So good they named it ...

I grew up in Cornwall and all of my family - barring my kids and their families - still live there. My mother lives in a town called Hayle, which can be found on the curve of St Ives bay. It's notable for the Hayle estuary, a tidal area much favoured by wild birds and a regularmeeting place for birdwatchers looking to discover rare migrants. Interestingly, the town's name comes from the Cornish word Heyl which means 'estuary'. So the Hayle estuary is actually the 'estuary estuary'. 

This doubling up of place names in different languages isn't uncommon but the absolute boss of this trend is Torpenhow Hill in Cumbria.

The story goes that when the Saxons arrived and asked the Welsh 'What's that hill called?' the Welsh said pen which means 'hill' in Welsh. So the Saxons used their word for hill, tor, and called it Torpen (hill hill). Then the Norsemen arrived and, by way of the same process, added the their world for hill - Haugr - so it became Torpen Haugr (Hill Hill Hill). Then the modern English called Torpenhow Hill (Hill Hill Hill Hill). It's a lovely story ... except that there's no hill. 

According to analysis by linguist Darryl Francis and locals, there is no landform formally known as Torpenhow Hill there, either officially or locally, which would make the term an example of a ghost word or a 'quadruple redundancy'. Or a clever way to bring in the tourists. After all it worked for the Isle of Anglesey village of  Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch that deliberately extended its name in the 19th century to develop the town as a commercial and tourist location. The story goes that the name was contrived in 1869 as a publicity stunt to give the town of Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­ the longest railway station name in Britain. According to Sir John Morris-Jones the name was created by a local tailor, whose name he did not confide, letting the secret die with him. Literally translated, the name means: 'The church of St Mary of the pool of the white hazels near to the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave'.

As I say, multiple origin names are not uncommon. A lot of English placenames and geographical features have similar tautologies. The Welsh for 'river' is Afon so the River Avon is the River River. In Ireland, the Celtic word Abhain (river) gives us the River Avonbeg and the River Awbeg (both meaning Small River River), and the River Avonmore (Big River River). The origin of the River Humber's name also comes from Brythonic Celtic and means River River. And the River Ouse also takes its name from the word for a watercourse. There are several River Bournes in the UK, which means River Stream (Burn is still used in the North for a large stream or small river). Lake Windermere doesn't need the word 'lake' because that's what a mere is in Old Norse. And Semerwater, sometimes Lake Semerwater, North Yorkshire, gets its name from Old English sæ (lake) and mere (lake), thus Lake Semerwater means Lake Lake Lake Water.

Napton on the Hill, Warwickshire means 'settlement on the hill (Nap Ton) on the hill'. And Bredon Hill, Worcestershire, means Hill Hill Hill from the Brythonic bre and the Old English don, while Breedon on the Hill (Leicestershire) means Hill Hill on the Hill. One of my favourites is the triple tautology of Wookey Hole Caves - the name Wookey is derived from the Welsh for 'cave', Ogo which gave the early names for this cave of Ochie or Ochy. Hole is Anglo-Saxon for cave, which is itself of Latin/Norman derivation. Therefore, the name Wookey Hole Cave basically means Cave Cave Cave. 

There are so many more of these and not just in the UK either. For example, the name of the Namib Desert means Desert Desert and Picacho Peak (Arizona) means Peak Peak in English and Spanish. If anything, it would be unusual not to happen as it would mean a country having never been invaded or colonised by outsiders.

Meanwhile, back in Cornwall, roadsigns and street names are now posted in dual language format - English and Cornish - and the roadsign 'welcoming' people to Hayle was recently vandalised by some angry Cornish protester(s).

'Emmet', if you didn't know, is slang for incomers who buy up Cornish properties as second homes and holiday lets. It's causing a great deal of distress among (particularly young) Cornish people as there are no affordable houses on the market for locals. There's not even a rental market as every small property is snapped up by property investors. An old schoolfriend of mine who is now a local counciullor in Penzance recently revealed that there were 129 two bedroom flats available as hoiliday lets in the town but only 11 available to long-term let for locals. The majority of towners of those 129 properties do not live in Cornwall. In some smaller communities - especia;y near the sea - the majority of properties are empty for much of the year and local shops can't make ends meet.

The problem is made more acute by Cornwall being one of the poorest regions of the UK with high levels of unemploymenet and the highest level of child poverty in the UK. Any work is seasonal, many employers shut up business in the winter and the economy is based largely on tourism. Sadly, much of that money gets funnelled out of Cornwall and people are justifiably angry.

Let's hope it doesn't start to mirror what happened in Wales in the 1980s when angry Nationalists facing similar issues began a campaign of burning second homes in protest.