The Hall of Waltheof/Chapter XXVII

CLOSE examination of the names of fields, lanes, etc., in Hallamshire and the surrounding districts will disclose some curious information as to the life and habits of the itinerant trader, whether native or foreign. Ages before the invention of stage-coaches and railways the commercial traveller and the travelling merchant were with us, being known as chapmen, packmen, pedders, etc. The villages were little oligarchies, providing for themselves nearly all the necessaries of life, and the roads were chiefly used by itinerant traders and pilgrims.

In 1637 there was a lane in Ecclesfield known as Packman's lane, and a lane bearing the same name runs through Thorpe Salvin. And near the neighbouring village of Treeton the Ordnance map mentions a bridge called Packman's Bridge. There is a Chapman Field in Ecclesall, and a village called Copmanthorpe or Coupmanthorpe near York. Copman Holes—called Cogmanhoile in 1533—is the name of a valley below Bailey Hill in Bradfield and between Bailey Wood and the Agden dam. Cogman a Clough is on Howden moor in Bradfield. Cowper Well, a well by the roadside in Ecclesfield, probably means chapman's well, or merchant's well. Harrison mentions "an intacke called Tinker" in Bradfield; the lane in which the urn described in the first chapter of this book was found is called Tinker lane, and there is a Tinker Brook in Bradfield. There is a Tinker Sick near Chesterfield, and a Pedlar Hagg in Ashopton near Sheffield. In the will of a Sheffield man, dated 1725, I find mention of "two closes called the Hawker-Starrs lying near Crooks Moor," the same closes being described a few years later as "Hawkers Starrs." In a list of fieldnames near Sheffield, dated 1784, I find a place called Hocker Storth, and the name Hockerstorths occurs in a plan of land at Ecclesfield dated 1732. Now the word "hawker," according to Professor Skeat, is equivalent to the Danish höker, a pedlar, and hokkerye, also spelt hukkerye, meaning the pedlar's trade, occurs in Piers Plowman. The old form of "hawker" seems, then, to have been hocker or hucker. On Masbrough common near Rotherham the six-inch Ordnance map gives a place called Huckacrow, which seems to contain the words hucker, a hawker, and the Old Norse krá, Danish kro, a nook, corner. At Oxcroft near Bolsover in Derbyshire is a field called Farman Close, which may be traveller's close. Even the palmer or pilgrim had to tarry in desolate places on his way to the Holy Land, for a little valley near Eckington in Derbyshire still bears the name of Pomer Sick, pomer being the old or the dialedlal pronunciation of "palmer." With more or less distinctness and certainty the evidence still lingers upon the country side that the itinerant trader or merchant was a conspicuous element in old English society. He has left his mark upon the roads, the fields, and the valleys, and even, as it would seem, upon the roadside well.

An old road running across the moors in Ecclesfield was known as a "Pack and Prime Road." The Norfolk term packway seems to be synonymous with Peddar Way in that county, a name by which an ancient line of Roman road is known. "The greater part of this road," says Way, "across the champaign parts of Norfolk is still called the Peddar Way, doubtless because, like the Welshman's road in Warwickshire and the parts adjacent, the straight direction of its course caused it to be frequented by itinerant traders. The Peddar Way may be traced upon the Ordnance Survey through near its whole length."

Here then we have abundant evidence of roads and places which have derived their names from the itinerant trader, whether he be called chapman, cowper, packman, pedder, pedlar, hawker or tinker. These words have lost something of their original signification, for such persons were not in all cases the petty traders that the terms now denote. They were the only persons who carried merchandize from one country to another, and to the villagers who knew very little of the outside world they were not only the purveyors of news and tales but the providers of many of the comforts and decencies of life. It will be seen from some of the local names, such as Cogman or Copman Holes, Tinker Sick, Pedlar Hagg, and Hawker Starrs that these traders often "pitched their tents" not in the villages, where perhaps they could not always find room, but on commons and pieces of unoccupied ground. And we may learn from such place-names as Copmanthorpe near York, Chippenham in Wiltshire, and Pedder's Winch in Norfolk that they sometimes settled in places which they visited, and became in fact colonists. Coppingland in Ecclesfield may mark the site of an old market, like the Danish Kjöbing. "In old times," says Vigfusson, "trade was held in honour, and a kaupmaðr (merchant) and farmaðr (traveller) were almost synonymous; young men of rank and fortune used to set out on their travels which they continued for some years, until at last they settled for life; even the kings engaged in trade." We have just seen that an old trade road passing through Ecclesfield is known as the "Pack and Prime road," the word "road" being a modern substitution for "way." The word "prime" is hard to explain, and I can only hazard a guess. "The Danes," says Grimm, "became Christian in the tenth century, the Norwegians at the beginning of the eleventh, the Swedes not completely till the second half of the same century." Now the Danish traders who travelled in England previous to the tenth and eleventh centuries, and possibly later, were not only chapmen or packmen; they were also "prime-signed" men. "During the heathen age," says Vigfusson, "the Scandinavian merchants and warriors who served among Christians abroad in England or Germany used to take the prima signatio, for it enabled them to live both among Christians and heathens without receiving baptism and forsaking their old faith." This ceremony was a mere signing of the cross, but it was a passport which enabled adult heathen to join in the social life of the Christians; they were also admitted to a special part of the mass, known as the mass for the prime-signed, "whereas all intercourse with heathens was forbidden." "These 'prime-signed' men," says Vigfusson, "returning to their native land, brought with them the first notions of Christianity into the heathen Northern countries, having lived among Christians, and seen their daily life and worship, and they undoubtedly paved the way for the final acceptance of the Christian faith among their countrymen." The "prime-way" then seems to be an abbreviated form of a long phrase "prime-signed man's way," and the phrase "Pack and Prime Way," an abbreviation of "Packman and Prime-signed man's Way." The popular speech abhors long phrases, and seeks to express its thoughts in the fewest words. This explanation of "Pack and Prime Road" may seem to be far-fetched, and it does not pretend to be more than a mere guess. But to what else could the word "prime" refer, and what other meaning of the word, as used in old times, would make the least sense?

