What’s in a name?
The origins of the names of the three villages in the parish are all ancient. Hope comes from the old Norse “Hop” meaning a small bay or inlet. South Huish is Old English for “southern household” and the name Galmpton has had many variations over the centuries, but the root of all the variations concerns rent-paying peasants.
Some early names can be seen in the Courtney maps of the late 1700’s. The area around the old boat house was called Hope Gate, the remains of the old road across between Inner and Outer Hope was Perrot’s Hill (a smuggler from Inner Hope). Many of the local field names also remain reflecting geographical features, and crops, and uses for example, Long Stone and Lower Orchard, Rundle’s House, the Shippen.
House names are important too, especially if they were named when the house was built or have an historical association. There were so few houses for centuries they were called for their inhabitants, or use. Local names that come into this category would include Eliots in Galmpton, this cottage probably stands on land that has been inhabited since Saxon times. Mr Eliott, an entrepreneur and smuggler took over the property in 1747. Other examples include the Elm cottage, Townsend, The Old Parsonage, Well Cottage and the Old School house. Happily when this was divided into units they were given fitting names like Ink Well cottage. Sadly not all old builds have kept their original names.
In Hope, old examples include Diamond cottage in Inner Hope; Mrs Diamond made a white diamond shape in stones outside the cottage door; Tamarisks built around 1910, was named for the shrub that grew there. The Cottage Hotel is a good example; the hotel developing from the original Hope Cottage built in 1894, and The Cabin. Ashleigh after Captain Ash. Most new builds from the latter part of the last century give a nod to our beautiful surroundings. Greystones, West View, Fair Tides, etc. People wouldn’t necessarily know that the corner above Mouthwell beach was known as Mash, or Marsh corner, where water cress and Arum Lilies grew, hence Arum Lodge.
Other names which have gone include Canna Villa. This was built by Captain Date around 1910. This name does not seem to have any local connection. Captain Date was one of the ship building Date family. He was famous in the parish for bringing two children back with him from the Christmas islands; their Scottish father had died, and their Malaysian mother sent them to be educated in England. They lived with Captain Date and his wife and went to local private schools. They would have been an unusual sight at that time; They came back on Captain Dates last command; This ship was The Canna, hence Canna Villa.
Perhaps to encourage visitors one pre-1950’s for example was Grand View hotel, (which had some good sea views). One built in the 1930’s was not given a local name. This building was enabled by a loan from a relative who had money won by her husband after a big bet on the Derby winner, St Amant, in 1906. It would be sad if that name ever went.
Names that have sadly gone include Barney Bank which was changed in the 1980’s to the Old Colonial House because the family living there found their mail was being addressed to Barclay’s Bank, and was delivered to Kingsbridge! A shame as the house was named for the rock between the two sections of the breakwater that it faces. The cottages called the Bank in Galmpton, presumable changed for the same reason when the two cottages were made in to one, Old Cottage.
The name Bridge Cottage for the cottage in the centre of Outer Hope also went in the 1980’s. Long ago, water flowed from the stream at marsh or Mash corner (now the car park) down by the cottage towards the beach. It was an appropriate and historical name. The hole in the road that appears regularly between the cottage and the wall above Mouthwell beach is better understood when the original name of the cottage is remembered.
A plea to anyone thinking of re-naming or building from scratch, think about this beautiful place, and the history.
MM
