported verbatim to England in middle ages:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fracture

PS: I like your history thread, Ann. I just stumbled on it and it's a fascinating read. I regret I have time only to skim on it but not to pursue info in it.

I actually meant does the etymology of fracture come from the Latin word fract meaning broken. It was the fact that I learnt what the Latin word fract meant from learning how Pontefract got it's name which made me wonder. Pontefract getting it's name from the fact it had a broken bridge when the Romans conquered it & Ponte meaning bridge in Latin & fract meaning broken. Therefore the word fract came into English in this instance during Roman times. Thank you very much for the extra information.

Thank you very much, Chris. I might have more to add later. I'm glad you find it interesting.

 

[Horsa]

Did you know that if Thomas Chippendale was still alive he would be 300 this year & that he was an interior designer as well as designing the furniture he's most famous for?

 

[Chris Koziarz]

Did you know that if Thomas Chippendale was still alive he would be 300 this year & that he was an interior designer as well as designing the furniture he's most famous for?

We have Chippendale suburb in NSW:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chippendale,_New_South_Wales
a piece of land originally granted to a certain William Chippendale in 1819 but likely unrelated to Thomas. I cannot find anything about William on public internet's domain.

 

[Horsa]

Thank you very much for the information. I'll take a look.

We have Chippendale suburb in NSW:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chippendale,_New_South_Wales
a piece of land originally granted to a certain William Chippendale in 1819 but likely unrelated to Thomas. I cannot find anything about William on public internet's domain.

 

[Horsa]

I couldn't find anything about whether they were related @Chris Koziarz but I found an interesting webpage showing Chippendale furniture & giving information. It is from an auction house but they really know about antiques & have to know about antiques & be experts to educate members of the public who don't so they'll get as much money for antiques as possible.
https://www.christies.com/Features/A-guide-to-Thomas-Chippendale-Senior-8823-1.aspx

 

[Horsa]

Did you know that 38,000 years ago the Takhi became the 1st horse to move from being a wild horse to a domesticated horse?