The Berkshire Mystery: Where Exactly Is "Berk"? [9:12]

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai
Hello! And... well, just hello I guess, and welcome to Reading, the beautiful county town of Berkshire, home to the beautiful Royal Berkshire Hospital, the beautiful old Berkshire County Hall (which is now quite a posh hotel), and the most beautiful football team the world (of Berkshire) has ever seen.

You would never guess that I went to school in Reading, would you? But the main reason I'm here is because the other day a thought popped into my head: York is in Yorkshire; Oxford is in Oxfordshire; so where exactly is Berk? Let me explain what I mean.

Here are the 48 ceremonial counties of England, and here are the ones that end in the word "-shire", which is roughly half of them. Now, have you ever wondered how these "shires" got their names? Well, let's face it, probably not, because for most of them it's not a difficult question.

I already mentioned Oxfordshire and Yorkshire, but you've also got Cambridgeshire, where you'll find the city of Cambridge, Derbyshire, where you'll find the city of Derby, Nottinghamshire, where you'll find the city of Nottingham, and... you get the idea.

Basically, you just take the name of whatever was the most important town in the area 1000 and a bit years ago, add the word -shire on the end, and you've got your county. Except... not here.

Historically, the most important town in Berkshire was a fight between Reading and Abingdon - which isn't even in Berkshire anymore - but neither of those is called Berk. So where did they get the name from?

[Dog barking] Well today, we're going to try to find "Berk". And we're starting in the small West Berkshire village of Frilsham for reasons that will be explained as we're going along.

But first, you could be excused at this point for saying:

[Paul] But hang on... what about Che?

[Rebecca] And Hamp?

[Paul] And Lanca?

[Rebecca] And Shrop?

[Paul] And Wilt?

[Tim] Good question! Wait, who are you?

[Paul] I'm Paul Whitewick, and this is Rebecca Whitewick, we kind of make films about landscape, history, generally southern England, and anything else that pops into our head, really.

[Tim] Oh. What a tremendous coincidence that you've turned up.

[Rebecca] Oh!

[Paul] Convenient!

[Tim] Yeah! This is good luck.

Now Paul and Rebecca - apart from making videos about English history that you would probably enjoy if you're the kind of person who clicked on a video like this one - are absolutely right. There is no city in Cheshire called "Che", no town in Hampshire called "Hamp", and so on; but the truth is, even these counties take their names from their historic county towns - it's just, some of them hide it better than others.

For example, as the people of Yorkshire once famously said, let's take Lancashire. There is no city called "Lanca", but I think we can all see where they've got those first 5 letters from: Lancaster. And the same goes for Cheshire, which takes its first three letters from the city of Chester.

But what about Wilt and Hamp?

[Tim] Er so Paul – you were brought up in Hampshire, right?

[Paul] Yep, yeah, Hampshire Wiltshire borders.

[Tim] Hampshire Wiltshire border... perfect! So... "Hamp". Where does that come from?

[Paul] Well we think it was as simple as Hamtun. So, sort of on the coast, just below Southampton.

[Tim] And that grew to become the current Southampton, or it sort of like...?

[Paul] I... yeah... I would guess it was sort of, erm... Southampton grew out of the top of it. But it was probably the original port, very close to the top of the Isle of Wight, in its original form.

[Tim] Oh cool! And then "Wilt", where does that come from?

[Paul] Wilton... almost certainly Wilton.

[Tim] Mmhm. So there's a place called Wilton?

[Paul] There is a little place called Wilton. Little town, perhaps little village, next to Salisbury.

[Tim] Ah ok! Yes - Wilton is possibly the least famous town ever to give its name to a "-shire", but it is a town, and it was once quite an important place, as shown by its unusually large (and unusually Italian-looking) church.

Anyway, that leaves us with two more shires - [baaaaa] no, not you - Shrop and Berk. So before we get to Berk, where exactly is Shrop?

Well, one thing we have to bear in mind here is that most English counties were given their names more than 1000 years ago. And 1000 years ago, spellings and pronunciations could be quite different to what they are now.

Back then, Shropshire was called (ahem) "Scrobbesbyrigscir" and its county town was called "Scrobbesbyrig". (Or something like that.) So originally, it did actually fit the pattern of all the other shires.

But when the Normans famously invaded in 1066, they couldn't pronounce either of those, so they called them "Salopesberia" and "Salopescira". And from there, the spelling of the town and of the county went off in two quite different directions, leaving us with the modern county of Shropshire and its county town of Shrewsbury [pronounced "Shrohsbury"]. Or Shrewsbury [pronounced "Shroosbury"].

Because if you're finding it hard to believe that the way people pronounce "Shrewsbury" could change so much over 1000 years, try going there. It changes every 5 minutes.

