Archenfield: AW replies to Baddeley

URICONIUM : ARICONIUM : ARCHENFIELD (cxlvii. 408, 477; cxlviii. 29, 68).—My reply at the third reference made no attempt to give the first derivation of Archenfield, that “enigmatical place-name” as Mr. St. Clair Baddeley calls it. I marshalled a series of facts in its history not previously noted. Firstly, that the present version Archenfield originated with Camden (1586), who to get it ignored four centuries of an entirely different version, and went back to the solitary Doomsday Arcenfelde, the only recorded instance of an arc commencement for this place-name until Camden’s time.

Secondly, that in these four centuries following the Norman influence, the first element of the name was consistently spelt (except when the older Ergyng form was used) in the same way as the then current name for the hedgehog. I defined this period as “all down the Middle Ages,” and Mr. Baddeley’s statement (regarding the word urchin) that “he declares it to be O.E. for the hedgehog” is really not a fact. Mr. Baddeley’s claim that the Norman-French origin of urchin or irchin destroys my comparison is therefore futile.

The weak point in my reply was a reference to the 915 item Ircingafelda, for until it can be said whether this bit of the A.S. Chronicle was written in Saxon or Norman times, argument cannot be based on it.

I made no attempt to explain the earlier Ergyng type of name for this district, and find myself much in agreement with the suggestions of P. M.—a Celtic or pre-Celtic root as the earliest beginning.

It is amusing to see Mr. Baddeley’s horror at my doubting Camden’s infallibility, for although both he and the experts he names have followed Camden’s judgment that Archenfield is “phonetically connected with Ariconium” they all ignore (and by a counter interpretation, condemn) the fellow statement made by Camden in the same sentence that “Hareford or Hereford” is also “derived from Ariconum.”

As Mr. Baddeley mentions Ariconium as “the ore-producing pre-Roman centre,” it seems necessary to point out that neither at this spot nor in any part of Irchenfield has {106b} it ever been possible to dig up native ore, as all is on the Old Red Sandstone. All the iron ore was brought to be smelted at Ariconium (also to smelting stations in Irchenfield) from the Forest of Dean, not far away. It is the resulting slag or cinders which can be dug up, still fairly rich in iron on account of the wasteful old open hearth method of reduction. But I offer no opinion on any derivation for Ariconium.
Alfred Watkins.
Hereford.