There was another travelling merchant whose name seems to be found in our lanes and valleys, and possibly elsewhere; I mean the salter or salt merchant. In Worcestershire there was a road called Salteraweg, meaning salt merchants' road, or, to put the word in a more modern dress, Salter way, or Salter lane. The Romans, too, had their Via Salaria, or Salt Road, which was so called because the Sabines by it fetched salt from the sea. It led into Rome at the Porta Collina. Now I have just mentioned Tinker Lane and Tinker Sick as place-names in this neighbourhood, and these names seem to be analogous to Salter lane on the west side of Sheffield and Salter Sitch —i.e. Salter valley—in Holmesfield. As Tinker lane was the way on which the mender of kettles and pans travelled, and Tinker Sick was the unoccupied piece of ground on which in summer time he squatted like a gypsy, so, it is fair to suppose, the Salter lane was the way by which the salt-merchant approached the village, and the Salter Sitch was the valley in which he also tarried on his summer journey. We may carry the analogy a little further. We have seen that there is a Packman's bridge near Treeton; there is a Salterhebble, meaning salt-merchant's bridge, in the parish of Halifax. And by way of matching Tinker Brook in Bradfield I may mention Salterbrook in the parish of Penistone, seven-and-a-half miles to the west of that village. There is a Salter lane in Ashover near Chesterfield, being the old southern entrance into that village, a Salter lane leading from the railway station at Holmes near Rotherham up to the village of Kimberworth, a Salterforth (salt-merchant's road ?) in Barnoldswick near Skipton, and a Salter gate (salt-merchant's road) in Chesterfield. Harrison mentions a Salter Inge (salter's meadow) in Ecclesfield, with which we may compare Chapman Field and Pedlar Hagg just mentioned.

In the bilingual dialogue of Archbishop Alfric, attributed to the tenth century, a salt-merchant is introduced, amongst other persons, and the interlocutor puts the question to him: "O salter, of what profit to us is thine art?" He answers: "My art is of much profit to all; none of you enjoys his supper or his dinner unless my art befriend him." "In what way?" is the reply. The salter answers: "What man enjoys sweet food without the relish of salt? Who replenishes his cellars or his store-houses without my art? Behold, your butter and your cheese all perish unless I be their guardian, ye who do not even use vegetables without my art." In a note on this passage, Wright says: "The importance of the salter is better understood when we consider that, as the produce of the land was in Middle Ages almost entirely consumed on the spot, and it was not easy to get supplies of provisions from a distance, immense quantities of victuals of all kinds were salted, in order that they might keep during the whole year round, and were preserved in vast larders and storehouses. This habit of eating so much salt meat would cause meats eaten without salt to be considered insipid. In fact the quantity of salt used in the Middle Ages must have been enormous; and to it, probably, we must ascribe the prevalence of those diseases which excited so much horror under the name of leprosy."

I think it will be found that the roads which bear the name of Salter lie between the village or town to which they lead and the nearest salt-producing district. Such at least is the case with Salter lane near Sheffield, and Salter lane near Rotherham, these roads leading towards Cheshire. Salter Sitch, too, lies to the west of Holmesfield, and Salterbrook to the west of Penistone.

But it is not absolutely certain that "salter" means salt merchant in all these cases. There is an old French word sautoir, in Low Latin saltariium, which, as I have said elsewhere, means a barrier of wood sustained at each end, and fixed in such a way that men could get over it but animals could not. The pieces of wood which supported the barrier were in shape like a Saint Andrew's Cross, thus X. The form may still be seen in the wooden stiles in hedges which are crossed by footpaths; and saltire, saltier, is used in English heraldry for a St. Andrew's Cross. But I am aware of no instance in which the word "salter" meaning a barrier across a road has been recorded in English literature, or in old documents, and unless the word can be found recorded the better opinion would appear to be that the word means "salt merchant." In this neighbourhood "lidgate," meaning a swing gate across a road, appears to have been the barrier used to stop the progress of wandering cattle, or even "bar," as in our Westbar.

Some of the old lanes are very beautiful, and the aquatint of Orms lane, Ecclesall, at the beginning of this represents a scene which does not last long in the neighbourhood of a large and increasing city.

It is probable that the knives for which Sheffield had become noted in the fourteenth century were largely distributed by pedlars and wandering friars who purchased them in going their, rounds. Chaucer says of the friar that His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes

And pynnes, for to give faire wyfes


 * Prologue, 223.