Abstract
IN the review of “Cleator and Cleator Moor” in NATURE of November 16 the interpretation of Linethwaite as flax-field (Lin + thveit) is taken as inevitable because of the contiguity of a flax-mill. But history, which cannot be ignored in explaining placenames, does not agree with this solution of the word. The flax-mill has been on this site only about a century. On the exact site of the flax-mill a hundred years ago there stood six conical iron-smelting furnaces. But the field name Linethwaite has been here for hundreds of years. Something, therefore, may be said for Lin = Linde, or lime-tree; thwaite = a clearing: the clearing in the lime-trees. The whole district was once forest, and, from time to time, it has been denuded of its timber. The process is going on at the present time.
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CAINE, C. The Name “Linethwaite”. Nature 98, 290 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/098290b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098290b0
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