Monday 9 November 2020

New Found Land

 I have always pronounced Newfoundland as Newfundlund thereby giving no thought whatsoever to the compound of words from which it's formed. A snippet on a programme made me realise that the name of this famous Canadian province is literally based on it being new land found.  Talk about a forehead slapping moment when the penny finally dropped! 

We have a similar example here although granted it's on a teeny weeny scale by comparison. Just outside the town is a hamlet called Newfoundout. It does have an official sign, but I was feeling too lazy to walk further up the road so this sign will have to do instead.


The story behind the origins of its name lie in the mid 19th century when the Irish navvies were around the area building the railways. There had already been one temporary pub set up for them to quench their thirst, but these fellows were notorious for setting up their own illegal shebeens. There would have probably been many that went undetected, but the local excise men found a still in one of the local cottages and shut it down and supposedly thence the hamlet's name was born. The first time the name is recorded in use is 1871. Well that's the local tale behind it anyway.......

Arilx

10 comments:

  1. I never cease to be amazed at the construction of town names,I have a book that gives a generic understanding of parts of town names so that you are able to put together some sort of historic context. Wic/k - town don/den = narrow valley etc. Names also evolved when everything was hand written, a good deal of margin of error, now that everything is computerised I suppose there will be less 'movement' of names and place names. All the more boring!

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    1. We have a lot of Saxon names in this part of the world. Arilx

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  2. Don't we all want to find a little place to call our own? Interestingly story.

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    1. I think most of us want a sense of home. Arilx

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  3. I love that there are so many hearty laughs to be found in studying history.

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    1. That's one of the things I most enjoy about blogging...finding the stories behind things. Arilx

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  4. Hi Arlix, please don’t slap your head too hard. Almost all of us Canadians say Newfoundland. Jean from The center of Canada....Lorette Manitoba. Have a great week.

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  5. "There are stills in the hills..." of Southern Indiana, so this sign gives me a giggle. One little town is notorious for this use of the water of its creeks and famous for the fossils found along their banks.
    When guiding children on science outings, I always stopped at the local gas station and inquired which branch would be "open to walkers".

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