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CHAPTER X.

THE PARISH OF BISPHAM.

Biscopham was the appellation bestowed on the district now called Bispham at and before the era of William the Conqueror, in whose survey it appears as embracing within its boundaries eight carucates of arable land. The original name is simply a compound of the two Anglo-Saxon words Biscop, a bishop, and Ham, a habitation or settlement, the signification of the whole being obviously the 'Bishop's town,' or 'residence.' Hence it is clear that some episcopal source must be looked to as having been the means of conferring the peculiar title on the place, and fortunately for the investigator, the annals of history furnish a ready clue to what otherwise might have proved a question difficult, or perhaps impossible, of satisfactory solution. In a previous chapter it has been noted that for long after the reign of Athelstan Amounderness was held by the See of York, and nothing can be more natural than to suppose, when regarding that circumstance in conjunction with the significance of the name under discussion, that the archbishops of the diocese had some residence on the soil of Bispham. It is quite possible, however, that there may have been merely a station of ecclesiastics who collected the rents and tithes of the Hundred on behalf of the bishopric, acting in fact as stewards and representatives of the archbishop for the time being, but in either case it is evident that the name and, consequently, the town, are of diocesan origin, doubtless associated with the proprietorship above mentioned. The presence of priests in residence within the manor of Bispham would necessarily lead to the establishment there of some chapel or oratory, and the absence