11 June 2021

What is in a place name? I have always found place names rather 
fascinating. The UK is full of some very odd names which are often 
pronounced differently. This is due to the mix of Celtic, Pictish, 
Roman, Saxon, Norman and Danish influence over the country as it 
formed. There are things such as knowing that places ending in ester 
were fortified towns and derives from caester. Well Birmingham is 
essentially the settlement of Beorm's children. I have been reading a 
fair number of facebook posts about Birmingham's Roman heritage. 
Essentially a Roman road passes through the area and the names broadly 
come from that. This road is now known as Icknield Street and passed 
through Digbeth and past Perry Barr. Digbeth comes from the Saxon 
'dican' which means to dig and 'boeth' which means bath. It is the 
site of a bath which was dug over. In fact, Icknield Street is meant 
to be a sort of bastardised version of Ack-veld street, where 'ack' is 
the Saxon for oak and 'veld' is feld. The meaning is essentially 
fallen oak tree way. The name of a street or an area can often tell 
you alot about the history of that area. Particularly if you use the 
local accent. Digbeth sort of sounds like Dig-Bath when a brummie 
accent is used.