Talk:Wednesbury

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[edit] Origin of the name

The following information on the origin of the name Wednesbury is confusing:

Wednesbury is one of the oldest parts of the Black Country. The "bury" part of the name indicates there may have been an Iron Age fort or "beorg" on Church Hill as long ago as 200BC, and the town was certainly a key defensive feature of the kingdom of Mercia. However, the ending "beorg" meaning a fort, usually leads to modern place-names ending in "-borough." The ending "-bury" comes from the old English word "burgh" meaning a hill. So "Wednesbury" means "Woden's Hill."

Confusion arises because there are two Old English words, with "beorg" meaning mountain or hill and "burg" (or "burh") meaning a fort or a walled town. Of the two, it is the term "burg" ("burh"), meaning walled town, that gives rise to borough (and to the second element in the name Edinburgh). This element may be seen in the element -bury at the end of names of towns that had the ending "-burg" or "-burh" in Anglo-Saxon times. The term "beorg" would give rise to -berry, rather than -bury; however, confusion is natural because -bury and -berry tend to be pronouced the same. Thus, the -bury element in the name of the town may originally have been -berry, arising from "beorg" and carrying the meaning "hill" as in the present day Church Hill (perhaps the former site of a pre-Christian temple rather than a fort, given the connotation of the town's name?). This is consistent with the detail given in the article, that a 1086 entry in the Domesday book gives that spelling of the town's name as "Wadnesberie" which suggests the element -berry rather than -bury. Of course, since hills are good places to build forts, a "beorg" may also have been the location of a "burg" ("burh"). Bob99 21:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

Is it worth mentioning how to pronounce Wednesbury, perhaps with some IPA? I don't think it is obvious to people from beyond the area. Certes (talk) 13:50, 24 February 2008 (UTC)