Homer is a small village in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, England, north of the town of

Much Wenlock Much Wenlock is a market town and parish in Shropshire, England, situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford. The civil parish includes the villag ...

. The name first appears in the 14th century as "Honemor".Gelling and Foxall, ''The place-names of Shropshire, part 3: Telford New Town, the northern part of Munslow Hundred and the franchise of Wenlock'', English Placename Society, 2003, p.270. Originally

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

called Homer Wood, the settlement developed from squatters' cottages encroaching on the common during the 17th century.Much Wenlock
British History Online During the 19th century it served as accommodation for quarrymen and farm labourers. The village expanded in the later 20th century with the construction of modern houses.Raven, M. ''A Guide to Shropshire'', 2005, p.86 The

Homerian In the geologic timescale, the Homerian is an age of the Wenlock Epoch of the Silurian Period of the Paleozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon that is comprehended between 430.5 ± 0.7 Ma and 427.4 ± 0.5 Ma (million years ago), approximately. Th ...

, a stage of the Wenlock geologic epoch and

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

geologic period The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...

, is named after the village of Homer. The

Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. The effort to define GSSPs is conducted b ...

defining the stage is located in Whitwell Coppice near the village.

Wigwig

A short distance to the west of Homer is a very small hamlet with the unusual name Wigwig. Wigwig was an ancient

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

of Much Wenlock parish: its name, recorded 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 manusc ...

as "Wigewic", is probably derived from an

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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

personal name Wyga, along with ''wic'', "settlement" ("Wyga's settlement").Ekwall, E. ''Old English wīc in place-names'', A.-B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1964, p.51 It has also been spelt Wig Wig or Wigwick. There is a

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

across the Harley Brook here. Wigwig once had a

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

on the Harley Brook; mentioned as early as 1291, it operated variously as a

fulling mill Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

and

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

but closed during the 19th century, although it is still referenced in the name of the Mill Farm nearby. The villages' names inspired the title and main characters of a 1969 children's book, ''Wigwig and Homer'' (Oxford University Press) by Philip Turner.

References

Villages in Shropshire Much Wenlock {{shropshire-geo-stub