The road is on the eastern edge of the city centre.

I was puzzled by the meaning of ‘Melemonger’ for some time. ‘Monger’ is fairly clear – it means dealer or seller, as in the current words fishmonger . . . → Read More: Melemonger Street, Salisbury]]> The name ‘Melemonger Street’ is no longer used. What was Melemonger Street is now ‘Greencroft Street’.

The road is on the eastern edge of the city centre.

I was puzzled by the meaning of ‘Melemonger’ for some time. ‘Monger’ is fairly clear – it means dealer or seller, as in the current words fishmonger or ironmonger.

I did wonder whether ‘mele’ might be connected with the French word ‘mel’ meaning ‘honey’, but it seems that the meaning is slightly more prosaic. I found a reference to the road on Google Book Search, where the quoted book said that ‘Melemonger’ means ‘seller of meal’.(¹).

I’ve not been able to retrieve the reference from Google book search again, I’m afraid.

Visiting Salisbury?

For a selection of Salisbury hotels, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

1. Education and the Historic Environment – Google Book Search

All three roads are named after the River Nadder, which starts near Shaftesbury then . . . → Read More: Nadder Terrace, Salisbury, Nadder Terrace, Wilton and Nadder Lane, Quidhampton]]> There is a Nadder Terrace in Churchfields, to the west of Salisbury, and another in Wilton which is a small town about three miles from Salisbury city centre. Nadder Lane is in Quidhampton, close to where the Nadder meets the Wylye.

All three roads are named after the River Nadder, which starts near Shaftesbury then joins the Wylye near Nadder Lane at Quidhampton, and then joins the Avon in Salisbury.

According to Rex Sawyer in his book ‘Nadder – Tales of a Wiltshire Valley’:

The Nadder derives its name from the Saxon naedre meaning a snake.¹

Etymology of the word ‘Nadder’

Nadder is, actually, an older version of today’s ‘adder’.

The ‘n‘ in the phrase ‘a nadder’ migrated from the start of the word ‘nadder’ to the end of the word ‘an’.

This process seems to be much discussed by linguists. Mervin R. Barnes calls it the ‘nasal shift’ in a paper called ‘A nadder/An adder: The nasal shift’ ².

As Mr Barnes notes, the ‘n’ can shift in either direction:

An ewt –> a newt
A napron –> an apron
An otch –> a notch
An ekename –> a nickname ³

Other examples include:

A numpire –> an umpire
a neilond –> an island
a narawe –> an arrow
a noke –> an oak
a nappyle –> an apple⁴

Why is the river called ‘The Nadder’?

The obvious reason for the river being named the ‘Nadder’ is that it twists about like a snake.

I’m sure this is true – I think it’s mentioned in Rex Sawyer’s book – but I don’t find it entirely satisfying. This sits alongside the derivation of ‘ham‘ to mean a bend in the river, as in ‘Harnham’. My problem with these definitions are they aren’t, in a sense, very definitive. All rivers are a bit like snakes – they are longer than they are wide and they tend to twist and turn. At any given point you aren’t far from a bend in the river.

I would be interested to know whether any other rivers have names which are derived from words for snake.

The adder

The adder is the only poisonous snake in the UK.

Deaths from adder bites are rare – at the time of writing nobody has died from an adder bite in Britain for 20 years ⁵. However, it can take up to a year to fully recover from an adder bite ⁶

They eat small rodents, lizards and frogs – annually they eat ‘the equivalent of 9 voles each year’⁷

The adder’s lifespan is probably up to 20 years.

The biblical snake in the Garden of Eden is described as an adder in old English versions of the bible. ⁸

Going to stay in Salisbury

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

1. Nadder. Tales of a Wiltshire Valley Rex Sawyer, Hobnob Press, 2006. Page 2
2. SpringerLink – Journal Article
3. SpringerLink – Journal Article
4. Online Etymology Dictionary
5. Forestry Commission – Adder
6. Vipera berus – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
7. Forestry Commission – Adder
8. 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Adder – Wikisource

I have no idea why it’s called Napier Crescent. This is particularly irritating . . . → Read More: Napier Crescent, Laverstock]]> Napier Crescent is in Laverstock, which is a village a mile to the west of Salisbury city centre. It’s on an estate built by a developer called Ford, or perhaps Fforde, in about 1964. It’s often referred to as ‘the pebbledash estate’.

I have no idea why it’s called Napier Crescent. This is particularly irritating because I grew up in Napier Crescent.

