the history of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent

Origin of the suffix "-Lyme"

 

	Origin of the suffix "-Lyme"
	Source: "The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent" John Ward, 1843

 

 

"Chesterton has the addition 'under Lyme,' in Camden's Britannia but which has been long disused: we are desirous, however, of tracing this affix, which belongs to to Newcastle, and several other towns and villages near the borders of Cheshire......

Leland (AD1711), ... among his memoranda of castles in Staffordshire, speaks of Newcastle under Lyne as being named of a brook running thereby, or of a hill or wood. ('Lyne' is is a common error - the charters of the borough, give it, properly, under Lyme. 

Lucius the monk (an author, as old, almost, as the Conquest) wrote that it was shut in and separated from the rest of England, by the Wood Lime.  

The Cheshire Border:

Near the northern extremity, we find Lyme Handley, the seat of the Legh family, contiguous to Macclesfield Forest, which would separate Cheshire from Derbyshire, and is stated in Ormerod's History, to have been part of the forest of Lime, so called, by reason of its standing on the Limes, or border of Cheshire, then advancing into Staffordshire along the high grounds of Cloud Hill, Mow Cop, Linley, (probably Limeley) Wood, Bignall Hill, Apedale, Podmore Hall, Fynney Green, Madeley Park and Woore, we get to Audlem (Old Lime, or Aldelime, as it is written in Domesday);  

The country is now mostly denuded of its woody honours; but is identified as the Lime Woodlands, connected with the names of places in Staffordshire, Cheshire and Salop..... Aston-under-Line should be under Lyme... We commence with Lyme Handley.... to Chesterton-under-Lyme. We then come to Bure-wardes-Lyme, (present day Burslem); we have then Newcastle-under-Lyme, Madeley-under-Lyme, Whitmore-under-Lyme, Norton in Salop, (described as 'juxta nemus quod Lima dicitur'), Betton-under-Lyme, also in Salop, and Old Lyme (Audlem in Cheshire).

previous: Chesterton and Roman Occupation 
next: Formation of the Borough under the Reform Act 1832 

questions / comments / contributions? email: Steve Birks