Eaglesfield, Cumberland
| Eaglesfield | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Village green, Eaglesfield | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NY094281 |
| Location: | 54°38’24"N, 3°24’11"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Cockermouth |
| Postcode: | CA13 |
| Dialling code: | 01900 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Copeland |
Eaglesfield is a small village in Cumberland, near the A5086 road two and a half miles southwest of the town of Cockermouth.
Name
There are to main theories about the origin of Eaglesfield's name, neither of which involves eagles. The latter element is certainly from Old English meaning 'field' or 'open country' but the first element is uncertain.
One theory has it that 'Eagles' is derived from the ancient British language, from eccles meaning 'church' (cognate with the Welsh eglwys). It is suggested that the church would be something that the first English settlers would have seen as they "arrived and settled some two miles away down below at Brigham." [1]
An alternative is that the name means 'Ecgel's field' after an otherwise unrecorded landowner of the Anglo-Saxon period. 'Ecgel' as a personal name might be "a normal diminutive of compound names such as 'Ecglaf', or Ecgwulf'".[2]
Notable people
Eaglesfield was the probable birthplace of Robert de Eglesfield (c.1295–1349), founder of The Queen's College, Oxford. His father, John of Eglesfield, held lands in and near there.
John Dalton (1766–1844), acclaimed chemist, meteorologist and physicist was born in the village.
Moorland Close in Eaglesfield, was the birthplace of Fletcher Christian, master's mate aboard the HMS Bounty, who led the infamous mutiny against the captain, William Bligh, during their voyage from Tahiti.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Eaglesfield, Cumberland) |