A "-''wich'' town" is a settlement in Anglo-Saxon England characterised by extensive

artisan An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

al activity and tradean " emporium". The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon suffix , signifying "a dwelling or fortified place". Such settlements were usually coastal and many have left material traces found during excavation. Eilert Ekwall wrote: As well as ''-wich'', ''-'' was the origin of the endings and , as, for example, in

Papplewick Papplewick is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England, 7.5 miles (12 km) north of Nottingham and 6 miles (10 km) south of Mansfield. It had a population of 756 at the 2011 census. In the Middle Ages, the village marked ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. Four former "-''wīc'' towns" are known in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as the consequence of excavation. Two of these Jorvik (Jorwic) in present-day York and

Lundenwic The history of Anglo-Saxon London relates to the history of the city of London during the Anglo-Saxon period, in the 7th to 11th centuries. Romano-British ''Londinium'' had been abandoned in the late 5th century, although the London Wall rem ...

near Londonare waterfront sites, while the other two,

Hamwic Southampton is a city in Hampshire, England. The area has been settled since the Stone Age. Its history has been affected by its geographical location, on a major estuary on the English Channel coast with an unusual double high-tide, and by its pr ...

in Southampton and Gipeswic (Gippeswic) in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

are further inland.R. Hodges, ''The Anglo-Saxon Achievement: archaeology and the beginnings of English society'', 1989:69–104; and, as emporia, C. Scull, "Urban centres in pre-Viking England?" in J. Hines, ed. ''The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: an ethnological perspective'', 1997:269-98. By the eleventh century, the use of ''-wich'' in placenames had been extended to include areas associated with salt production. At least nine English towns and cities carry the suffix although only five of them tend to be associated with salt:

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. The ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

and the four -''wich'' towns of

Middlewich Middlewich is a town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, east of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,595 ...

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...

, Northwich and

Leftwich Leftwich is a village in Cheshire, England. It has been absorbed into the town of Northwich, and is situated within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The name, given as merely 'Wice' in the Domesday Book of 1086, is written 'L ...

in Cheshire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wich Town English toponyms Place name element etymologies

See also

References