Bardsey cum Rigton is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

City of Leeds The City of Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, W ...

metropolitan borough in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,385, increasing to 2,525 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes the villages of Bardsey, East Rigton and Thornhurst.

Etymology

The name of Bardsey is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 as ''Berdesei'' and ''Bereleseie'', situated in the hundred of Skyrack. The second element comes from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

word ''ēg'' ('island') and the first is agreed to be from a personal name. Exactly what this name was is not certain, but the name ''Beornrǣd'' is a plausible candidate. Thus the name probably once meant 'Beornrǣd's island' (or the island of someone of a similar name). Since the site is not in fact an island, it has been suggested that the name was metaphorical, referring to a hill rising, island-like, from flat ground.Harry Parkin, ''Your City's Place-Names: Leeds'', English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017). The name of East Rigton is likewise first attested in the Domesday Book, as ''Riston'', ''Ritone'', and ''Ritun''. The name comes from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

word ''hryggr'' ('ridge'), which had come into more general use in Old English, and the straightforwardly Old English word ''tūn'' ('farmstead, estate'). The additional element ''east'' is first attested in 1530, in the form ''Est Ryghton''.

References

Places in Leeds Civil parishes in West Yorkshire {{WestYorkshire-geo-stub

Etymology

See also

References