Oh and by the way, this also explains why some people still refer to both the county and the town as "Salop". (I'll just give French-speaking viewers a few moments to stop laughing.)

Anyway, even though some of the spellings might have changed a bit over the years, the point is: every single ceremonial -shire in England shares its name with its historically most important town. Except this one.

[Tim] So Paul. Berkshire. What, or where, or who, is "Berk"?

[Paul] Well, we have no village, town, or city of that name, and according to historical sources, we think it comes from "Berroc".

[Tim] Berroc?

[Paul] Berroc. The ancient woodland on a hill just to the west of Frilsham.

[Tim] Just to the west of Frilsham, you say?

[Paul] Yeah.

[Tim] An ancient woodland?

[Paul] An ancient woodland...

[Tim] On top of a hill... What does the sign say, Rebecca?

[Rebecca] The sign says you are more than welcome, as long as you basically stick to the paths...

[Tim] Alright. Well we want to... I mean we want to go into the wood, right?

[Rebecca] So yeah. It says it's "historic woodland".

[Tim] Not only that, Rebecca. This... is Berk!

[Rebecca] It *is* Berk!

Ok, before I say something stupid like "this is Berk", can this really be the actual Berroc Wood that the county was named after? It certainly matches the historic sources' description of "a wood just to the west of Frilsham", and we think that wood was probably on a hill, because we think that's what the name "Berroc" used to mean in Celtic.

But we shouldn't forget that the county of Berkshire is more than 1000 years old, (like most of the shires), and therefore the wood it took its name from must have been here more than 1000 years ago.

[Tim] Rebecca, you were saying this is "historic forest", right?

[Rebecca] Historic forest for timber.

[Tim] Historic forest for timber. Yeah. I mean, makes sense doesn't it, I guess! Erm, but we think probably not the actual ancient forest of Berroc.

[Rebecca] No.

[Tim] ...which I'm not even sure was there when they called it "Berroc".

[Paul] Yeah. It's certainly old, but I don't think it's... *old*.

[Tim] Yes. Well put! Let's face it, the actual ancient Berroc wood that Berkshire was named after is long gone, but we are roughly in the right place, just to the west of Frilsham, on top of a hill, and this is a wood, so we reckon it is the closest you're ever going to get.

And therefore, I don't know about you, but I'm happy to go with it. Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else: this... is Berk!

And if you'd like to visit Berk, you can find it, well, on top of a hill, about half an hour's walk west from Frilsham; unfortunately though, this isn't the easiest place to get to unless you have a car.

So, a big thank you to Paul and Rebecca for not only giving me their time and their local expertise but also giving me a lift to Frilsham in the first place.

If you'd like more videos uncovering mysteries of English history, their channel is great for that sort of thing, I'll put a link in the description. Meanwhile, if you've come here from their channel, then welcome to my one!

And as always, thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you soon.

I’m watching “Downton Abbey” on DVD.

Highclere Castle is in Berkshire.

“Scrobbesbyrigscir” and its county town was called “Scrobbesbyrig”

There’s no excuse for my French.

As for my Welsh-

Great stuff, thanks.

I lived and worked for a year in Reading, Berkshire. The UK was a shithole 20 years ago and I planned my exit as soon as possible after just a few months of that horrible experience.

can’t even imagine how much worse it is now.

That said, I like this kind of history mystery content too, so will give it a go later. Thanks for sharing.

My best guess - somewhere near Lower Uncton.

The association with “trees” is probably spot on.

I found this little tidbit, looking at a whim:

Berky Pronunciation of Berky as a name for boys is of Old English origin, and the meaning of Berky is “birch tree meadow”. Berky is an alternate spelling of Barclay (Scottish, Old English): place name for Berkeley in Gloucestershire.

STARTS WITH Be-

ASSOCIATED WITH old english, tree, meadow

Close enough to be interesting...

LOL!

In the Robwords video about dirty placenames, he pulls off the longest town name in Welsh.

The think that bugs me about Reading is, there’s no Writing in Berkshire.

My pleasure!

I’ve never watched it, but here I thought the name was fake, like with Midsomer Murders.

https://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/

It fits, trees have bark, and pronouncing it “barkshur” isn’t unheard of. 😊 In my misspent youth, I read (possibly in Bulfinch’s) that the root of our transliteration “druid” is “daru vid”, which means, “to know the oak”. Hey, winters are long, much of the island was rural in ancient times...

Thanks! Excellent post! (Onomastics are fun!)

Modern English speakers took the names from French Normans trying to speak place names used by Norse speaking Vikings, whose poorly pronounced and Norse accented place names were learned from their Anglo Saxon Wives using Old West Saxon pronunciations of the original Latin and Celtic place names.

English! A Fun two millenia old Linguistic Pachenko Game!

😁

Yoko’s Onomastics however, not so much...