There are at least two people in history possibly prominent enough to have had the road named after them:

• General Sir Charles James Napier, who was a one of Wellington’s generals in the Napoleonic Wars
• John Napier, the inventor of logarithms

The word Napier is quite interesting. I think it derives from the same root as ‘napkin’ and ‘nappy’. It means something like ‘linen keeper’, from the old French ‘nappe meaning ‘table cloth’. ¹

Footnotes

1. ???

Norfolk Road is on an estate which features all of the counties on the coastline from Norfolk itself, through Suffolk, Essex, Kent and Sussex.

The word ‘Norfolk’ is derived from ‘Northern people’ 1 or, I guess, ‘Northern Folk’ – . . . → Read More: Norfolk Road, Harnham]]> Norfolk Road is in Harnham, a village or suburb on the southern side of Salisbury.

Norfolk Road is on an estate which features all of the counties on the coastline from Norfolk itself, through Suffolk, Essex, Kent and Sussex.

The word ‘Norfolk’ is derived from ‘Northern people’ ¹ or, I guess, ‘Northern Folk’ – Suffolk being ‘Southern Folk’.

There is a famous city of Norfolk, in Virginia in the United States, whose website strapline is, rather wonderfully in my view’, ‘Life. Celebrated Daily’.

The ‘Northern Folk’ and ‘Southern Folk’ are shown on an etymological map which is discussed on the ‘Strange Maps’ website.

Visiting Salisbury?

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

1. Online Etymology Dictionary

Castle Street, Salisbury

The Latin name for Salisbury (or for what is now Old Sarum) was Sorviodunum.

The dunum element seems relatively clear – . . . → Read More: Salisbury Road SP2, Sarum Close SP2]]>

Castle Street, Salisbury

The Latin name for Salisbury (or for what is now Old Sarum) was Sorviodunum.

The dunum element seems relatively clear – dunum means fort ¹ or stronghold.

However, according to Adrian Room’s ‘Placenames of the World’,

the meaning of Sorvio is obscure. The Anglo-Saxons apparently associated it with their word searu, “art”, “skill”, “armour” and substituted their equivalent burh for the Celtic -dunum‘ ²

According to the ‘Key to English Place-Names’ (which is a database maintained at the Institute for Name-Studies at The University of Nottingham), in 552, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

reports a battle in 552 between the Britons and Saxons at Searoburgh, where the first element shows influence of OE searu, ‘cunning device, trick, etc’.³

Salisbury was then Sarisberie in the Domesday book⁴, and the r was ‘Normanized’ to an l.

Alternatively to the view that Sorvioi is drived from ‘skill’ or ‘trick’, www.romanmap.com says that

We are almost certainly dealing with the old name of the East Avon above Salisbury. Under Severn p.360, Ekwall considers the forest name Savernake SU2266 as potentially derived from the old name for the Bedwyn or the eastern arm of the East Avon

There seems to be consensus that Sarum is a possibly inaccurate medieval ‘made-up Latin’ abbreviation for Salisbury ^{5 6}.

‘Sarum’ also refers to the ‘Sarum Rite’, or ‘Sarum Use’ which is, as I understand it, a set of procedures for the running of the rituals of the Church, including Orders of Service, and a calendar. The Sarum Rite was developed by St Osmond , who was Bishop of Salisbury in 1078.

Update: I don’t know where the text comes from, but this website suggests another derivation for the first element of sorviodunum

Old Sarum, situated about a mile and a half north of Salisbury, is generally regarded as the Sorbiodunum of the Romans. Its name, derived from the Celtic words sorbio, ‘dry’ and dun, ‘a city or fortress’ leads to the conclusion that it was a British post

This derivation is supported in the 1825 ‘The natural and artificial wonders of the United Kingdom’ by J. Goldsmith, who says that

They denominated the place Sorbio dunum which nearly resembles the Celtic word Sorfidun signifying dry hill.⁷

Footnotes

1. Old-Sarum / Sorviodunum. Encyclopédie Marikavel des noms de lieux.
2. ‘Placenames of the World’, Adrian Room, Published by McFarland in 2003 ISBN:0786418141 URL:Placenames of the World: Origins and … – Google Book Search
3. Place Details
4. The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details
5. Salisbury – The word ‘Sarum’ | British History Online
6. Wiltshire County Council – Wiltshire Community History Get Wiltshire History Question Information
7. The natural and artificial wonders of the United Kingdom, by J. Goldsmith By Richard Phillips